Zeus and Hera by a procession of deities; (b) combat of warriors; in the interior is a group of Ajax seizing Cassandra at the statue of Athenè. The other kylix (B 380) has on the exterior (a) Perseus, Hermes and Athenè pursued by Gorgons; (b) a procession of

warriors; in the interior a warrior charging. and are in the Chalcidian style (see p. 207).

These two are a pair,

The kylix B 424 is signed by Phrynos. The subjects are the Birth of Athena (see above) and the Apotheosis of Heracles. The hero is introduced by Athena to the presence of Zeus. The second shade contains a plain black cantharos (cup) with the name of its owner roughly incised: 'I am (the cup) of Gorgidas.'

Fig. 111.-Achilles and Troïlos. B 324.

Standard-case G. Large amphorae with miscellaneous subjects, within panels. Among them, see B 182, athletes carrying boys on their backs to whom a seated man is about to throw a ball.

The vase B 177 has a grotesque scene of four men stung by bees. They have been identified as the four Cretans who attempted to steal the honey of the infant Zeus, but probably the scene is mere burlesque. B 426 is an Athenian kylix of gigantic proportions, which is unfortunately in a poor state of preservation.

Standard-case H. Large amphorae, as the last, principally with subjects relating to the Labours of Heracles. Among them, see B 155, Heracles attacking the monster Geryon, who is winged and triple-bodied from the waist upwards. Two of the bodies are

wounded and fallen, while Heracles seizes the third by the helmet. On the opposite side is the curious subject of Perseus receiving the gifts of the Naiads, namely, the winged sandals, the helmet, and the pouch.

Pedestal 3. An amphora in the style of Andokides (already quoted on p. 205 as a transition artist). The front, with two heroes playing draughts (by which means they passed the time at Aulis while awaiting a favourable wind for Troy), is painted in black figures on a red ground. The back, on the other hand, with Heracles wrestling with the Nemean lion, is fully red-figured.

Pedestal 4, and Standard-case I. A series of prize vases, won by the victors in the games at the Panathenaic Festival at

Athens (cf. p. 35). The type used varied little from the very early specimen (fig. 112) on Pedestal 4 (known as the Burgon Vase, having been found by Mr. T. Burgon at Athens) to the late examples described below, in the Fourth Vase Room (p. 246). The Burgon vase dates from about 560 B.C., while the late examples come down to the second half of the fourth century. On the obverse of most examples is a figure of Athenè, standing between two columns usually surmounted by cocks or owls, and an inscription: 'I am one of the prizes from Athens” (τῶν ̓Αθηνῆθεν ἄθλων ἐμί. The ἐμί is usually understood). The shield of Athenè has a variety of devices such as a snake, a Pegasus, a chariot or a chariot wheel. On the reverse are subjects connected with the games, such as representations of boxing, the foot-race, leaping with weights in the hands, throwing the disk and the spear, the horse-race, the race of fourhorse chariots, in which the charioteer stands in the chariot; and the race of two-horse chariots, in which the driver sits with his feet resting on a foot-board; and musical contests. Seven of the examples are the actual prizes. The remainder, of a smaller size, and with the inscription omitted, must be supposed to be contemporary imitations.

Standard-case K. Further examples of amphorae, with the Labours of Heracles and other subjects.

On the walls, above the cases, in this and the following Room are facsimiles of paintings from the walls of Etruscan tombs, such as those in which many of the Greek vases from Etruria have been found.

The piece of timber (Italian larch) above Cases 42, 43 is a portion of the ancient ship which is submerged in the Lake of Nemi.

THE THIRD VASE ROOM.

SUBJECT:

RED-FIGURE POTTERY OF FIFTH CENTURY B.C.; WHITE ATHENIAN VASES, ETC.*

INTRODUCTION TO THE RED-FIGURE VASES, ETC.

The vases exhibited in this room belong to the red-figure class, and therefore show the complete reversal of method already

*The vases in this room are described in the Catalogue of Vases, Vol. III., by C. H. Smith, 1896 (26s.). A copy can be borrowed from the commissionaire. For the White Vases see also White Athenian Vases in the British Museum, by A. S. Murray and A. H. Smith, 1896, folio (25s.).

Q

explained above (p. 205).

The change must probably be dated towards the end of the sixth century B.C.

Until the recent excavations on the Athenian Acropolis the dates assigned were a generation later. It is now, however, ascertained that the rubbish strata formed after the Persian sack (480 B.C.) in connexion with the works of reconstruction included numerous signed fragments by the greatest masters of the red-figure style. It follows that some years, perhaps a generation, must be allowed for the introduction and development of the style. On the other hand, excavations made in the tumulus of Marathon (erected after 490 B.C.) yielded many black-figure vases, and only one red-figure fragment, thus showing that at that date the earlier style still prevailed-at any rate, for funeral usages, which are always conservative of old custom.

The design is no longer composed of a series of black silhouettes against a red or white ground, but the figures are left in the ground colour of the vase, and are thrown up by the black varnish with which all the space surrounding them is covered.

The methods followed by the painters of the red-figure vases can readily be discerned by an attentive examination of the vases. A sketch is first made with a blunt point applied to the surface of the vase and lightly marking the clay. The artist thus blocks out his figures, sometimes making repeated trials, and in the first instance drawing the draped figures as nude. A line of black varnish, about an eighth of an inch wide, is next drawn round the outside of the figures, so as to leave the figures vacant, and the interstices of the background are then filled in. (See Table-case H in the Room of Greek and Roman Life, above, p. 164.) The internal details are then drawn in fine lines of the varnish, and freehand work takes the place of the incised lines of the black-figure style. For special parts, such as the profiles, a thin black line is also drawn along the boundary of the subject in order to correct and refine the profile left by the first broad border. Occasionally some of the internal details, such as the abdominal muscles, are drawn with the varnish thinned out to a light brown, and only faintly visible. In rare cases (e.g. E 12, in Table-case A, fig. 113) the thinned varnish is also used as a local wash.

Among the mechanical aids used by the artist were a pair of compasses, and flexible rulers for ruling lines on the curved surfaces. Pursuing these methods, the vase painter was able to reach a higher level of achievement than had been possible in the black-figure style. The grotesque conventions of that method could now be abandoned, the drawing become more free, and the conceptions broader and more noble. It must be remembered that Greek art as a whole reached its culminating point within a few years of the change of style, and that the best red-figure vases reflect that severe and restrained feeling for beauty and simplicity which marks the end of the archaic period at Athens.

The following is a list of the signed vases in the Third Vase Room. Those of special interest are distinguished by an asterisk (*).