In Greece fragments of the first class have been found on the Acropolis at Athens, the recurring design being a two-horse chariot which a warrior mounts, with a scorpion in the field. The similarity in the clay, the shape, and the technique of the reliefs with the Cervetri vases is remarkable; the subject is one common on Corinthian vases. Other fragments have been found at Tanagra, and there is a good example in the Louvre with a series of figures, representing a dance of women, all of similar types, yet not from the same stamp, but different moulds.^[1518] The variations of detail in dress and hair show conclusively that the cylinder process is not employed here, but that the figures are freely modelled from a single type. The costume is that typical of the women on early B.F. vases (cf. p. 372). Some very fine examples of πίθοι with reliefs, dating from the end of the seventh century, have been published by De Ridder.^[1519] They are all from Boeotia, and are similar to those made in Rhodes, but with the characteristic ornamental handles of metallic form. Here again the figures are freely modelled with variations of detail, and they afford interesting points of comparison with the painted vases and with the early bronze reliefs which are variously attributed to Corinth and Chalkis.^[1520] One in Athens (Cat. 462) has the interesting subject of Artemis Diktynna; another (Cat. 466 = Plate XLVII.), an accouchement scene. Similar finds have been made in Kythnos, Tenos, Crete, and Rhodes,^[1521] the ornamentation being for the most part purely geometrical, but sometimes with Centaurs or human figures.^[1522] In none of these examples is there any peculiarly Etruscan feature; all is purely Hellenic, presenting close analogies not only with metal-work in relief, but also with the Oriental art to which the Greek work of that age was so much indebted, as in the case of the cylinder process.^[1523]

A new method of decorating vases, which first makes its appearance towards the end of the fifth century, is by means of appliqué reliefs. It is doubtless due to the influence of sculpture, and perhaps more especially to that of the bronze reliefs which on vases and mirror-cases were now becoming popular. The former influence is clearly at work in the great Kertch vase with the contest of Athena and Poseidon (Plate L.), where we may see in the two central figures, which are modelled in relief and applied to the surface of the vase, an undoubted reminiscence of the western Parthenon pediment. There are also vases from Athens, Kertch, the Cyrenaica, and Southern Italy,^[1524] in which the figures are either partially or wholly modelled in relief, like the vase of Xenophantos or a fine lekythos in the British Museum (G 23) representing the rape of Kassandra by Ajax. Another fine specimen, found at Cumae and now at Petersburg, has a group of Eleusinian deities in relief on the shoulder.^[1525] Yet another example, recently found at Lampsakos, has the Calydonian boar-hunt as its subject; the figures are in relief on a gilded ground.^[1526]

The imitation of metal technique^[1527] is even more marked in the vases of Southern Italy than in those from other parts. At Capua, Cumae, and Metapontum amphorae, hydriae, and oinochoae are found, covered with a very brilliant black varnish, but without any painted decoration; the only ornament is in the form of gilded wreaths and other simple patterns, or designs in relief. The British Museum has a fine series from Capua with garlands of foliage and ornaments in the form of festoons and pendants, the whole forming, as M. Collignon says, “a brilliant and luxurious system of decoration which contrasts with the sober taste of the Attic potters.” Some of the hydriae are clearly of local fabric, imitations of the Campanian hydriae of bronze.^[1528] The forms are often very elaborate, with ornamental handles, ribbed bodies, and moulded stems. An oinochoë has been found with an inscription which gives the names of leῖa for smooth-surfaced vases, ῥαβδωτά for those ribbed or fluted. Heavy imitations of the gilt and relief wares have often been found at Alexandria,^[1529] and isolated specimens occur in Attica, Rhodes, and the Cyrenaica.

The growing fashion of using only vases of chased gold and silver in preference to painted pottery made itself more and more felt both in Greece and Italy during the Alexandrine period. The same tendency which we have already noted, to reproduce as far as possible the characteristics and appearance of metal, may be observed in all the pottery of this period. Not only do the subjects moulded in relief reproduce the appearance of the chased and repoussé designs, but the shapes are those of the metal vases, and even in the black glaze there are attempts to produce a metallic effect. It is clear that the pottery of this period presents throughout the effect of a striving after outward show on the part of those who were unable to afford the more precious metal for their household utensils, and were forced to be content with imitating it to the best of their ability in the humbler material.

In Greece this tendency is best illustrated by a series of vases known as Megarian or Homeric bowls, of hemispherical form,^[1530] without handles. The former name was given to them by Dumont^[1531] and Benndorf,^[1532] but with little authority beyond the fact that several were found at Megara. But they might on equally good grounds be called Boeotian, others having been found at Thebes and elsewhere in the neighbourhood. They have also been found in Kalymnos, Crete, and Cyprus, but the majority are from Thebes, Tanagra, and Anthedon. Professor Robert thinks they may be identified with the vasa Samia so often mentioned by ancient writers (see Chapter XXII.), and refers to the μαστοί dedicated at Oropos and Paphos.^[1533] All are of red clay, with a thin metallic black glaze giving a quasi-metallic appearance; the hemispherical form is only departed from in one or two instances.^[1534]

The other name, Homeric, has been applied to them by Professor Robert with reference to the well-known passage of Suetonius, which describes Nero as using bowls (scyphi) called Homeric because they were chased with subjects from Homer’s poems.^[1535] Our clay examples would then be reproductions of the chased metal vases, used by those who could not afford originals, and corresponding in some degree to modern plaster casts. It is true that only five of the examples we possess have subjects from Homer; but most of the others may be so called as belonging to the Epic cycle. They thus differ from most relief-vases of the period, in that the designs are not purely decorative or repetitions of simple motives, but are, so to speak, “illustrations of the classics.”

Professor Robert distinguishes two classes: (1) those with figures made from separate stamps, attached to the vase after it was made, and often repeated; (2) vases made wholly, figures and all, in a mould, like the Arretine wares.^[1536] In the latter case they were doubtless made from the same moulds as the metal vases, and of this we have an undoubted example, not indeed among the “Megarian” bowls, but in analogous specimens from Italy. It has already been noted (p. 134) that in the British Museum there are two examples of a silver bowl with repoussé designs, representing round the interior four deities in chariots, which form part of a silver treasure found at Èze in the south of France; and that in the same collection there is also a clay bowl (Cat. G 118 = Plate XLVIII., fig. 5) which exactly reproduces the silver vase in shape, size, and decoration.

Among the subjects we have the rape of Persephone^[1537]; the sacrifice of Iphigeneia; Achilles and Priam^[1538]; the flight to the ships (from the Iliad), the sack of Troy and the sacrifice of Polyxena; the destruction of the suitors (from the Odyssey). From the Theban legend we have the stories of Oedipus’s childhood and the Seven against Thebes^[1539]; other vases give the labours of Herakles or his rape of Auge (Plate XLVIII., fig. 2)^[1540]; and a jug made by Dionysios has the interesting subject of Autolykos and Sisyphos.^[1541] The British Museum possesses a very interesting bowl with scenes taken directly from the Phoenissae of Euripides,^[1542] and other comparisons with that author may be made in the case of the bowls with Iphigeneia and Polyxena. Sometimes the scenes are inscribed with verses from the poems or plays illustrated, or with a prose description of the scene,^[1543] or merely with the names of the figures. The letters in all cases are raised. It is clear that all these bowls belong to the same period and fabric, and many small details point to the third century as their date. We may bear in mind that this was the time of the great revival of Homeric study at Alexandria.

In Italy the introduction of relief wares became general as painting was abandoned, but did so gradually, not suddenly. In the third century both existed side by side. The principle of a purely mechanical process in pottery, which now first appears in the manufacture from a mould, was not, strictly speaking, a new one in Italy, nor yet in Greece. It is first seen in the early Etruscan and Rhodian vases (see p. 496) with stamped and rolled-out designs repeated in long friezes. And we shall see later how for several centuries moulded vases, in the form of bucchero ware, formed the national pottery of Etruria. There was always in Etruscan, as also in Greek pottery,^[1544] a tendency towards the imitation of metal, and this tendency about the fourth century seems to have spread over the rest of Italy, even to the Iapygian Peninsula. Thus it is that the vases of Gnatia (p. 488) are largely metallic in form and treatment, with their ribbed bodies and other details. To the same cause is mainly due the series of Capua and Cumae vases which has already been discussed, with its brilliant varnish and gilding. Signor Gamurrini actually gave to the Italian black glaze wares the name of “Etrusco-Campanian.”^[1545] After the disappearance of bucchero ware similar vases came to be made at Cervetri, Chiusi, Corneto, and Bolsena, the principal art centres of Etruria. At Bolsena in particular they have been found in considerable numbers; and as this city (Volsinium novum) was only founded in 264 B.C., a terminus post quem for their date is afforded.

A group of vases found chiefly at the last-named place^[1546] does not appear to have been covered with black varnish, but with a metallic preparation of gold or silver, which has now mostly disappeared, and they are left with the plain glazed clay. Some of these are not without merit. In the general arrangement of the designs, usually in friezes round the shoulder, there is obviously a reminiscence of bucchero ware. The metallic preparation with which they were covered may have been something of the kind which Athenaeus^[1547] describes in speaking of certain drinking-cups made at Naukratis, which “were dipped [in some preparation] so as to appear silver.”

In Italy the manufacture of vases of black ware with reliefs appears to have centred at Cales in Campania during the third century.^[1548] The principal type is that of a bowl, not of the hemispherical form, but shallow, with the designs in the interior, either in the form of a frieze or of a central medallion. These are usually called Calene phialae, but it is not certain whether the majority were really made at Cales. At all events, it is, like “Megarian bowl,” a convenient name for the class. The British Museum bowl G 118, with the frieze of chariots (see above), is a good example of the frieze type of design. The subject, which is treated in a very spirited manner, is the apotheosis of Herakles, who is conducted by Athena, Ares, and Artemis to Olympos, accompanied by Victories. There is also a good specimen in Berlin (Cat. 3882) with Odysseus and the Sirens. Another with decorative patterns only, bears the signature of the potter, L. Canoleios of Cales, in Latin letters.^[1549] Examples are also given in Plate XLVIII., figs. 3, 5, 6.

Of the type with central medallions comparatively few complete examples exist, but the British Museum possesses a series of fragments on which the medallions have been preserved.^[1550] The subjects are usually those characteristic of the Alexandrine period: Aphrodite, Adonis, and Erotes; Herakles and Hylas, and others familiar from Theocritus; or Trojan scenes, such as Thetis with the arms of Achilles or Paris attacked by Deiphobos. A unique instance is that of Romulus and Remus suckled by the wolf (G 125). Two names of potters occur—K. Atilius and G. Gabinius. The date of these phialae is probably that of the Second Punic War (about 230–200 B.C.). The designs, being taken from moulds^[1551] and inserted separately, are frequently repeated. The fashion—obviously another instance of imitation of metal^[1552]—of adorning bowls with central designs also takes other forms at this period. Simple heads of deities or Satyrs are found, and there are also instances of facsimiles of Syracusan coins. Two bowls in the British Museum (G 121–22) have in the centre copies of a decadrachm with the head of Persephone (Plate XLVIII., fig. 4: cf. p. 210).^[1553]

Analogous to these in character and technique are the series of small lamp-feeders or gutti, a variation of the askos form, which are found chiefly in Southern Italy, but also in North Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean.^[1554] In the latter case they are usually distinguished by having an arched handle over the back instead of the usual ring-handle at the side, and the body is flatter. The Italian type has a deep ribbed body, with a flat circular space on the top containing a design in relief, made separately and inserted in the vase (Plate XLVIII., fig. 1). The range of subjects is wide, but the majority are mythological: heads or masks of a Dionysiac character or of Medusa form a large proportion of the whole.

Larger vases of black ware with reliefs inserted or attached are sometimes found, but are not common. The British Museum possesses two good specimens—a krater (G 29) with panels inserted bearing mythological designs,^[1555] and a large covered jar (G 28) with the inscription BASSVS in Roman letters, presumably the potter’s name. The subjects, in two friezes, represent Erotes and festoons of vine-leaves, and Poseidon and Victory, five times repeated.

The series of vases which we have been discussing are clearly paving the way for the new development of pottery which prevailed throughout the Roman period—that of the ware formerly known as Samian, but now usually spoken of as Arretine or (a more comprehensive term) Terra sigillata. This will of course be more appropriately dealt with in a subsequent chapter under the heading of Roman Pottery. In the course of the second century the Roman dominion spread over most of the Greek lands, and Greek art as an independent entity almost ceased to exist. It is, however, not a little remarkable at what a late date some forms of distinctively Greek pottery lingered on in Hellenic regions, such as Attica, Egypt, and Southern Russia. The subject has hitherto received but little attention, and the materials have hardly been collected with sufficient completeness to admit of adequate discussion and classification.^[1556]