DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9177#0242
222
PRINCIPLES OF GREEK ART
CHAP.
of rays springing upward from the foot, but later this is given
up. The design on red-figured vases is commonly bounded
above and below by a band of maeanders or other simple
pattern, a band which not only frames the design, but seems to
hold the vase together. When the shoulder of a vase is broad,
it sometimes bears a subject; but this is subordinate to the
principal subject, which occupies the main field of the vase.
When the shoulder is narrow, as in lekythi, it only bears a
pattern. Elaborate palmette patterns often adorn the parts
whence the handles spring, and serve to separate the obverse
from the reverse design.
As the forms of vases are fairly constant, so the decoration
changes but slowly, and persists over long periods of time.
Each class of vase preserves its own kind of decoration.
After speaking of the forms of vases it would be natural,
before coming to the painted scenes, to treat of the elements of
their linear decoration. This is a matter which greatly interests
all real students of vases. Not only is it a marvel to see how
out of a few simple forms — the maeander, the lotus, the pal-
mette — the vase-painter contrives a considerable variety of
graceful borders and designs to fill blank spaces, but also the
details of the decoration of a vase are among the surest indica-
tions of its date and the place where it was produced. The
reasons why the subject is not here discussed are that it is too
detailed, and too intimately connected with the whole history
of vase-painting. It would also require an impossible number
of illustrations.1
Conditions of Space. — In examining the designs on a vase,
the first thing to consider is the conditions of space. After
the very early period, the field on a vase reserved for the de-
signs was clearly marked out, and often bounded by lines of
maeanders or other ornament. The ordinary forms of the field
1 A good, though not very recent, book on the subject of the decoration of
vases is Lau's Die griechischen Vasen, with the text by Brunn and Krell.
PRINCIPLES OF GREEK ART
CHAP.
of rays springing upward from the foot, but later this is given
up. The design on red-figured vases is commonly bounded
above and below by a band of maeanders or other simple
pattern, a band which not only frames the design, but seems to
hold the vase together. When the shoulder of a vase is broad,
it sometimes bears a subject; but this is subordinate to the
principal subject, which occupies the main field of the vase.
When the shoulder is narrow, as in lekythi, it only bears a
pattern. Elaborate palmette patterns often adorn the parts
whence the handles spring, and serve to separate the obverse
from the reverse design.
As the forms of vases are fairly constant, so the decoration
changes but slowly, and persists over long periods of time.
Each class of vase preserves its own kind of decoration.
After speaking of the forms of vases it would be natural,
before coming to the painted scenes, to treat of the elements of
their linear decoration. This is a matter which greatly interests
all real students of vases. Not only is it a marvel to see how
out of a few simple forms — the maeander, the lotus, the pal-
mette — the vase-painter contrives a considerable variety of
graceful borders and designs to fill blank spaces, but also the
details of the decoration of a vase are among the surest indica-
tions of its date and the place where it was produced. The
reasons why the subject is not here discussed are that it is too
detailed, and too intimately connected with the whole history
of vase-painting. It would also require an impossible number
of illustrations.1
Conditions of Space. — In examining the designs on a vase,
the first thing to consider is the conditions of space. After
the very early period, the field on a vase reserved for the de-
signs was clearly marked out, and often bounded by lines of
maeanders or other ornament. The ordinary forms of the field
1 A good, though not very recent, book on the subject of the decoration of
vases is Lau's Die griechischen Vasen, with the text by Brunn and Krell.