DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4761#0014
8 CATALOG UK OF VASES.
of pottery found on the Acropolis in the Pre-persian stratum—i.e. older than
B.C. 480—a considerable quantity belongs to the most advanced stage of the
severe style, including signatures of most of the chief cup-painters whose names
occur during the severe stage and before it. It has been suggested that, as the
principal improvements on the Acropolis did not take place until the Kimonian
period, B.C. 460, many of the vases here found may belong to the period between
B.C. 480 and 460: but the marks of excessive burning still traceable on many of
these fragments make it probable that these vases owed their destruction to the
Persians, and that 480 is the lowest limit of date assignable to them (Jahrbuch,
1887, p. 159).
From the same source have come inscribed bases recording dedications by
persons who may be identified with painters and potters known to us from
vases : one such is " Euphronios the potter " : another mentions " Nesiades
the potter and Andokides." The word potter in this instance undoubtedly
applies to both the names mentioned, and it is very probable that we may
recognise in this Andokides the artist of the transition period who has left us
several signed vases (C.I.A. iv. 2, pp. 79-89 ; suppl. p. 154).
As regards the lower limit of date, there is hardly any doubt that the latest
vases in this volume belong to the end of the fifth century. It was formerly
the custom to assign all vases inscribed with characters of the enlarged Attic
alphabet to a date subsequent to the archonship of Eucleides, B.C. 403, and
this would have pushed the latest of our scries well down into the fourth
century. But it is now clearly shown that the changes in the alphabet officially
sanctioned in B.C. 403 had been already in more or less common usage for a
considerable time. The period of epigraphical transition is illustrated by the
Nolan amphora E 298, where the inscription recording the victory is written in
the old style, the kclXos inscription in the new. This transition, which we may
fairly assign to the latter part of the fifth century, is further marked by
numerous cases in which the vase painters have misunderstood the use of the
new forms : thus in E 318 we have 'AX/a/m^co? KaXa><;: in E 73 O-^rt?, FaXevrj
(Kretschmer, Vaseniuschr. p. 107). This stage of the commingling of forms is
characteristic of the strong style of vase painting, and must have lasted down to
about B.C. 420 ; it is followed by the vases of the Meidias type, E 224, of which
the inscriptions are written in a purely Ionic alphabet.
Towards the end of the fifth century an important series of events took
place, in the light of which the chronology of vases must be viewed. In
B.C. 413 occurred the disaster to the Athenian arms at Syracuse, and in 404 the
capture of Athens; historically, therefore, it would seem certain that within this
period, and probably for some time after, the export of vases from Athens, and
indeed their very fabrication, must have been seriously crippled, if not absolutely
destroyed. It is conceivable that in the fourth century the fabric at Athens
may have revived ; we have, at any rate, a series of Panathenaic amphorae giving
actual dates ranging from B.C. 367 to 313, and it seems clear that the sepulchral
lekythi must have been in process of fabrication there in 392, since they
of pottery found on the Acropolis in the Pre-persian stratum—i.e. older than
B.C. 480—a considerable quantity belongs to the most advanced stage of the
severe style, including signatures of most of the chief cup-painters whose names
occur during the severe stage and before it. It has been suggested that, as the
principal improvements on the Acropolis did not take place until the Kimonian
period, B.C. 460, many of the vases here found may belong to the period between
B.C. 480 and 460: but the marks of excessive burning still traceable on many of
these fragments make it probable that these vases owed their destruction to the
Persians, and that 480 is the lowest limit of date assignable to them (Jahrbuch,
1887, p. 159).
From the same source have come inscribed bases recording dedications by
persons who may be identified with painters and potters known to us from
vases : one such is " Euphronios the potter " : another mentions " Nesiades
the potter and Andokides." The word potter in this instance undoubtedly
applies to both the names mentioned, and it is very probable that we may
recognise in this Andokides the artist of the transition period who has left us
several signed vases (C.I.A. iv. 2, pp. 79-89 ; suppl. p. 154).
As regards the lower limit of date, there is hardly any doubt that the latest
vases in this volume belong to the end of the fifth century. It was formerly
the custom to assign all vases inscribed with characters of the enlarged Attic
alphabet to a date subsequent to the archonship of Eucleides, B.C. 403, and
this would have pushed the latest of our scries well down into the fourth
century. But it is now clearly shown that the changes in the alphabet officially
sanctioned in B.C. 403 had been already in more or less common usage for a
considerable time. The period of epigraphical transition is illustrated by the
Nolan amphora E 298, where the inscription recording the victory is written in
the old style, the kclXos inscription in the new. This transition, which we may
fairly assign to the latter part of the fifth century, is further marked by
numerous cases in which the vase painters have misunderstood the use of the
new forms : thus in E 318 we have 'AX/a/m^co? KaXa><;: in E 73 O-^rt?, FaXevrj
(Kretschmer, Vaseniuschr. p. 107). This stage of the commingling of forms is
characteristic of the strong style of vase painting, and must have lasted down to
about B.C. 420 ; it is followed by the vases of the Meidias type, E 224, of which
the inscriptions are written in a purely Ionic alphabet.
Towards the end of the fifth century an important series of events took
place, in the light of which the chronology of vases must be viewed. In
B.C. 413 occurred the disaster to the Athenian arms at Syracuse, and in 404 the
capture of Athens; historically, therefore, it would seem certain that within this
period, and probably for some time after, the export of vases from Athens, and
indeed their very fabrication, must have been seriously crippled, if not absolutely
destroyed. It is conceivable that in the fourth century the fabric at Athens
may have revived ; we have, at any rate, a series of Panathenaic amphorae giving
actual dates ranging from B.C. 367 to 313, and it seems clear that the sepulchral
lekythi must have been in process of fabrication there in 392, since they