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internal lines of the red figures, and we thus have a reversion in this respect to the methods of black-figure vase painting.

Above and below, eccentric imitations of Greek vases.

Cases 46-49. Vases of Lucanian and Apulian fabrics (see above, p. 246), all, however, marked by a common system of decoration, consisting of an ivy branch on the upper panel, and offering little variety or interest in the choice of subjects.

Cases 50-59. Vases in the florid late Apulian style, marked by the choice of trifling subjects, monotonously repeated, and by a great variety of ornate shapes. Many new forms, of which a few characteristic examples are given in the annexed diagram (fig. 125), are developed and multiplied.

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Cases 60-65. The principal vases in these cases represent offerings at tombs. (Compare above, Pedestal 9.) Within a small architectural structure we have a subject painted mainly in white, which is probably the actual tomb-relief (compare in particular F 352, fig. 126, with many of the Athenian reliefs), and round it conventionalized figures of mourners and persons bringing offerings.

Cases 66-68. Selected South Italian vases with mythological subjects. Among them are:

F 479. Crater, with the infant Heracles strangling the snakes,

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in the presence of numerous deities and of his mother Alcmena. The scene corresponds to a picture of Zeuxis as described by Pliny (Hist. Nat. xxxv. 63). F 270. Crater from Apulia. Orpheus in Hades. Orpheus, known by his lyre, holds Cerberus by a chain, and stands near a terminal figure, perhaps Apollo; Eurydicè is seated behind him. The other figures are, in the lower row, a youth and pedagogue; in the upper row, deities-namely, Pan, Hermes, Aphrodite with Eros.

Cases 69-72 (middle shelf). Subjects connected with the later Italian comic stage (cf. p. 170). The figures are grotesque. In some cases (as F 189, and F 124) the stage buildings and apparatus are roughly indicated.

Cases 71, 72 also contain five subjects connected with the game of Cottabos (cf. above, p. 235).

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ROMAN AND PROVINCIAL POTTERY AND LAMPS.

In the south-west corner of the Fourth Vase Room (Wall-cases 37-41, 44, 45 (below), and Table-case F) an exhibition has been arranged, so far as space permits, of the clay lamps, and of the Roman and provincial potteries.

The Roman wares found in Britain are grouped with the other Britanno-Roman objects in the Department of British and Mediaeval Antiquities, but all will be found catalogued together in the Catalogue of Roman Pottery.

Cases 39-40. A series of vases and fragments, in fine red clay covered with a red glaze, usually known as Arretine ware. They

are derived from the famous potteries of Arretium (Arezzo), and must be dated from the middle of the second century B.C. onwards for a century and a half. A choice example is the fine vase L 54,

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with figures symbolical of the Seasons. It was found at Capua, and bequeathed by Mr. Felix Slade. Another example is the cantharos shown in fig. 127.

The first step in the manufacture of these vases was to prepare a stamp. See the stamp of a figure of Spring (L 91) worked in clay,

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with a handle at the back. (For other stamps see p. 164.) The stamps were next impressed on the inside of a mould, in such combinations as seemed to make a satisfactory design. Thus in the

vase L 54, mentioned above, two of the Seasons, namely, Spring and Summer, occur twice, since six repetitions of a figure were needed to decorate the circuit of the vase. The column, with mask above and basket at its foot, is repeated six

times from a single stamp.

Cases 37-38. The later red wares, formerly known to antiquaries as Samian ware, on account of an assumed connexion with the once famous red pottery of Samos, have, in fact, nothing to do with that island. For the most part they are derived from Gaul, especially from the sites known as La Graufesenque and Lezoux. Panels with figure-subjects, animals and the like are repeated in combination with rough decorative wreaths, scrolls or panels, such as fig. 128.

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Fig. 130. Mould for a clay lamp.

A small group of vases in the lower part of the case comes from Roman potteries of the second to third century A.D. on the Rhine. Mottoes of a convivial character are painted in opaque white on a dull black ground. Thus M 142 (fig. 129) has the inscription Da Vinum (Give me wine').

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Case 41 and the shade over Table-case F contain specimens of glazed ware, produced for the most part in Gaul between the first and third centuries A.D. The prevailing colours are yellow, varying to yellowish brown, and a rich green. In this ware we find a true metallic glaze, probably a lead glaze, which must be distinguished from the blue glaze on the faience ware and from the varnish of the Greek potters. Under the thick coat of glaze the subjects lose their definite outlines, and the general effect becomes one of colour rather than of form.

Table-case F contains a series of Roman lamps. A set of Greek lamp forms was mentioned above, in Case G (p. 248). Generally speaking, the Greek clay lamps have a large central aperture. The Roman lamps have a central medallion with a relief and a small aperture at one side of it. They were prepared in great numbers from moulds such as that shown in fig. 130 (exhibited in the Room of Ancient Life), and are in some respects insignificant as works of art. They are, however, rendered interesting by the great variety of subjects represented in the medallion reliefs, such as subjects from mythology, subjects from daily life, scenes of shipping or from pastoral life, or, more especially, scenes from the circus and the arena, with racing chariots or gladiatorial combats. Compare the lamp illustrated above (fig. 131) with a pastoral scene of a shepherd (Titurus) herding his sheep.

LONDON

PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED,

DUKE STREET, STAMFORD STREET, S. E., AND GREAT WINDMILL STREET, W.

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