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These vases, which have already been referred to (p. 224) as prizes won at the games in Athens, were taken by the winners to their homes in Cyrenaica, Capua, or Cervetri, where they have been found. On one side of the vase the design is always a figure of Athenè drawn in what is called an archaistic manner, imitative of true archaic drawing; but on the other side of the vase the artist was free to design in the manner natural to him and his day, except only that he was required, by custom, to retain the black figures on a red ground. These designs, being exactly dated, in some instances, by the name of the Athenian archon, furnish a standard by which the vase paintings of the fourth century may be judged. While the vase in its general character adheres to the ancient type, there is a marked change in the shape, which becomes tall and slender. (Compare fig. 121 with fig. 112.)

On the shield of Athenè on B 605 is a representation of the sculptural group of the two Athenian tyrannicides, Harmodios and Aristogeiton. The original group by Antenor was carried off from Athens by Xerxes, and is said to have been restored long afterwards. place was taken by a new group, the work of Kritios and Nesiotes, of which copies are preserved to us in two statues at Naples (cf. p. 99), and on various coins and reliefs. B 604 is signed by the artist Kittos.

of Athenè is especially rich on B 606.

Its

Fig. 121.-Panathenaic
Vase (later shape).

The embroidery on the robe

In addition to the Panathenaic vases above described, the following objects on table-cases and pedestals on the floor of the room deserve mention :

Standard-case A. Vases from Southern Italy.

Pedestal 1. F 149, Crater, signed by the artist Python, who is not otherwise known, but who appears to have been of the school of Assteas, a well-known painter, perhaps of Paestum. Alemena, the mother of Heracles by Zeus, appeals to Zeus to save her from the fire which is being kindled by her husband Amphitryon and his friend Antenor. Zeus has hurled two thunderbolts at the torches, while copious rain falls from a rainbow and from the pitchers of the Hyades (rain goddesses).

An adjoining vase (F 193 in Case 15) presents the same subject in an abbreviated form.

Standard-case B. See above, the Panathenaic vases.

Table-case C. Vases of a late period, with subjects moulded in relief. A few are in the shapes of men and animals.

Two cups (G 121, 122) have for their medallion ornaments impressions of Syracusan decadrachms, with the head of Persephone. One of them (G 121) has an impression of the coin signed by the engraver Euainetos. This artist was working near the close of the fifth century, but the vase, which is supposed to be a copy of a silver vase, with an inset silver coin, may be more than a century later. Standard-case D. See above, the Panathenaic vases.

Pedestal 8. F 277, Crater. On one side Hades, or Pluto, carries off Persephonè in his chariot. Hermes, as usual, runs beside the chariot, and Hecatè lights the way with a torch. On the other side is a combat of Centaurs and Lapiths.

Standard-case E contains specimens of black ware (cf. below, Wall-cases 24-29, 32-36). In the middle are two fine craters, richly decorated with gilding as relief. One of them has an imitation of gold necklaces, not unlike some of those in the Gold Ornament Room, hung from handle to handle. Beneath each handle is an imitation of a large gold earring.

Table-case F contains a selection of terracotta lamps of the Roman period (see below).

In the shade above is a selection of objects in glazed-enamel and faience ware, mainly of the Roman period. See a remarkable piece of glazed ware, with Eros riding on a goose.

Pedestal 9. A vase with the subject of Polymestor, blinded, and groping his way (Euripides, Hecuba, 1035, etc.). According to the drama, he was enticed with his children into the tent of the captive Trojan women by Hecuba. He was there blinded, and his children were slain as vengeance for the death of Polydorus, child of Hecuba, who had been entrusted to his care. On the left of Polymestor is Agamemnon, with an attendant; on the right, Hecuba, with a Trojan woman.

Pedestal 10. F 279, Crater. The death of Hippolytos. The bull, which was sent up from the sea by Poseidon to terrify the horses, is seen half emerged in the front.

Pedestal 11. F 271, Crater. Lycurgos, king of the Edones, is smitten with madness for rejecting the gifts of Dionysos, and slays his family. He is here seen engaged in the slaughter, at the prompting of Madness (Lyssa), who flies down towards him. Various gods are

seen above as spectators.

Table-case G. Vases in black (or sometimes red) ware, with designs and ornaments moulded in relief. These may be regarded as the immediate predecessors of the Arretine ware, in Cases 39, 40. Many of these vases are in the form of aski (wine-skins), so called from an approximate resemblance of some of the earliest forms to a skin bottle, although the term is now used with a more general

significance for such small spouted vases as may be seen in this case (fig. 122). The aski (also known as gutti) usually have a medallion subject in relief, either a head or a simple mythological subject.

Fig. 122.-Askos or guttus.

The hemispherical bowls with impressed reliefs are commonly known as 'Megarian' bowls. The name was suggested by the fact that several examples were found at Megara. There is, however, no reason to think that Megara was the place of manufacture. One group, which are sometimes called Homeric' cups, since the subjects of the reliefs are based

on the epic cycles, is found predominantly in Boeotia.

Among the other objects in this case may be noticed a bowl (G 104, fig. 123) with reliefs representing scenes from the Phoenissae of Euripides, identified by inscriptions upon it. The fragment

G 105 also illustrates a scene from that drama. Oedipus is seen stooping forward with hand extended. The inscription runs 'Oedipus bids lead him to the body of his mother and wife, and those of his children.' Several examples with Latin inscriptions appear to date from the end of the third century B.C.

A bowl in this case, G 118 (compare the replica, G 119), with a design of Heracles, and various deities driving chariots, has already been referred to on p. 138. It was pointed out that the same design is used for pottery and for a silver bowl.

In the centre of the case is a selection of Greek lamps, showing different types, from the sixth to the second centuries B.C.

Pedestal 12. F 278, Crater. Very large and with copious florid decorations. The principal subjects are scenes connected with the taking of Troy. Above, Ajax is seizing Cassandra at the foot of the statue of Athenè, and

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Fig. 123.-So-called Megarian Bowl, from
Thebes. G 104.

Pedestal 14. F 272, Crater. Above, scene from the story of Phaedra. The love-sick Phaedra is seated, and approached by Eros. The remaining figures include the nurse, an old pedagogue, and various attendants. Below, Theseus and Peirithoos are defending Laodameia (apparently the name here given to the bride of Peirithoos) from the attack of a Centaur.

Standard-case H.

Various vases, amongst them several of the South Italian fabrics, produced in close imitation of the later Athenian wares.

[We turn to the wall-cases round the room.]

Cases 1-13.

Later Athenian vases, and South Italian imitations of the later Athenian fabrics.

Selected vases in the form of statuettes, etc. Except that, in part, these pieces are finished as vases and are in vase forms, they might be classed as terracottas. The subjects are largely children and animals. The children are either merely human, or sometimes in the guise of Eros or the boy Dionysos. Here, also, are various vases in bust form. Among them :

Case 2. G 1 (fig. 124). Vase in the form of a female head, wearing elaborate pendant earrings, once gilded, and other jewellery.

Case 3. F 417, Rhyton (horn). The lower part is in the form of a negro boy devoured by a crocodile.

Cases 8-13 contain several Lucanian vases.

Cases 14-23. Vases in imitation of the later Athenian fabrics, produced mainly in the Greek cities. of Campania (see above, p. 246).

In these later vases the subjects are apt to be uninteresting, except as illustrations of ancient life, as, for instance, the girl swinging on F 123, and the elaborate parasols on F 94, F 96. On F 93, with mourners at a tomb, the use of large painted vases is shown. A hydria on a step of the tomb is painted with a palmette, and an amphora with a chariot and charioteer. In Case 17 the vase F 157 showing Dolon attacked by Odysseus and Diomede is in a spirit of strong and bold caricature, in striking contrast with the rather weak and conventionalized drawings of the majority of the South Italian vases. The vase F 154 (Case 20) has some unusual pictorial methods. The scene is a boar-hunt, and the boar, by way of exception, is shown in purple-brown, picked out with white strokes.

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Fig. 124. Vase in form of a female head.

Cases 22, 23 contain a curious group of nearly flat plates, probably intended for fish, and painted with characteristic fishes and other marine creatures.

Cases 24-29. Vases of fine black ware from the cities of Campania. The characteristics of the style are plain black bodies,

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often fluted and reeded. They are decorated with gilding on low relief, with inset relief in black, and with an occasional and sparing use of white. In Case 29 the bucket G 30 is an unusually direct imitation of a bronze vessel with movable bronze handles. Observe the lion's head in relief at the junction of the handles, and the imitation of a bronze repoussé relief immediately below.

Cases 30, 31. Drinking horns (or Rhytons) moulded in the forms of animals' heads, and having the upper parts painted in the red-figure style. One example, F 431, is arranged, by a caprice, to terminate in a head which is half a boar and half a dog.

Cases 32-36. Black ware, in which the decoration is placed Thus the necessity is avoided by various methods upon the black.

of leaving the ground colour vacant.

In Case 32 the old method of using the incised line is again introduced, in combination with small patterns, painted or stamped on the soft clay.

Cases 33, 34. Plain or fluted vases with white, red or purple patterns upon the black ground. The cup F 542, representing a

Fig. 125.-Shapes of Apulian Vases.

young huntsman, seated, with his head resting on his left hand and a dog at his side, differs in execution from the rest in having the shadows painted in by means of hatched lines. Its whole appearance is suggestive of mural painting, such as we see it at See Pompeii. Early Latin inscriptions make their appearance on some of these vases, pointing to the third or second centuries B.C. F 604, AECETIAI POCOLOM, i.e. Aequitiae poculum, and the fragmentary cup, VESTAI POCOLO, i.e. Vestae poculu(m).

Cases 37-41. Roman wares, more fully described below, p. 253. Cases 42, 43. Drinking-horns (or Rhytons) moulded in the In this group red-figure forms of animals' heads (cf. Cases 30, 31). painting is not employed.

Cases 44, 45. Examples of various late and local fabrics, for the most part based upon Greek vase painting. Below, specimens of Egyptian provincial wares of the Roman and later periods.

Cases 46, 47. Vases with figures painted in red body colour
The effect of a red-figure vase is thus

upon the black ground.

attained by a simplified method.

The incised line is used for the

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