DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4762#0008
INTRODUCTION. 3
along with the contemporaneous productions of local artists. While reflecting
the influence of Athenian genius, to which they were indebted for their origin,
the fabrics of Southern Italy fall into three main classes, known as Apulian,
bampanian, and Lucanian, each displaying individualities of style and method,
which will be discussed more in detail later on. It may generally be inferred
that a vase found in any one of these three districts was made in the same,
as in nearly every case where the provenance of a vase is known, the vase
may be shown to possess the special features which have been agreed upon by
archaeologists as characteristic of the local fabric ; contrariwise, where the
provenance of a vase is unknown, a stud)' of the style and method, or perhaps
even the shape, will enable us to gain a clue to its provenance. There appears
to have been but little local commerce between the districts of Southern Italy ;
it is rare, for instance, to find a Lucanian vase in Apulia, or an Apulian vase
in Campania. In this way the task of classification is greatly assisted.
In the days of Sir W. Hamilton, Towneley, and Payne Knight, when
scarcely any vases had been found outside Italy, the majority of both public
and private collections consisted of vases of the kind described in this volume.
Of those now exhibited in the Fourth Vase Room, at least one-fifth may be
said to have been in the possession of these gentlemen. Their importance
was in consequence greatly over-estimated ; and in such publications as those
°f D'Hancarville, Passed, and Inghirami we find a great majority of the plates
devoted to the illustration of them. Later on in the present century the
excavations at Vulci, Nola, and elsewhere, and the consequent discoveries
which have so greatly enriched our Museums with vases of the black and red
figure styles, led to the comparative neglect of these later specimens from
Southern Italy. And further, the overwhelming interest which has been taken
of recent years, more especially by German scholars, in such questions as the
attribution of early black-figured vases to their proper fabrics, and of the red-
figured ware to the various Athenian artists and their schools, has caused
archaeologists to look upon the later pottery with something of contempt, as
contributing but little to the scientific study of Greek vase-painting.
Thus to treat this period in a critical spirit is in a measure to break new
ground. The actual subjects depicted on the vases, together with mythological
questions arising from the same, have not been altogether neglected, but style
and method call also for observation ; and it is only when these are studied
in connection with the provenance of the vases, that true deductions can be
drawn, and the main differences determined between (for instance) vases found
at Nola, at Anzi, and at Ruvo.
It is with this classification according to fabric that this Introduction has
mainly to deal; and bearing this in mind, we may briefly consider the various
sources from which the vases of this volume have come, in the light of the
history of Southern Italy.
The principal centre of Greek civilisation in Magna Graecia was Tarentum,
a city which had reached its greatest height of prosperity under Archytas
13 2
along with the contemporaneous productions of local artists. While reflecting
the influence of Athenian genius, to which they were indebted for their origin,
the fabrics of Southern Italy fall into three main classes, known as Apulian,
bampanian, and Lucanian, each displaying individualities of style and method,
which will be discussed more in detail later on. It may generally be inferred
that a vase found in any one of these three districts was made in the same,
as in nearly every case where the provenance of a vase is known, the vase
may be shown to possess the special features which have been agreed upon by
archaeologists as characteristic of the local fabric ; contrariwise, where the
provenance of a vase is unknown, a stud)' of the style and method, or perhaps
even the shape, will enable us to gain a clue to its provenance. There appears
to have been but little local commerce between the districts of Southern Italy ;
it is rare, for instance, to find a Lucanian vase in Apulia, or an Apulian vase
in Campania. In this way the task of classification is greatly assisted.
In the days of Sir W. Hamilton, Towneley, and Payne Knight, when
scarcely any vases had been found outside Italy, the majority of both public
and private collections consisted of vases of the kind described in this volume.
Of those now exhibited in the Fourth Vase Room, at least one-fifth may be
said to have been in the possession of these gentlemen. Their importance
was in consequence greatly over-estimated ; and in such publications as those
°f D'Hancarville, Passed, and Inghirami we find a great majority of the plates
devoted to the illustration of them. Later on in the present century the
excavations at Vulci, Nola, and elsewhere, and the consequent discoveries
which have so greatly enriched our Museums with vases of the black and red
figure styles, led to the comparative neglect of these later specimens from
Southern Italy. And further, the overwhelming interest which has been taken
of recent years, more especially by German scholars, in such questions as the
attribution of early black-figured vases to their proper fabrics, and of the red-
figured ware to the various Athenian artists and their schools, has caused
archaeologists to look upon the later pottery with something of contempt, as
contributing but little to the scientific study of Greek vase-painting.
Thus to treat this period in a critical spirit is in a measure to break new
ground. The actual subjects depicted on the vases, together with mythological
questions arising from the same, have not been altogether neglected, but style
and method call also for observation ; and it is only when these are studied
in connection with the provenance of the vases, that true deductions can be
drawn, and the main differences determined between (for instance) vases found
at Nola, at Anzi, and at Ruvo.
It is with this classification according to fabric that this Introduction has
mainly to deal; and bearing this in mind, we may briefly consider the various
sources from which the vases of this volume have come, in the light of the
history of Southern Italy.
The principal centre of Greek civilisation in Magna Graecia was Tarentum,
a city which had reached its greatest height of prosperity under Archytas
13 2