DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4761#0008
2 CATALOGUE OF VASES.
depending on the brush could not remain insensible to the new attraction. At
first the influence was comparatively harmless. So long as the great painters
were occupied in depicting large and simple compositions of a decorative
nature, the vase painter could follow, at his own distance ; and the result is
shown on the vases in an added richness of style, and in the introduction of
gilding and new colours. But from this time a gradual deterioration of style
sets in : the strong free drawing which had succeeded to the severe tradition
of the archaic manner gives place to an ultra-refinement which tends to become
empty and insignificant : mythical subjects become rarer; inscriptions come
again into use to invest meaningless characters with a fictitious mythological
importance, and the real interest in the subject gradually dies out.
While the red figures reflect the influence of the great painters, there is
another class of vases (here catalogued under the letter D) which more nearly
represent their actual method. The habit of painting on a white ground has
been already traced through its earlier stages in vol. ii ; the practice continued
throughout the period now under consideration, some of the vases included
in the last volume being contemporary with the earlier examples of this series
(see vol. ii, p. 47). In the early part of the fifth century, however, examples
of this method are of comparatively rare occurrence: they consist for the
most part of vases of the shapes familiar in the former century (B 613-681);
among them the lekythos does occur, but not more frequently than the
oinochoe and alabastron. Towards B.C. 450, however, the form of vase most
preferred for this technique is the lekythos : for some reason which is un-
explained the white lekythos came much into vogue at this period as an
appropriate offering at a tomb, and consequently the subjects represented on
this class of vases are to a large extent sepulchral in character. The prevailing
tone of these scenes is that of pathos such as we see it in the greater art of the
time : from the sixth century downwards painting had been employed for the
decoration of funeral monuments, of which the stele of Lyscas in Athens is a
well-known example. To these stelae the white funeral lckythi may most
appropriately be compared.
The methods of drawing on the white ground of these vases are directly
developed from those of the similar vases catalogued in the preceding volume.
On the Pasiades alabastron (B 668) the design was seen to be traced in black
outline, the details indicated either in lines or a wash of the same colour, or in a
brownish-yellow produced by thinning out the black. The same process is
adopted in all the earlier examples of the present series : occasionally purple is
introduced ; and a kind of pinkish brown, a colour which is found on the early
white ware at Naucratis ; less frequently a wash of lustrous black is used for
drapery.
In the next stage the outline is drawn in black or brown, and a shiny black
picked out with purple, or the same pinkish brown are used : occasionally the flesh
of women is indicated in a gleaming white which contrasts with the creamy
yellowish tone of the background. This principle had also obtained in the
depending on the brush could not remain insensible to the new attraction. At
first the influence was comparatively harmless. So long as the great painters
were occupied in depicting large and simple compositions of a decorative
nature, the vase painter could follow, at his own distance ; and the result is
shown on the vases in an added richness of style, and in the introduction of
gilding and new colours. But from this time a gradual deterioration of style
sets in : the strong free drawing which had succeeded to the severe tradition
of the archaic manner gives place to an ultra-refinement which tends to become
empty and insignificant : mythical subjects become rarer; inscriptions come
again into use to invest meaningless characters with a fictitious mythological
importance, and the real interest in the subject gradually dies out.
While the red figures reflect the influence of the great painters, there is
another class of vases (here catalogued under the letter D) which more nearly
represent their actual method. The habit of painting on a white ground has
been already traced through its earlier stages in vol. ii ; the practice continued
throughout the period now under consideration, some of the vases included
in the last volume being contemporary with the earlier examples of this series
(see vol. ii, p. 47). In the early part of the fifth century, however, examples
of this method are of comparatively rare occurrence: they consist for the
most part of vases of the shapes familiar in the former century (B 613-681);
among them the lekythos does occur, but not more frequently than the
oinochoe and alabastron. Towards B.C. 450, however, the form of vase most
preferred for this technique is the lekythos : for some reason which is un-
explained the white lekythos came much into vogue at this period as an
appropriate offering at a tomb, and consequently the subjects represented on
this class of vases are to a large extent sepulchral in character. The prevailing
tone of these scenes is that of pathos such as we see it in the greater art of the
time : from the sixth century downwards painting had been employed for the
decoration of funeral monuments, of which the stele of Lyscas in Athens is a
well-known example. To these stelae the white funeral lckythi may most
appropriately be compared.
The methods of drawing on the white ground of these vases are directly
developed from those of the similar vases catalogued in the preceding volume.
On the Pasiades alabastron (B 668) the design was seen to be traced in black
outline, the details indicated either in lines or a wash of the same colour, or in a
brownish-yellow produced by thinning out the black. The same process is
adopted in all the earlier examples of the present series : occasionally purple is
introduced ; and a kind of pinkish brown, a colour which is found on the early
white ware at Naucratis ; less frequently a wash of lustrous black is used for
drapery.
In the next stage the outline is drawn in black or brown, and a shiny black
picked out with purple, or the same pinkish brown are used : occasionally the flesh
of women is indicated in a gleaming white which contrasts with the creamy
yellowish tone of the background. This principle had also obtained in the