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https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4760#0037
32 CATALOGUE OF VASES.
We now proceed to notice more fully the characteristics of the various
fabrics included in this volume, beginning with the so-called
CYRENAIC STYLE (B 1-7).
Vases of this class owe their present designation principally to the fact
that on the two most important of them are represented scenes which
peculiarly belong to Cyrene. The first is a kylix, in the Cabinet des
Medailles at Paris, on which we see a picture of Arkesilaos, king of Cyrene,
superintending the weighing of silphium, a valuable source of his revenue.
Apparently this was the Arkesilaos who reigned about 580-550 B.C. On
the other vase here referred to (B 4 of this catalogue) the subject has been
explained as the Nymph Cyrene holding out a plant of silphium and branches
of fruit-bearing trees. This also is a kylix. Up to the present no vases of
this style—nor indeed any remains of the early colony of Cyrene, have been
found there. On the other hand, several examples have been obtained from
excavations at Naucratis in Egypt, and this has suggested the possibility that
Naucratis may have been the centre of this manufacture (C. Smith in
Naukratis, I. p. 53). In any case there must have been close connection
between the two settlements in the early part of the sixth century B.C., when
the queen of Amasis was a princess of Cyrene.
On these vases subjects taken from Greek legend first become common ;
we have representations of Pelops, Atlas and Prometheus, Cadmos, and other
legends characteristic of archaic art.
The favourite form of the kylix * shows a great advance or development of
what was destined to be the most popular and beautiful product of Greek
pottery. It obviously owes much to contemporary metal vases. The thinness
of the clay, the lustrous black varnish on the stem, the palmettes on either
side of the handles, and the favourite ornaments of lotos and pomegranate-
buds, recall vases of metal where the palmettos would be made in relief and
would serve for the attachment of the handles.\ The firmly-incised lines of the
drawing are also characteristic of metal work.
The designs are painted in black on a light ground covered with a
slip varying in tint from deep buff to the palest cream-colour, purple accessories
being employed for details of drapery, etc. The drawing is as a rule spirited,
and can hardly be dated later than the first half of the sixth century B.C.
Literature: Puchstein, in Arch. Zeit. 1881, p. 215 ff. ; Milchhoefer, Anfa'ige dcr Kunst,
p. 171 ; Loeschcke, Dorpat. Progr. 1879, p. 12 ff. ; Dumont and Chaplain, p. 293 ff. ; Rayet
and Collignon, p. 80 ff. ; Baumeister, Denkmaelcr, p. 1958 ; and above all Studniczka, Kyrene
(1890).
* We do not include in this class the hydria B 58 which, trough long considered to be
Cyrenaic, can hardly be other than an imitation of that style, comparable in several aspects to theCaeretan
hydriae (p. 35).
t A fringe {Bvaavos) of silver pomegranates may be seen attached to a Phoenician girdle from Cyprus
in the Gold Ornament Room.
We now proceed to notice more fully the characteristics of the various
fabrics included in this volume, beginning with the so-called
CYRENAIC STYLE (B 1-7).
Vases of this class owe their present designation principally to the fact
that on the two most important of them are represented scenes which
peculiarly belong to Cyrene. The first is a kylix, in the Cabinet des
Medailles at Paris, on which we see a picture of Arkesilaos, king of Cyrene,
superintending the weighing of silphium, a valuable source of his revenue.
Apparently this was the Arkesilaos who reigned about 580-550 B.C. On
the other vase here referred to (B 4 of this catalogue) the subject has been
explained as the Nymph Cyrene holding out a plant of silphium and branches
of fruit-bearing trees. This also is a kylix. Up to the present no vases of
this style—nor indeed any remains of the early colony of Cyrene, have been
found there. On the other hand, several examples have been obtained from
excavations at Naucratis in Egypt, and this has suggested the possibility that
Naucratis may have been the centre of this manufacture (C. Smith in
Naukratis, I. p. 53). In any case there must have been close connection
between the two settlements in the early part of the sixth century B.C., when
the queen of Amasis was a princess of Cyrene.
On these vases subjects taken from Greek legend first become common ;
we have representations of Pelops, Atlas and Prometheus, Cadmos, and other
legends characteristic of archaic art.
The favourite form of the kylix * shows a great advance or development of
what was destined to be the most popular and beautiful product of Greek
pottery. It obviously owes much to contemporary metal vases. The thinness
of the clay, the lustrous black varnish on the stem, the palmettes on either
side of the handles, and the favourite ornaments of lotos and pomegranate-
buds, recall vases of metal where the palmettos would be made in relief and
would serve for the attachment of the handles.\ The firmly-incised lines of the
drawing are also characteristic of metal work.
The designs are painted in black on a light ground covered with a
slip varying in tint from deep buff to the palest cream-colour, purple accessories
being employed for details of drapery, etc. The drawing is as a rule spirited,
and can hardly be dated later than the first half of the sixth century B.C.
Literature: Puchstein, in Arch. Zeit. 1881, p. 215 ff. ; Milchhoefer, Anfa'ige dcr Kunst,
p. 171 ; Loeschcke, Dorpat. Progr. 1879, p. 12 ff. ; Dumont and Chaplain, p. 293 ff. ; Rayet
and Collignon, p. 80 ff. ; Baumeister, Denkmaelcr, p. 1958 ; and above all Studniczka, Kyrene
(1890).
* We do not include in this class the hydria B 58 which, trough long considered to be
Cyrenaic, can hardly be other than an imitation of that style, comparable in several aspects to theCaeretan
hydriae (p. 35).
t A fringe {Bvaavos) of silver pomegranates may be seen attached to a Phoenician girdle from Cyprus
in the Gold Ornament Room.