610 POTTERY [INSCRIPTIONS. Inscrip tions. Capua were sought for. The floral ornaments on these later vases are very elaborate and realistic compared with those of the earlier period. Bands of graceful scroll-work with growing foliage are much used, often, in spite of their attempted relief, very beautiful and much superior to the figure-subjects which accompany them. Some strikingly resemble in style the painted friezes on Pompeian walls, and have lost all purely ceramic character. Two abnormal and comparatively rare methods of vase-painting must be mentioned. One occurs on a number of Corinthian vases mostly now in the Louvre, pseudo-archaic in style, but apparently of the 5th century B.C. Such were first covered with white slip, which was in turn completely covered over with black enamel. The design was then made by the awkward process of cutting away the black in parts so as to leave black figures on a white ground a kind of "sgrafliato." Another strange method was practised in southern Italy during the extreme decadence of vase-painting. The whole surface was covered with black enamel, and the figures were afterwards painted in red over the black so as to imitate the ordinary Greek vases with red figures and a black enamel painted round them. Most specimens are mere feeble imitations of the works of an earlier period ; but a cylix in the British Museum is painted in this style with a graceful seated figure of Adonis or Meleager, a very remarkable work, executed in warm browns and yellows, giving the effect of flesh, and shaded and touched with high lights in a thoroughly pictorial manner, which, though on a miniature scale, recalls the best wall-paintings of Pompeii or Rome. Inscriptions on l r ases. Inscriptions are very numerous during the middle period of Greek art, while on the most archaic vases and those of the decadence they are mostly absent. They are of great interest in the history of Greek palaeography, but are not always a safe guide as to the dates of vases, because archaic forms of letters were often used by vase-painters long after other forms of letters had come into general use. Vase -inscriptions maybe divided roughly under two heads Ionian and Dorian, the latter occurring mostly on the numerous vases from Corinth and her colonies. The accompanying table 1 shows the usual forms of letters which differ from the New-Attic alphabet ; the latter is still in use, and has been but little changed since about 400 B.C., when the long vowels were introduced. Some of the early letters have no representative in the later Greek alphabet, e.g., the digamma f , the koppa <p, and the aspirate B or H. DORIAN. IONIAN. OLD ATTIC. NEW ATTIC "N A A A C A T & E E I Z n aspirate O asjnrate - - - aspirate ffi
- I I
y v A
- x ^ H
r r rr 9loj,r/a tc <* fr r? - P /Vl saa ^ ^ ^ - |/ o o n J^ digamma t< -4* One of the earliest vase-inscriptions known is that mentioned below (see fig. 24, p. 611) as occurring on a "pinax," or large ilat platter, with archaic painting in brown, found at Cainirus in 1 Those letters which have the same form in all three lists are omitted. Rhodes and now in the British Museum. thus Each figure has its name for MENEAAS, EKTOP (retrograde), and EY4-OPBOZ. This curious inscription has the Ionian form of E, the Dorian M (san) for 2, and a common archaic form of for 4>, a very strange and exceptional combination of characters. The Burgon Panathenaic amphora (see fig. 25) has a very curious Old -Attic inscription, written downwards for TON A0ENE0[E]N A0AON E[I]MI, " I am one of the prizes from Athens," the usual inscription on prize vases. Vase- inscriptions are usually painted, if on a red ground in black or brown, if on a black ground in red or white. Some are incised, scratched after the vase was fired ; but such occur less often. They are written both retrograde and from left to right, apparently with out any fixed rule. Both methods frequently occur in the same inscription. A fine early Corinthian crater, found at Caere and now in the Louvre, with black figures representing Heracles feasting with Eurytius, has the names of the persons represented inscribed in the characteristic early Dorian manner for EYPYTIOS, fl^ITOS, flOAA (Viola, a lady present at the feast), and HEPAKAE2. On the handle of the crater is scratched 9O, for Corinth, the place where it was made. 2 Another Dorian inscription of great interest occurs on a votive clay tablet dedicated to Poseidon, about 4 by 2J inches, now in the Louvre. Poseidon is represented at full length, holding a trident and a wreath, in black with incised lines ; at each corner is a hole for fixing the tablet to the temple wall. It is inscribed for LTOTEIAAN . . . ON M ANE0HKE, "on dedicated me to Poseidon." This curious tablet was found at Corinth ; the letters are very archaic in form, though the painting can hardly be earlier than the 6th century B. c. The great majority of vases have inscriptions in Old -Attic characters, such as are shown in the two following examples. The Sul> subjects of the inscriptions may be divided into five heads, though of ii other miscellaneous ones also occur. (1) On early vases rudely scratched trade -marks, or potters tiou marks, indicating the number of vases in a special batch and their prices. (2) Potters and artists names. The majority have only one name, possibly that of the master-potter, e.g., for Ev&Qeos iirol-riaev. In other cases, mostly on the finest vases, the name of the painter occurs as well as that of the potter, e.g., MAKPON APA9*EN for Ma/cpwv Zypa^tv. Some artists, probably distinguished for their skill, painted the vases of several potters ; other painters names chiefly occur on the vase of one special potter. (3) Names of people, animals, and even things represented on the vases. A large proportion of the earlier vases have a name by the side of each figure, or at least by the side of the most important ones. Names of horses and dogs occasionally occur, and in a few instances even inanimate objects are designated by a name, e.g., the balance on the cylix of Arcesilaus in the Paris Bibliotheque and Zeus s throne on an early amphora in the Louvre. (4) Speeches uttered by the vase figures, e.g. , in a scene representing a game at ball one of the players says XPH2AN MOI TAN 2*[A]IPAN, "Throw me the hall." Other vases have words of compliment or greeting, such as XAIPE, "Hail!" or words relating to their contents, e.g., HAYS OINOS, The wine is sweet. " (5) Names of owners, often with the adjective KAAO2 or KAAE (if a lady), possibly intended for gifts, like the majolica plates inscribed with a lady s
2 See Mon. Inst, vol. vii.