DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.898#0021
6 .VASES;
over the first outline, and sometimes leaving a part of the
vases still more uncovered; and where this is observable, it
generally improves the original lines. They were then done
over perhaps with a sort of varnish of a reddish tint not
highly polished, and baked.
The earthen vases have been thought to have been Etrus-
can by all the writers who have described them previous to
the time of Winkelman. But this learned antiquary* has
clearly proved that Etruria has but a limited claim-to the
honour of their production: for the greatest number of them
have been found not only in various parts of Italy, but also
in Sicily, and amidst the ruins of different cities of Greece.
Since, therefore, they are not peculiar to Etruria, Winkel-
man, Boettiger, and Millin have denominated them rather
Grecian f than Etruscan vases: and the following circum-
stances confirm the propriety of this appellation : the sub-
jects which ornament them are all taken not only from the
fabulous but from the real history of Greece • the manners
they illustrate are, with little exception, Grecian; and the
inscriptions which have been found upon them are univer-
sally in the ancient Greek characters. By what has been
said it is not meant to assert that none of these elegant
works of art were fabricated in Etruria; for it is well known
that Grecian artists settled early in Campania, and on the
* Winkelman, Hist, de 1'Art, liv. iii. c. iii. § 15.
f Millin, Peintures de Vases Antiques. Introd. § vii.
over the first outline, and sometimes leaving a part of the
vases still more uncovered; and where this is observable, it
generally improves the original lines. They were then done
over perhaps with a sort of varnish of a reddish tint not
highly polished, and baked.
The earthen vases have been thought to have been Etrus-
can by all the writers who have described them previous to
the time of Winkelman. But this learned antiquary* has
clearly proved that Etruria has but a limited claim-to the
honour of their production: for the greatest number of them
have been found not only in various parts of Italy, but also
in Sicily, and amidst the ruins of different cities of Greece.
Since, therefore, they are not peculiar to Etruria, Winkel-
man, Boettiger, and Millin have denominated them rather
Grecian f than Etruscan vases: and the following circum-
stances confirm the propriety of this appellation : the sub-
jects which ornament them are all taken not only from the
fabulous but from the real history of Greece • the manners
they illustrate are, with little exception, Grecian; and the
inscriptions which have been found upon them are univer-
sally in the ancient Greek characters. By what has been
said it is not meant to assert that none of these elegant
works of art were fabricated in Etruria; for it is well known
that Grecian artists settled early in Campania, and on the
* Winkelman, Hist, de 1'Art, liv. iii. c. iii. § 15.
f Millin, Peintures de Vases Antiques. Introd. § vii.