Chapter XI: Preface (11)

The ancients had certainly acquired great skill in the manufacture, as appears both from the accounts which have been preserved by ancient authors, and by the specimens which still exist--among which we may notice, as pre-eminently beautiful, that torment of antiquaries, the Portland vase, preserved in the British Museum. We have already adverted to another vase of the same kind, and of almost equal beauty, found in one of the tombs near the Gate of Herculaneum.

A remarkable story is told by Dion Cassius, of a man who, in the time of the Emperor Tiberius, brought a glass cup into the imperial presence and dashed it on the ground. To the wonder of the spectators, the vessel bent under the blow without breaking, and the ingenious artist immediately hammered out the bruise, and restored it whole and sound to its original form; in return for which display of his skill, Tiberius, it is said, ordered him to be immediately put to death.

The story is a strange one, yet it is confirmed by Pliny, who both mentions the discovery itself, and gives a clue to the motives which may have urged the emperor to a cruelty apparently so unprovoked. He speaks of an artificer who had invented a method of making flexible glass, and adds that Tiberius banished him, lest this new fashion should injure the workers in metal, of whose trade the manufacture of gold, silver, and other drinking-cups, and furniture for the table, formed an extensive and important branch.

The Romans were also well acquainted with the art of coloring glass, as appears, among other proofs, from the glass mosaics, of which mention has been made. Pliny speaks of a blood-red sort, called hæmatinum, from blood, of white glass, blue glass, etc. The most valuable sort, however, was the colorless crystal glass, for two cups of which, with handles on each side, Nero gave 6,000 sesterces, about $240.

Under this head we may speak of the vases called _murrhina_, since one theory respecting them is, that they were made of variegated glass. Their nature, however, is doubtful; not so their value. Pliny speaks of 70 talents being given for one holding three sextarii, about four and a half pints. Titus Petronius on his death-bed defrauded the avarice of Nero, who had compelled him, by a common piece of tyranny, to appoint the crown his heir by breaking a murrhine trulla, or flat bowl, worth 300 talents. Nero himself, as became a prince, outdid all by giving 100 talents for a single capis, or drinking-cup, "a memorable circumstance, that an emperor, and father of his country, should have drunk at so dear a rate." Pliny's description of this substance runs thus:

"It is to be noticed that we have these rich cassidoin vessels (called in Latin murrhina) from the East, and that from places otherwise not greatly renowned, but most within the kingdom of Parthia; howbeit the principal come from Carmania. The stone whereof these vessels are made is thought to be a certain humor, thickened as it were in the earth by heat. In no place are these stones found larger than small tablements of pillars or the like, and seldom were they so thick as to serve for such a drinking-cup as I have spoken of already. Resplendent are they in some sort, but it may rather be termed a gloss than a radiant and transparent clearness; but that which maketh them so much esteemed is the variety of colors, for in these stones a man shall perceive certain veins or spots, which, as they be turned about, resemble divers colors, inclining partly to purple and partly to white: he shall see them also of a third color composed of them both, resembling the flame of fire. Thus they pass from one to another as a man holdeth them, insomuch as their purple seemeth near akin to white, and their milky white to bear as much on the purple. Some esteem those cassidoin or murrhine stones, the richest, which present as it were certain reverberations of certain colors meeting altogether about their edges and extremities, such as we observe in rainbows; others are delighted with certain fatty spots appearing in them; and no account is made of them which show either pale or transparent in any part of them, for these be reckoned great faults and blemishes; in like manner if there be seen in the cassidoin any spots like corns of salts or warts, for then are they considered apt to split. Finally, the cassidoin stones are commended in some sort also for the smell that they do yield."

On these words of Pliny a great dispute has arisen. Some think that onyx is the material described, a conjecture founded on the variety of colors which that stone presents. To this it is objected, that onyx and murrha, onyx vases and murrhine vases are alike mentioned by Latin writers, and never with any hint as to their identity; nay, there is a passage in which Heliogabalus is said to have onyx and murrhine vases in constant use. Others, as we have said, think that they were variegated glass; others that they were the true Chinese porcelain, a conjecture in some degree strengthened by a line of Propertius:

"Murrheaq. in Parthis pocula cocta focis."

At the same time this quotation is not so conclusive as it might have been, since Pliny speaks of murrha as "hardened in the earth by heat," and the poet may only have meant the same thing, though the expression in that case would be somewhat strained. To us, Pliny's description appears to clearly point to some opaline substance; the precious opal has never in modern times been found in masses approaching to the size necessary to make vessels such as we have spoken of. The question is not likely to be settled, and it is not improbable that the material of these murrhine vases is entirely unknown to us, as the quarries of many marbles used by the ancients have hitherto eluded our research, and the marbles themselves are only known by their recurrence among ancient buildings.

We may here notice one or two facts connected with glass, which show that the ancients were on the verge of making one or two very important discoveries in physical science. They were acquainted with the power of transparent spherical bodies to produce heat by the transmission of light, though not with the manner in which that heat was generated by the concentration of the solar rays. Pliny mentions the fact that hollow glass balls filled with water would, when held opposite to the sun, grow hot enough to burn any cloth they touched; but the turn of his expression evidently leads to the conclusion that he believed the heat to become accumulated in the glass itself, not merely to be transmitted through it. Seneca speaks of similar glass balls, which magnified minute objects to the view. Nay, he had nearly stumbled on a more remarkable discovery, the composition of light, for he mentions the possibility of producing an artificial rainbow by the use of an angular glass rod. At a far earlier period Aristophanes speaks of "a transparent substance used to light fires with," usually translated glass. The passage is curious, as it shows a perfect acquaintance with the use of the burning glass.

With the laws of reflection the ancients, as we know from the performances ascribed to Archimedes, were well acquainted. It is singular that being in possession of such remarkable facts connected with refraction, they should never have proceeded to investigate the laws by which it is governed.

The first object figured _h_, in the annexed block, is a glass funnel, _infundibulum_; _g_, is described as a wine-strainer, but the method of its use is not altogether clear. The bottom is slightly concave, and pierced with holes. It is supposed to have been used as a sort of tap, the larger part being placed within the barrel, and the wine drawn off through the neck or spout, which is broken. Fig. _n_, is a wine-taster, something on the principle of a siphon. It is hollow, and the air being exhausted by the mouth at the small end, the liquid to be tasted was drawn up into the cavity. _a_ and _b_, wine-jars; _c_, two small wine-jars in a glass casket; _d_, _e_, _f_ and _q_, goblets or drinking-glasses of toned and beautiful colored glass; _i_ and _m_, glass dishes, the first with a saucer.

Another sort of glass strainer, of which there are several in the Neapolitan Museum, is made of bronze, pierced in elegant and intricate patterns as seen on page 84. The Romans used strainers filled with snow to cool their wines, and such may have been the destination of the one here represented. These were called _cola vinaria_, or _nivaria_. The poor used a linen cloth for the same purpose.

With respect to the details of dress, the excavations, whether at Pompeii or Herculaneum, enable us to clear up no difficulties, and to add little to that which is already known on this subject. Still a short notice of the principal articles of dress, and explanation of their Latin names, may be expedient for the full understanding of some parts of our subject. The male costume will detain us a very short time.

The proper Roman dress, for it would be tiresome and unprofitable to enter upon the variety of garments introduced in later times from foreign nations, consisted merely of the toga and tunica, the latter being itself an innovation on the simple and hardy habit of ancient times. It was a woolen vest, for it was late before the use of linen was introduced, reaching to the knees, and at first made without sleeves, which were considered effeminate; but, as luxury crept in, not only were sleeves used, but the number of tunics was increased to three or four. The toga was an ample semi-circular garment, also without sleeves. It is described as having an opening large enough to admit the head and the right arm and shoulder, which were left exposed, having a sort of lappet, or flap (lacinia), which was brought under the right arm and thrown over the left shoulder, forming the _sinus_, or bosom, the deep folds of which served as a sort of pocket. This is the common description, which, we confess, conveys no very clear notion of the construction or appearance of the dress. The left arm was entirely covered, or if exposed, it was by gathering up the lower edge of the ample garment.

The female dress consisted of one or more tunics, with an upper garment, called _stola_, which superseded the toga, originally worn by women as well as men. The stola is said to have been a more ample and ornamented sort of tunic. The tunic worn by women does not seem to have differed from that worn by men, except that it reached to the feet. Above the stola, women wore a mantle called palla or pallium. This is said to have been thrown across the shoulders, the right end being gathered up and thrown over the left shoulder, leaving nothing but the right hand visible.

Some minute speculations relative to one article in female dress have been based on a statue from Herculaneum, in which a Neapolitan antiquary thinks that he has discovered the nature and construction of that compound garment called the tunico-pallium, in which the appearance and uses of the tunic and mantle were united. It is the statue of a woman employed in buckling her dress over the right shoulder, having already fastened it on the left, in such a manner as to leave the arm bare.

Numerous articles of female ornament have been found, of which we have collected a few into one block. They are drawn of the same size as the originals. The lower corners of the cut represent ear-rings, seen in front and sideways. It is a portion of a plain gold spheroid, very thick, with a metal hook at the back to pass through the ear. The next is of simpler construction, having pearl pendants. Both these patterns seem to have been very common. The upper right-hand corner of the cut represents a breast-pin, attached to a Bacchanalian figure, with a patera in one hand and a glass in the other. He is provided with bat's wings, and two belts, or bands of grapes, pass across his body. The bat's wings symbolize the drowsiness consequent upon hard drinking. There are also represented gold rings with serpent's heads, the eyes of which are inlaid with beautiful stones and diamonds; also bracelets of this pattern were very common.

A beautiful gold necklace was also found, of which a cut is represented in the above plate. It was very elaborate and exquisite. Ornamental safety-pins were also found, as shown in following cuts. Lockets were also found, indicating religious subjects of later date.

Small toilet-boxes, made of wood or ivory, were also numerous; and, like the vases, of many different forms; and some, which contained cosmetics of divers kinds, served to deck the dressing table, or a lady's boudoir. They were carved in various ways, and loaded with ornamental devices in relief; sometimes representing the favorite lotus flower, with its buds and stalks, a goose, gazelle, fox, or other animal. Many were of considerable length, terminating in a hollow shell, not unlike a spoon in shape and depth, covered with a lid turning on a pin; and to this, which may properly be styled the box, the remaining part was merely an accessory, intended for ornament, or serving as a handle.

They were generally of sycamore wood, sometimes of tamarisk, or of acacia; and occasionally ivory, and inlaid work, were substituted for wood. To many, a handle of less disproportionate length was attached, representing the usual lotus flower, a figure, a Typhonian monster, an animal, a bird, a fish, or a reptile; and the box itself, whether covered with a lid or open, was in character with the remaining part. Some shallow ones were probably intended to contain small portions of ointment, taken from a large vase at the time it was wanted, or for other purposes connected with the toilet, where greater depth was not required; and in many instances they rather resembled spoons than boxes.

Many were made in the form of a royal oval, with and without a handle; and the body of a wooden fish was scooped out, and closed with a cover imitating the scales, to deceive the eye by the appearance of a solid mass. Sometimes a goose was represented, ready for table, or swimming on the water, and pluming itself; the head being the handle of a box formed of its hollow body; some consisted of an open part or cup, attached to a covered box; others of different shapes offered the usual variety of fancy devices, and some were without covers, which may come under the denomination of saucers. Others bore the precise form and character of a box, being deeper and more capacious; and these were probably used for holding trinkets, or occasionally as repositories for the small pots of ointment, or scented oils, and bottles containing the collyrium, which women applied to their eyes.

Some were divided into separate compartments, covered by a common lid, either sliding in a groove, or turning on a pin at one end; and many of still larger dimensions sufficed to contain a mirror, combs, and, perhaps, even some articles of dress.

These boxes were frequently of costly materials, veneered with rare woods, or made of ebony, inlaid with ivory, painted with various devices, or stained to imitate materials of a valuable nature; and the mode of fastening the lid, and the curious substitute for a hinge given to some of them, show the former was entirely removed, and that the box remained open, while used.

Knobs of ebony, or other hard wood, were very common. They were covered with great care, and inlaid with ivory and silver.

Some boxes were made with a pointed summit, divided into two parts, one of which alone opened, turning on small pivots at the base, and the two ends of the box resembled in form the gable ends, as the top, the shelving roof, of a house. The sides were, as usual, secured by glue and nails, generally of wood, and dove-tailed, a method of joining adopted in Egypt at the most remote period; but the description of these belongs more properly to cabinet work, as those employed for holding the combs, and similar objects, to the toilet.

Some vases have been found in boxes, made of wicker-work, closed with stoppers of wood, reed, or other materials, supposed to belong either to a lady's toilet or to a medical man; one of which, now in the Berlin Museum, has been already noticed.

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FURNITURE.

In the furniture of the houses the Egyptians displayed considerable taste; and there, as elsewhere, they studiously avoided too much regularity, justly considering that its monotonous effect fatigued the eye. They preferred variety both in the arrangement of the rooms and in the character of their furniture, and neither the windows, doors, nor wings of the house, exactly corresponded with each other. An Egyptian would, therefore, have been more pleased with the form of our Elizabethan, than of the box-shaped rooms of later times.

In their mode of sitting on chairs they resembled the modern Europeans rather than Asiatics, neither using, like the latter, soft _divans_, nor sitting cross-legged on carpets. Nor did they recline at meals, as the Romans, on a _triclinium_, though couches and ottomans formed part of the furniture of an Egyptian. When Joseph entertained his brethren, he ordered them to _sit_ according to their ages. Egyptians sometimes sat cross-legged on the ground, on mats and carpets, or knelt on one or both knees; these were rather the customs for certain occasions, and of the poorer classes. To sit on their heels was also customary as a token of respect in the presence of a superior, as in modern Egypt; and when a priest bore a shrine before the deity he assumed this position of humility; a still greater respect being shown by prostration, or by kneeling and kissing the ground. But the house of a wealthy person was always furnished with chairs and couches. Stools and low seats were also used, the seat being only from 8 to 14 inches high, and of wood, or interlaced with thongs; these, however, may be considered equivalent to our rush-bottomed chairs, and probably belonged to persons of humbler means. They varied in their quality, and some were inlaid with ivory and various woods.

Those most common in the houses of the rich were the single and double chair (answering to the Greek _thronos_ and _diphros_), the latter sometimes kept as a family seat, and occupied by the master and mistress of the house, or a married couple. It was not, however, always reserved exclusively for them, nor did they invariably occupy the same seat; they sometimes sat like their guests on separate chairs, and a _diphros_ was occasionally offered to visitors, both men and women.

Many of the fauteuils were of the most elegant form. They were made of ebony and other rare woods, inlaid with ivory, and very similar to some now used in Europe. The legs were mostly in imitation of those of an animal; and lions' heads, or the entire body, formed the arms of large fauteuils, as in the throne of Solomon (I Kings, x. 19). Some, again, had folding legs, like our camp-stools; the seat was often slightly concave; and those in the royal palace were ornamented with the figures of captives, or emblems of dominion over Egypt and other countries. The back was light and strong, and consisted of a single set of upright and cross bars, or of a frame receding gradually and terminating at its summit in a graceful curve, supported from without by perpendicular bars; and over this was thrown a handsome pillow of colored cotton, painted leather, or gold and silver tissue, like the beds at the feast of Abasuerus, mentioned in Esther, or like the feathered cushions covered with stuffs and embroidered with silk and threads of gold in the palace of Scaurus.

Seats on the principle of our camp-stools seem to have been much in vogue. They were furnished with a cushion, or were covered with the skin of a leopard, or some other animal, which was removed when the seat was folded up; and it was not unusual to make even head-stools, or wooden pillows on the same principle. They were also adorned in various ways, bound with metal plates, and inlaid with ivory, or foreign woods; and the wood of common chairs was often painted to resemble that of a rarer and more valuable kind.

The seats of chairs were frequently of leather, painted with flowers and fancy devices; of interlaced work made of string or thongs, carefully and neatly arranged, which, like our Indian cane chairs, were particularly adapted for a hot climate; but over this they occasionally placed a leather cushion, painted in the manner already mentioned.

The forms of the chairs varied very much; the larger ones generally had light backs, and some few had arms. They were mostly about the height of those now used in Europe, the seat nearly in a line with the bend of the knee; but some were very low, and others offered that variety of position which we seek in the kangaroo chairs of our own drawing-room. The ordinary fashion of the legs was in imitation of those of some wild animal, as the lion or the goat, but more usually the former, the foot raised and supported on a short pin; and, what is remarkable, the skill of their cabinet-makers, even before the time of Joseph, had already done away with the necessity of uniting the legs with bars. Stools, however, and more rarely chairs, were occasionally made with these strengthening members, as is still the case in our own country; but the drawing-room fauteuil and couch were not disfigured by so unseemly and so unskillful a support.

The stools used in the saloon were of the same style and elegance as the chairs, frequently differing from them only in the absence of a back; and those of more delicate workmanship were made of ebony, and inlaid, as already stated, with ivory or rare woods. Some of an ordinary kind had solid sides, and were generally very low; and others, with three legs, belonged to persons of inferior rank.

The ottomans were simple square sofas, without backs, raised from the ground nearly to the same level as the chairs. The upper part was of leather, or a cotton stuff, richly colored, like the cushions of the fauteuils; the base was of wood painted with various devices; and those in the royal palace were ornamented with the figures of captives, the conquest of whose country was designated by their having this humiliating position. The same idea gave them a place on the soles of sandals, on the footstools of a royal throne, and on the walls of the palace at Medeenet Haboo, in Thebes, where their heads support some of the ornamental details of the building.

Footstools also constituted part of the furniture of the sitting-room; they were made with solid or open sides, covered at the top with leather or interlaced work, and varied in height according to circumstances, some being of the usual size now adopted by us, others of inconsiderable thickness, and rather resembling a small rug. Carpets, indeed, were a very early invention, and they are often represented sitting upon them, as well as on mats, which are commonly used in their sitting-rooms, as at the present day, and remnants of them have been found in the Theban tombs.

Their couches evinced no less taste than the fauteuils. They were of wood, with one end raised, and receding in a graceful curve; and the feet, as in many of the chairs, already described, were fashioned to resemble those of some wild animal.

Egyptian tables were round, square, or oblong; the former were generally used during their repasts, and consisted of a circular flat summit, supported like the _monopodium_ of the Romans, on a single shaft, or leg, in the centre, or by the figure of a man, intended to represent a captive. Large tables had usually three or four legs, but some were made with solid sides; and though generally of wood, many were of metal or stone; and they varied in size, according to the purposes for which they were intended.

Of the furniture of their bed-rooms we know little or nothing; but that they universally employed the wooden pillow above alluded to is evident, though Porphyry would lead us to suppose its use was confined to the priests, when, in noticing their mode of life, he mentions a half cylinder of well polished wood "sufficing to support their head," as an instance of their simplicity and self-denial. For the rich they were made of Oriental alabaster, with an elegant grooved or fluted shaft, ornamented with hieroglyphics, carved in intaglio, of sycamore, tamarisk, and other woods of the country; the poor classes being contented with a cheaper sort, of pottery or stone. Porphyry mentions a kind of wicker bedstead of _palm branches_, hence called _bais_, evidently the species of framework called _kaffass_, still employed by the modern Egyptians as a support to the _divans_ of sitting rooms, and to their beds. Wooden, and perhaps also bronze, bedsteads (like the iron one of Og, King of Bashan), were used by the wealthier classes of the ancient Egyptians; and it is at least probable that the couches they slept upon were as elegant as those on which their bodies reposed after death; and the more so, as these last, in their general style, are very similar to the furniture of the sitting-room.

The oldest specimen of a bedstead is that mentioned by Homer as joined together by Odysseus in his own house. He had cut off the stem of an olive-tree a few feet from the ground, and joined to it the boards of the bed, so that the trunk supported the bed at the head. It therefore was immovable. The antique bed must be considered as the prolongation of the diphros. The cross-legged diphros prolonged became the folding bed; that with perpendicular legs the couch. The former could easily be moved and replaced; they are perhaps identical with the beds frequently mentioned in the "Odyssey," which were put into the outer hall for guests. One of them is shown as the notorious bed of Prokrustes in a picture on a vase. The diphros corresponds to the couch resting on four legs, at first without head and foot-board, which were afterwards added at both ends. By the further addition of a back on one of the long sides, it became what we now call a _chaise longue_ or sofa. This sleeping kline was no doubt essentially the same as that used at meals. The materials were, besides the ordinary woods, maple or box, either massive or veneered. The legs and backs, and other parts not covered by the bed clothes, were carefully worked. Sometimes the legs are neatly carved or turned, sometimes the frames are inlaid with gold, silver, and ivory, as is testified in the "Odyssey," and elsewhere.

The bedding mentioned in Homer did not consist of sumptuous bolsters and cushions, as in later times. It consisted, even amongst the richer classes, first of all of the blankets of a long-haired woolen material, or perhaps a kind of mattress. Hides, as spread by the poor on the hard floor, were sometimes put under the blankets, and other additional blankets, so as to soften the couch. The whole was covered with linen sheets. The light blankets served to cover the sleeper, who sometimes used his own dress for this purpose; sometimes they consisted of woolen blankets woven for the purpose. After Homer's time, when Asiatic luxury had been introduced into Greece, a mattress was placed immediately on the bed-straps. It was stuffed with plucked wool or feathers, and covered with some linen or woolen material. Pillows, like the mattresses stuffed with wool or feathers, were added to complete the bedding, at least in more luxurious times. (The cut on page 78 gives a good idea of the looks of an ancient Roman and Grecian bed.) Of a similar kind were the klinai placed in the sitting-rooms, lying on which, in a half-reclining position, people used to read, write and take their meals. They were covered with soft blankets of gorgeous colors, while one or more cushions served to support the body in its half-sitting position, or to prop the left arm.

Tables were used by the ancients chiefly at meals, not for reading and writing. The antique tables, either square with four legs, or circular or oval with three connected legs, afterwards with one leg, resemble our modern ones, but for their being lower. Mostly their slabs did not reach higher than the kline; higher tables would have been inconvenient for the reclining person. In Homeric and even in later times, a small table stood before each thronos. The use of separate dishes for each guest is comparatively new. Originally the meats were brought in on large platters, divided by the steward, and each portion put on the bare table. In want of knives and forks the fingers were used. The pastry was put in baskets by the tables. Whether the Homeric tables were as low as the later ones, when lying instead of sitting had become the custom, we must leave undecided, in want of sculptural evidence. The legs of the tables were carefully finished, particularly those of the tripods, which frequently imitated the legs of animals, or at least had claws at their ends. The four-legged tables were more simple in design. The material was wood, particularly maple; later on, bronze, precious metals, and ivory were introduced.

For the keeping of articles of dress, valuable utensils, ornaments, bottles of ointment, and documents, larger or smaller drawers and boxes were used. Chests of drawers and upright cupboards with doors seem to have been unknown in earlier times; only in few monuments of later date (for instance in the wall-painting of a shoemaker's workshop at Herculaneum) we see something resembling our wardrobe. The wardrobes mentioned by Homer doubtless resembled our old-fashioned trunks. The surfaces showed ornaments of various kinds, either cut from the wood in relief or inlaid with precious metal and ivory. Some smaller boxes with inlaid figures or painted arabesques are shown from pictures on vases. The ornamentation with polished nails seem to have been very much in favor--a fashion re-introduced in modern times. The most celebrated example of such ornamentation was the box of Kypselos, in the opisthodomos of the temple of Hera at Olympia. It dates probably from the time when the counting by Olympiads was introduced, and served, according to Botticher, for the keeping of votive tapestry and the like. According to Pausanias, it was made of cedar-wood, and elliptic in shape. It was adorned with mythological representations, partly carved in wood, partly inlaid with gold and ivory, encircling the whole box in five stripes, one over the other.

Locks, keys and bolts, known at an early period for the closing of doors, were later applied to boxes, as is sufficiently proved by the still-existing small keys fastened to finger-rings, which, although all of Roman make, were most likely not unknown to the Greeks. For doors these would have been too small.

The furniture of Greek houses was simple, but full of artistic beauty. This was particularly displayed in vessels for the keeping of both dry and fluid stores, as were found in temples, dwellings and even graves. Only the last-mentioned have been preserved to us. Earthen vessels are the most numerous. The invention of the potter's wheel is of great antiquity, and was ascribed by the Greeks in different places to different mythical persons. The Corinthians named Hyperbion as its inventor. In the Kerameikos, the potters' quarter of Athens, Keramos, the son of Dionysos and Ariadne, was worshiped as such. The name of the locality itself was derived from this "heros eponymos." Next to Corinth and Athens (which latter became celebrated for earthen manufactures, owing to the excellent clay of the promontory of Kolias), Ægina, Lakedæmon, Aulis, Tenedos, Samos and Knidos were famous for their earthenware. In these places the manufacture of painted earthenware was concentrated; thence they were exported to the ports of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea for the markets of the adjoining countries. Owing to the beautiful custom of the ancients of leaving in the graves of the dead the utensils of their daily life, a great many beautiful vessels have been preserved which otherwise would have shared the destruction of the dwellings with much less fragile implements. From the pictures on these vases we derive, moreover, valuable information as to the public and private habits of the Greeks. The greatest number of graves in their original condition, and filled with vessels, are found in Italy.

Good, particularly red, clay was in demand for superior goods, and of this the promontory of Kolias, near Athens, furnished an unlimited supply. The potter's wheel was in use at a very early period. On it were formed both large and small vessels, with the difference, however, that of the former the foot, neck, and handles were formed separately, and afterwards attached, as was also the case in small vessels with widely curved handles.

In order to intensify the red color the vessel was frequently glazed and afterwards dried and burnt on the oven. The outlines of the figures to be painted on the vase were either cut into the red clay and filled up with a brilliant black varnish, or the surface itself was covered with the black varnish up to the contours, in which case these stood out in the natural red color of the clay.

The first mentioned process was the older of the two, and greater antiquity is, therefore, to be assigned to vessels with black figures on a red ground. In both kinds of paintings draperies or the muscles of nude figures were further indicated by the incision of additional lines of the color of the surface into the figures. Other colors, like dark red, violet, or white, which on close investigation have been recognized as dissolvable, were put on after the second burning of the vessel.

About the historic development of pottery we know nothing beyond what may be guessed from the differences of style. As we said before, figures of a black or dark-brown color painted on the natural pale red or yellowish color of the clay indicate greater antiquity. The black figures were occasionally painted over in white or violet. These vessels are mostly small and somewhat compressed in form; they are surrounded with parallel stripes of pictures of animals, plants, fabulous beings, or arabesques. The drawings show an antiquated stiff type, similar to those on the vessels recently discovered at Nineveh and Babylon, whence the influence of Oriental on Greek art may be inferred. This archaic style, like the strictly hieratic style in sculpture, was retained together with a freer treatment at a more advanced period. As a first step of development we notice the combination of animals and arabesques, at first with half-human, half-animal figures, soon followed by compositions belonging mostly to a certain limited circle of myths. The treatment of figures shows rigidity in the calm, and violence in the active, positions. The Doric forms of letters and words on many vases of this style, whether found in Greece or Italy, no less than the uniformity of their _technique_, indicate _one_ place of manufacture, most likely the Doric Corinth, celebrated for her potteries; on the other hand, the inscriptions in Ionian characters and written in the Ionian dialect on vessels prove their origin in the manufactures of the Ionian Euboea and her colonies. The pictures on these vases, also painted in stripes, extend the mythological subject-matter beyond the Trojan cycle to the oldest epical myths, each story being represented in its consecutive phases.

The latter vases form the transition to the second period. The shapes now become more varied, graceful, and slender. The figures are painted in black, and covered with a brilliant varnish; the _technique_ of the painting, however, does not differ from that of the first period. The outlines have been neatly incised and covered up with black paint; the details also of draperies and single parts of the body are done by incision, and sometimes painted over in white or dark red. The principle seems to be that of polychrome painting, also applied in sculpture. Single parts of the armor, embroideries, and patterns of dresses, hair, and beards of men, the manes of animals, etc., are indicated by means of dark red lines. This variety of color was required particularly for the draperies, which are stiff and clumsily attached to the body. The same stiffness is shown in the treatment of faces and other nude parts of the body, as also in the rendering of movements. The faces are always in profile, the nose and chin pointed and protruding, and the lips of the compressed mouth indicated only by a line. Shoulders, hips, thighs, and calves bulge out, the body being singularly pinched. The grouping is equally imperfect. The single figures of compositions are loosely connected by the general idea of the story. They have, as it were, a narrative character; an attempt at truth to nature is, however, undeniable.

The subjects are taken partly from the twelve-gods cycle (like the frequently-occurring birth of Athene, Dionysian processions, etc.), or from Trojan and Theban myths; partly also from daily life, such as chases, wrestlings, sacrifices, symposia and the like. To this class belong most of those large Panathenaic prize-vases, which are of such importance for our knowledge of gymnastic competitions.

In our third class the figures appear in the natural color of the surface, which itself has been painted black. The character of the figures in consequence appears gay and lively. Both styles seem at one time to have existed together, for we find them used severally on two sides of one and the same vessel, till at last the painting of black figures was disused entirely. The drawings now become more individual, and are freed from the fetters of conventional tradition--a proof of the free development of both political and artistic feelings, even among the lower classes of artificers. The specimens of the third class show the different stages of this process of liberation. At first the figures are somewhat hard, and the drapery, although following the lines of the body more freely than previously, shows still traces of archaic severity of treatment; the details, indicated by black lines, are still carefully worked out. For smaller folds and muscles, a darker shade of the red color is used; wreaths and flowers appear dark; red white is used only in few cases--for instance, for the hair of an old man. The composition shows greater concentration and symmetry in the grouping, according to the conditions of the space at disposal. The figures show a solemn dignity, with signs, however, of an attempted freer treatment.

Kramer justly calls this period that of the "severe style," and compares it with the well-known "Æginetic" style in sculpture. The further development of the "severe style" is what Kramer calls the "beautiful style," in which grace and beauty of motion and drapery, verging on the soft, have taken the place of severe dignity. In high art this transition might be compared to that from Perugino's school to that of Raphael, or, if we may believe the ancient writers, from the school of Polygnotos to that of Zeuxis and Parrhasios.

The form of the vessels themselves next calls for our attention. The vases, two-handled amphorai and krateres, found most frequently during this period, are slender and graceful. Together with them we meet with beautifully modeled drinking-horns, and heads or whole figures, used to put vessels upon. The variety of forms, and the largeness of some vessels, overloaded as they were with figures, soon led to want of care in the composition. The moderation characteristic of the "beautiful style" was soon relinquished for exaggerated ornamentation, combined with a preference for representing sumptuous dresses and the immoderate use of white, yellow, and other colors. This led gradually to the decadence of pottery.

In some Etruscan cities earthenware was manufactured by local artists working after Greek patterns. The figures are distinguished from genuine Greek work by the contours being incised very deeply and filled up with red color. The clay also is coarser. The compositions show an admixture of local myths and usages, not to mention Etruscan inscriptions.

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VASES.

Painted vases may be considered as the most curious, the most graceful, and the most instructive remains that have come down to us from ancient times. The beauty of the forms, the fineness of the material, the perfection of the varnish, the variety of the subjects, and their interest in an historical point of view give painted vases a very important place among the productions of the arts of the ancients. Painted vases have been collected with great eagerness ever since they have been known, and the most remarkable have been engraved by celebrated artists, and explained by profound archæologists. Modern art and archæology have obtained from them beautiful models and important information. They were known for the first time in the seventeenth century.

Painted vases were, to a considerable extent, objects of traffic and of export from one country to another. They may be generally traced to Athens as the original place of exportation. Corinth also exported vases, for the products of Corinthian potters have been found in Sicily and Italy, and there can be no doubt that Corinth had established an active trade in works of art with the Greek colonies all over the Mediterranean. Athenian vases were carried by the Phoenicians, the commercial traders of the ancient world, as objects of traffic to the remotest parts of the then known world. In the Periplus of Scylax, the Phoenicians are mentioned as exchanging the pottery of Athens for the ivory of Africa. They were, in fact, the ornamental china of the ancient world.

_Etruscan._--The potter's art was introduced into Etruria by Demaratus of Corinth, who, flying from that city, took up his abode at Tarquinii, the modern Corneto, where vases in the most archaic style, resembling those of Corinth, or those called Doric, have been found. Vases, the Etruscan origin of which can not be disputed, have been found at Volterra, Tarquinii (Corneto), Perugia, Orvieto, Viterbo, Aquapendente, and other towns of ancient Etruria. The clay of which they are made is of a pale or reddish yellow, the varnish is dull, the workmanship rather rude, the ornaments are devoid of taste and elegance, and the style of the figures possesses all those characteristics already assigned to that of the Etruscans. The figures are drawn in black on the natural color of the clay; sometimes a little red is introduced on the black ground of the drapery. It is by the subject chiefly that the Etruscan vases are distinguished from the Greek vases. On the former, the figures are in the costume peculiar to ancient Italy; the men and the heroes are represented with their beards and hair very thick; the gods and genii have large wings; monstrous combinations not capable of explanation by Hellenic myths; we may also observe divinities, religious customs, attributes, manners, arms, and symbols, different from those of Greece. Etruscan deities, such as Charun with his mace, denote their Etruscan origin; the subjects of the vases are, however, generally derived from Greek mythology, treated in a manner consonant to the Etruscan taste, and to their local religion, while their drawing is of the coarsest kind. If an inscription in Etruscan characters, traced invariably from right to left, accompanies the painting, certainty with regard to their origin may be considered as complete. It is true that the greater number of the letters of the ancient Greek alphabet are of the same form as those of the Etruscan alphabet; but there are in the latter some particular characters which will prevent any confusion. The names of the personages on the vases are spelt differently from those on the Greek, as Ainas for Ajax, Atreste for Adrastus, Akle for Achilles, Alesti for Alcestis, etc. We must also observe, that Etruscan painted vases are very rare, and are but few in number, compared with those for which we are indebted to the arts of Greece.

_Greek._--The paste of these vases is tender, easily scratched or cut with a knife, remarkably fine and homogeneous, but of loose texture. When broken, it exhibits a dull opaque color, more or less yellow, red or grey. It is composed of silica, alumina, carbonate of lime, magnesia and oxide of iron. The color depends on the proportions in which these elements are mixed; the paler parts containing more lime, the red more iron. The exterior coating is composed of a particular kind of clay, which seems to be a kind of yellow or red ochre, reduced to a very fine paste, mixed with some glutinous or oily substance, and laid on with a brush; great difference is observable in the pastes of vases coming from widely separated localities, owing either to their composition or baking. The paste of the early vases of Athens and Melos is of a very pale red; that of vases of the Doric or Corinthian style is of a pale lemon color. At the best period of the art, the paste is of a warm orange red; but Lucanian and Apulian vases are of a paler tone. The Etruscan painted vases of all ages are of a pale red tone, with a much greater proportion of white, which appears to be owing to the greater proportion of chalk used in preparing the paste.

The earliest vases were made with the hand, while those of a later period were made with the wheel; the wheel, however, is a very early invention. Among the Egyptians and Greeks it was a low, circular table, turned with the foot. Representations of a potter turning the wheel with his foot, occur on painted vases of an early date. With this simple wheel the Greeks effected wonders, producing shapes still unrivalled in beauty.

After the vases had been made on the wheel, Dr. Birch writes, they were duly dried in the sun, and then painted; for it is evident that they could not have been painted while wet. The simplest and probably the most common, process was to color the entire vase black. The under part of the foot was left plain. When a pattern was added, the outline, faintly traced with a round point on the moist clay, was carefully followed by the painter. It was necessary for the artist to follow his sketch with great rapidity, since the clay rapidly absorbed the coloring matter, and the outline was required to be bold and continuous, each time that it was joined detracting from its merit. A finely-ground slip was next laid upon a brush, and the figures and ornaments were painted in. The whole was then covered with a very fine siliceous glaze, probably formed of soda and well-levigated sand. The vase was next sent to the furnace, and carefully baked. It was then returned to the workshop, where a workman or painter scratched in all the details with a pointed tool. The faces of female figures were colored white, with a thick coat of lime or chalk, and the eyes red. Parts of the drapery, the crests of helmets, and the _antyges_, or borders of shields, were colored with a crimson coat, consisting of an oxide of iron and lime, like a body color.

In the second style of vases the figures are painted in a dark brown or black, of an unequal tone, on yellow ground, formed of a siliceous coating over the pale red clay of the vase. An improvement upon this style was the changing of the color of the figures by painting, or stopping out, all the ground of the vase in black, thus leaving the figures of the natural red of the clay, and the marking of the muscles and finer portions, as an outline, of bright brown. After the paint had dried, the slip, or the siliceous glaze, was laid over the vase, except the under part of the foot and the inside. The colors used were few and simple, and were evidently ground excessively fine, and made into a kind of slip. Of these colors the black was the most important and the most extensively used. Great difference has always existed as to the nature of this color. Vauquelin takes it to be a carbonaceous matter, such as plumbagine or black lead. The Duc de Luynes asserts it to be an oxide of iron. Of opaque colors, the most important and extensively used is the white, said by Brongniart to be a carbonate of lime or fine clay. Red and yellow are sparingly used. Blue and green are rarely found, and only on vases of the latest styles. The liquid employed for mixing the colors is supposed to have been water.

The glaze with which these vases were covered is described by M. Brongniart as lustrous (_lustre_), and only one kind was used, the recipe for making which is now lost. It appears to have been composed of one of the principal alkalies, either potash or soda. The vases of Nola and Vulci are remarkable for the beauty and brilliancy of their glaze.

According to d'Hancarville the vases were baked in a naked furnace. Representations of ancient furnaces occur on painted vases. The furnaces were of simple construction, in shape like tall ovens, fed by fires from beneath, into which the vases were placed with a long shovel resembling the baker's peel.