mm ittaitsl^lBitoli lGpy TH€ UNIYGRSITY Of CALIFORNIA LIBRARY Ctowfi^ CO.. CIRCUS PLACK, flNSBUKV. TO JOHN GIBSON, Esq. THIS SHOUT TRExiTlSE IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED. 395638 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2008 with funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/epochsofpaintedvOOwestrich EPOCHS OF PAINTED VASES. Painted Vases may be considered as the most curious, the most graceful, and the most instructive remains that have come down to us from ancient times. The beauty of the forms, the fineness of the material, the perfection of the varnish, the variety of the subjects, and their interest in an historical point of view, give painted vases a very important place among the productions of the arts of the ancients. Painted vases have been collected with great eagerness ever since they have been known, and the most remark- able have been engraved by celebrated artists, and explained by profound archaeologists. Modern art and archaeology have obtained from them beautiful models and important information. They were known for the first time in the seventeenth century; La- chausse published some of them in his Museum Romanum, in 1690 ; Beger and Montfaucon imitated his example ; Dempster subsequently wrote on them more fully; Gori, Buonarotti, and Caylus, added some general observations to those of Dempster; Winckelman could not omit them in his immortal work on the history of Ancient Art, and modified, by the accuracy of his observation, the theories of his predecessors. Lastly, the beautiful collection of Sir William Hamilton, published by Hancarville in 1766, brought them more fully into public notice; Passeri still 2 EPOCHS OF PAINTED VASES. supported after him the Italian opinion in regard to the origin of these vases; Tischbein, Boettiger, and Millin, declared themselves of the same opinion as Winckelman; and the study of these beautiful objects confirms it at the present day in every respect. Painted vases received at first the denomination of Etruscan Vases; Dempster, a great abetter of what was called Etrusco- mania, gave them this denomination, and Tuscan antiquaries have defended it as a title of glory for their country. The impartial comparison of remains of antiquity had not as yet established any fundamental distinction between the Etruscan style properly so called, and the ancient Greek style. Every composition characterised by the stifi'ness of the features, the straight folds of the drapery, and long braided hair, was attributed to the Etruscans. Painted vases which presented these characteristics were therefore attributed to them, and in spite of the evidence of the subjects borrowed from the mythic ideas of the Greeks, in spite of the inscriptions, all Greek, which were read on them, general opinion, too readily followed, recognised in them every thing that could explain the manners, customs, creed, and even the history of the Etruscans. It was further generally believed that these vases had issued from the manufactures of Arezzo, because Martial praises the potteries of that town; and, that those which were found in Campania, Puglia, and even in Sicily, had been carried there by the Etruscans themselves. This theory could not be maintained even after a slight examination, espe- cially as painted vases have been found at Athens, Megara, Milo, in Aulis, in Tauris, at Corfu, and in the Isles of Greece. The greater number, indeed, are found even at the present day in Magna Graecia, Nola, Capua, Paestum, and in Sicily, but they are found in every country where Greek domination prevailed. EPOCHS OF PAINTED VASES. 3 The extent of tlie domination of the Tyrrhenians in Italy, was not sufficiently extensive to attribute to them all the painted vases. Eucheir and Eugrammus came^ according to Pliny, into Etruria, and taught there the plastic arts, but this does not prove that they invented there the art of making painted vases, for these two artists who worked in clay, being from Corinth, might have brought this art from Greece. Everything leads us to conclude that we must attribute their origin to Greece. In their forms, they bear a great resemblance to the vases which we see on the medals and some of the sculpture of the Greeks, the style of the figures which ornament them, entirely corresponds with that of the figures of the ancient Greek style; lastly, the myths which arc represented on them, the inscriptions in Greek charac- ters which frequently accompany the figures, are sufficient to establish this opinion. But we must acknowledge that Greek myths are always expressed with peculiar circumstances, which probably are derived from the alterations which Greek traditions had experienced in ancient Italy. The variety of opinions with regard to the origin of these vases, has produced a similar diversity with regard to their denomination. To that of Etruscan Vases succeeded that of Greek Vases, still too general j Visconti wished to name them Graeco-Italian ; Arditi, Italo-Greek; Lanzi, Campanian, Sicilian, Athenian, according as they were found in Campania, Sicily, or at Athens ; Quatremere de Quincy, Ceramo-graphic Vases (of painted clay) ; and Millin, Painted Vases in general, adding the name of the place where they were discovered. We may, however, be able to class them more systematically, on considering, in the first place, that painted vases form a class apart among the remains of antiquity; secondly, that it is recognised at the present day, that the Etruscans 4 EPOCHS OF PAINTED VASES. mauufactured them also^ as well as the Greeks ; thirdly, that the subject itself of the painting is the most certain type of their origin, especially with regard to Etruscan vases, for we cannot suppose that the Greeks, who cultivated the arts after the Etruscans, would have painted on the vases the myths, creed, and the history of Etruria, though the Etruscans might have done so for the Greeks : lastly, that vases which bear subjects purely Greek are found in many countries, and in different places, without, however, their bearing any local characteristic, all belong- ing alike to Greek art, and without any other distinction than that which results from the style itself, according to the greater or less antiquity of the execution. We may, therefore, adopt the general denomination of Painted Vases, distinguished into Etruscan, for those which are the work of that people, and into Greek for those, in far greater number, which can have no other origin ; while these can be classed according to their relative antiquity, proved by the style of the figures, the characters, the form and the orthography of the inscriptions when they accompany the painting. We adopt this division which appears to us as the most simple and most natural, which can be equally applied to the painted vases of every other country, if any should happen to be discovered. We shall further observe on this subject, that there is no passage of any ancient author which could serve to throw any light on the uncertainty produced by the various opinions published with regard to painted vases : nothing relative to them has been hitherto found in Greek or Latin writers; and this singularity, when we consider the beauty, the variety, and the number of these remains of antiquity, has been very justly remarked. EPOCHS OF PAINTED VASES. ETRUSCAN PAINTED VASES. Vases, the Etruscan origin of which cannot be disputed, have been found at Volterra, Tarquinii, Perugia, Orvieto, Viterbo, Acquapendente, CornetOj and other towns of ancient Etruria. The clay of which they are made, is of a pale or reddish yellow, the varnish is dull, the workmanship rather rude, the ornaments are devoid of taste and elegance, and the style of the figures possesses all those characteristics already assigned to that of the Etruscans. The figures are drawn in black on the natural colour of the clay: sometimes a little red is introduced on the black ground of the drapery. It is by the subject chiefly that the Etruscan vases are distinguished from the Greek vases. On the former, the figures are in the costume peculiar to ancient Italy ; the men and the heroes are represented with their beards and hair very thick ; the gods and genii have large wings ; we may also observe divinities, religious customs, attributes, manners, arms and symbols, different from those of Greece. If an inscription in Etruscan characters traced invariably from right to left, accom- panies the painting, certainty with regard to their origin may be considered as complete. It is true that the greater number of the letters of the ancient Greek alphabet are of the same form as those of the Etruscan alphabet ; but there are in the latter some particular characters which will prevent any confusion. We must also observe, that Etruscan painted vases are very rare, and are but few in number, compared with those for which we are indebted to the arts of Greece. Dennis, in his work on Etruria, gives a specimen of a vase of undoubted Etruscan manufacture, as it bears an Etruscan subject and an Etruscan inscription. It is b EPOCHS OF PAINTED VASES. an amphora, with a Bacchic dance on one side ; on the other side, the parting of Admetus and Alcestis, whose names are attached, between the figures of Charun and another demon. Of late years, vases are found in great numbers in Etruria, more particularly at Vulci ; but most of these painted vases are imita- tions of those of Athens. GREEK PAINTED VASES. They are made of a very fine and light clay; their exterior coating is composed of a particular kind of clay, which seems to be a kind of yellow or red ochre, reduced to a very fine paste, mixed with some glutinous or oily substance, and laid on with a brush j the parts which are painted black have all the brilliancy of enamel. The colours being laid on in a diff'erent manner in the earlier and later vases, has caused them to be distinguished into two general classes. In the earlier the ground is yellow or red, and the figures are traced on it in black, so as to form kinds of silhouettes. These are called the black or archaic vases, they are generally in an ancient style ; their subjects belong to the most ancient mythological traditions, and their inscriptions to the most ancient forms of the Greek alphabet, written from right to left, or in boustrophedon. The drapery, the accessories, the harness of the horses, and the wheels of the chariots, are touched with white. At a later period, the whole vase was painted black with the ex- ception of the figures which were then of the colour of the clay of the vase ; the contours of the figures, the hair, drapery, etc., EPOCHS OE PAINTED VASES. 7 being previously traced in black. There, are then, two general classes of Greek Vases, distinguished by the figures which are black or yellow. They are in general remarkable for the beauty and elegance of their forms. There is a great variety in their sizes ; there are some several feet high and broad in proportion, there are others not higher than an inch. The subject is on one side of the vase; sometimes it occupies the entire circumference, but more generally it is one side alone (called in Italy the parte nobile) , and then there is on the reverse some insignificant subject, generally two or three of old men leaning on a stick, instructing a young man, or presenting him with some instrument or utensil ; a bacchanalian scene is sometimes represented on the reverse. Some vases have been found with two subjects on the sides of the vase. On some of the finest vases, the subject goes round the entire circumference of the vase. On the foot, neck and other parts are the usual Greek ornaments, the Vitruvian scroll, the Meander, Palmetto,"^ the honeysuckle. A garland sometimes adorns the neck, or in its stead a woman's head issuing from a flower. These ornaments are in general treated with the greatest taste and elegance. Besides the obvious difl'erence in the style^f the vases, there is a remarkable difference in the execution of the paintings. They are not all of the highest merit, but the boldness of the outlines is generally remarkable on them. They could be executed only with the greatest rapidity, the clay absorbing the colours very quickly, so that if a line was interrupted, the joining would be perceptible. Some thought that the figures were executed by the means of patterns cut out, which being laid on the vase, preserved on the black ground the principal masses in yellow, which were finished afterwards with a brush. But this opinion * See Plate IX, 8 EPOCHS OF PAINTED VASES- of Sir William Hamilton has been abandoned by himself, par- ticularly since the traces of a point have been recognised, with which the artist had at first sketched on the soft clay the principal outlines, which he finished afterwards with a brush dipped in the black pigment, without, however, strictly following the lines traced by the point. The traces of the point are rarely observed ; all depended on the skill and talent of the artists. They must have been very numerous, as these vases are found in such numbers, and the greater number may be considered as models for the ex- cellence of their design and the taste of their composition. Not unfrequently, the artists, by whom the designs have been painted, have placed their names on them ; the principal names known, are those of Lasimon, Taleides, Asteas and Calliphon. Taleides is the most ancient ; his designs evince the infancy of art, those of the other artists display greater progress in the art ; the name can be recognised from the words EIIOIEI or ETIOIEHEN, and EFPAWE, made or painted, which follow them immediately; the two former being imited with the name of the potter, and the latter with the name of the painter. Other inscriptions are some- times found on vases, which enhance their value greatly. They are generally the names of gods, heroes, and other mythological personages, which are represented in the paintings. These inscrip- tions are of great interest for two reasons ; in the first place, from the form of the letters and the order according to which they are traced, the greater or less antiquity of the vase can be recognised^ these inscriptions necessarily following all the changes of the Greek alphabet : care must be taken to examine whether the inscription goes from right to left, whether the long vowels H fl, the double letters W S are replaced by the silent vowels, or single letters: these are in general signs of relative antiquity which EPOCHS OF PAINTED VASES. 9 prove that of the vase itself; secondly, because the names in- variably explain the subject of the painting, and even indicate by a name hitherto unknown, either some personage who sometimes bore another name, or a person whose real name was unknown, in fine, some mythic beings of whom ancient writers give us no in- formation. The information derived from vases is of great import- ance for the study of Greek mythology, viewed in its diflFerent epochs, and for the interpretation and understanding of ancient tragic or lyric poets. Moral or historical inscriptions, in prose and in verse, have been also found on vases. The letters of these inscriptions are capital or cursive ; they are very delicately traced, and often require a great deal of attention to perceive. They are traced on black or white with a brush, sometimes they are incised with a very sharp point. The word KAAOS is very frequently found on vases which bear inscriptions, almost always accompanied by a proper name.* It seems to be nothing more than an epithet, expressive of admiration, applied to the most remarkable and conspicuous personage represented on the vase, as on a vase in the Vatican Museum we see a painting representing Priam, Hector, and Andromache, with their names over each ; over Hector is the inscription EKTcop Kd\o<;, "Hector is noble.^f In the form Ka\oK(vya6o mm mm mkmmmm^i^&^Mm^ wmmmmmmmMmm:^ ^W m\W: ^r Wk wi WmMMM p'** life m:\ liifeyjilf 'wmms/^i^^ 'mm'- •,wwm