aerial perspective. The compositions are often crowded, and sprawl over the surface of the vase, instead of being carefully adapted to its shape, as in the earlier style; and in many instances we meet with designs more suitable for mural or easel

pictures, than for decoration of the convex or concave surfaces of the vases.

An interesting example of this period is the vase in the British Museum bearing the signature of the potter Meidias. On it are represented three distinct subjects: 1. The abduction of Eriphyle

and Elera by Castor and Pollux; 2. Hercules in the Garden of the Hesperides; 3. A scene from the Argonautic expedition.

The vases of this period are often of enormous size and exaggerated proportions. They do not seem to have been in

tended for domestic use, but rather for the decoration of the houses of the rich. In the Museum at Naples are five great vases from Cuma and Canosa; they all display a black ground; the figures are red, white being sparingly used here and there for details. The drawing is of a high order, and the composition of the groups worthy of the best period. The subject of the

largest vase, which is four feet eight inches in height, is the Battle of the Amazons; above the presiding deities are represented in council. The lower and upper portions of this vase are occupied with decorations, simple and elegant. Another vase, four feet two inches in height, is occupied with Homeric subjects, and is remarkable for its fine drawing.

One of the distinguishing marks of this style, which cannot be denied to have great merit, is the use of the arabesque ornaments on the necks of the vases, consisting of heads of females, often with tresses, or youthful heads rising from a flower, and having on each side architecture and arabesque foliage.

The multitude of figures introduced, the complexity of the composition, the inferiority and carelessness of the design, the flourish and lavishment of decoration, in a word, the absence of that chasteness and purity which gave the Perfect Style its chief charm, indicate these vases to belong, if not always, to the period of Decadence, at least to the verge of it.

A large proportion of the designs relates to Dionysiac subjects, to Aphrodite and Eros, or to

sepulchral rites. It is probable that some of these subjects relate to the Dionysiac or Eleusinian mysteries.

Polychrome vases are also frequently found, which belong to this epoch. The whole of the body of the vase is coated with a thin layer of lime (leucoma tectorium) brought to a remarkably fine surface; over this has been laid a thin siliceous glaze. On the earliest of these vases the figures are drawn in outline in a fine glazed black and sienna-brown colour. At a later time the figures are drawn in black or vermilion. draperies were coloured blue, purple, vermilion or green. The acroteria of tombs were coloured blue and green. In the treatment of the hair, the full faces, the style, the attitude, they are like the other vases of this period.

The

These vases are principally sepulchral lecythi, which were placed in the tomb or on the breast of the dead. The subject is always funereal, generally that incident in the Orestiad,

which unfolds the dramas of Eschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, or Chrysothemis at the tomb of Agamemnon. Dr. Birch gives a beautiful example of a polychrome vase, an Athenian lecythus, representing Electra at the tomb of Agamemnon.

Polychrome vases of other shapes also occur. A hydria, from Gnathia had for its subject a seated man with red ampechonium and green tunic, bidding farewell to a female with a yellow chiton and rose-coloured shawl. One of the finest specimens of polychrome ceramography with gilding is an amphora in the British Museum, which represents Thetis surprised by Peleus. The garment of Thetis is painted sea-green. The principal shapes which occur in the Florid epoch are large amphora, craters, and hydriæ. Vases of this epoch are rarely found in

DECADENCE.

Etruria, but are abundant in
the Greek colonies of Italy.
The most striking examples of
this style have been found in
Apulia, at Ruvo and at Athens.
The fourth century B.C. is the
date generally assigned
vases of this class.

The Decadence.- We

to

now

come to the last stage of the cycle of development of the ceramic art in Greece, the epoch of Decadence. At this period a still greater deterioration in the arts of design took place, while more capricious forms were invented.

The transition from the Florid style to that of the Decadence was rapid. This style is remarkable, not only for its inferiority of design, but also The red colour is paler, the

for the coarseness of the clay. glaze of a dull leaden colour. The drawing is careless in the extreme, and the size of the heads and figures disproportioned to the size of the vases, exhibiting altogether an utter want of taste. The ornaments are multiplied and large in proportion to the subjects. The proportion of the male figures is short.

The costume is most florid, consisting of richly embroidered tunics with borders. The figures are no longer few and detached, but grouped in masses. White opaque colour is freely introduced for the flesh of the females and children, and even males, as well as into the attire, and, as the art decays, almost entirely supersedes the previous red colour. The subjects exhibit a change in taste and feeling: the greater proportion is derived from the thiasos of Dionysus, together with subjects from the Tragedies, and from the Middle and Low Comedy; while at a later period of the decadence the choice of subjects became restricted to allegorical representations suggested by the philosophical writers, and by the decay of religious feeling. Some of the latest in style are certain craters, found at Orbitello and Volterra, on which the figures are drawn in the coarsest manner, with outlines of the most exaggerated proportions and childish design, everything bespeaking an art at its last stage of development and at its lowest ebb. The vases of this epoch differ in shape from the previous class. The crater is of common occurrence. The Basilicatan amphora is quite a modification of the old form. The cnochoë also completely changes its character, the body being either egg-shaped on a foot, or else squab. The lecythus has a semi-oval body, and the cylix is replaced by the supposed lepaste or dish.

These vases are rarely found in Greece and Northern Italy, but abound in the sepulchres of Southern Italy and Sicily. From their common occurrence in the Terra di Lavoro and the Basilicata, and at St. Agata de' Goti, they are commonly known by the designation of vases of the style of the Basilicata. The vases of this style come down to nearly B.C. 200.

SHAPES OF PAINTED VASES.

We first give Mr. Dennis' arrangement, after the nomenclature of Gerhard, of these vases in classes, according to the purposes they served. We then give a list of their several shapes, with the names by which they are known in England, and also with the names they are given in Italian Museums. Two plates from the atlas to the French edition of Müller's " Ancient Art," pl. 19, are given to illustrate the various shapes.

CLASS I.-Vases for holding wine, oil or water-amphora pelice, stamnos.

Of all shapes of ancient vases, the amphora is the best known.