The style with black figures seems to have flourished till the 4th century n.c. The prize vases given in the Panathenma having On one side a Pallas Athene and on the other the different games, and inscribed " Prizes from Athens," were of the hard black style, which was conventionally retained till the time of Alexander the Great, the vases being then inscribed with the names of the Athenian arehona. But this style of painting was by no means keeping pace with the development of art, and the vase painters towards the close of the 4th century D.C., or even earlier, changed the colour of the figures to a bright orange red, and painted the background entirely black. The inner muscles of the figures were indicated by fine lines of a light brown, the coarser ones by black colour, and the principal accessories were in blue and white. The style considerably improved, but still remained "severe," by which it is known ; the principal shapes were amphora, oinochoai, cylices, especially tho last ; inscriptions continued to be used ; the names of artists are frequently seen. Henceforth the transitions are no longer those of colour, but of art and drawing. The eyes of figures half a century later are not represented oblique but full eye lashes appear, the limbs are broader, the faces grander, and the influence of tho school of Zeuxis in painting begins to show itself ; the vases are principally kalpidea, amphora, kcythi, arybullos, and largo craters, often with columnar handles. The subjects represented contain, in addition to those of the preceding classes, many of the exploits of I'erseus and Theseus, and others derived from the Trage dians, especially the Oresteid. But this style, about the time of Alexander, or n,c, 330, began to decline, and in the clays of Pyrrhus had passed into the florid style, distinguiihed by considerable artistic differences. The figures are taller and more elegant in their proper. tions, their hair curiously fine, and the details minute and numerous, the backgrounds being charged with arabesque and floral ornament. The shapes of the vases too are distinguished by narrow necks, thicker bodies, and taller handles : largo craters, amphorce, and calpides are common. l'erapective appears in the drawing ; gilding is common amongst the accessories. The inscriptions are sometimes incised, but the vases are often without them. Contemporaneous with these vases were the poly-chromatic, chiefly /coy/hi, made for sepulchral purposes, although oinochoai and cylices occur. They all have a leucoma, or coating of fine stucco, on which the artist drew the subject in red outline, end subsequently filled in the draperies with opaque colour, or else finely traced the subject in a sienna or bistro-coloured outline. The subjects are chiefly from the Oresteid or other sepulchral sources. Thero are fow inscriptions on any of these vases. Towards 200 years B.O. the art was rapidly declining, aud the florid gave way for one far inferior in merit, the figures being often coarsely drawn, androgynous in their character, and overladen with white colour, while the subjects are derived from the Bacchanalia, the low comedy and buffooneries of the Athenian stage. On the last vases of this style the drawing degenerates into a scrawl, and these were succeeded by ornaments in opaque white upon a red ground, and these by others with moulded ornaments. The inscriptions on vases are in different dialects, often incorrect, while the number of inscribed vases is much less than those without. From some memoranda inscribed by the potters upon tiro vases the prices paid for vases of inferior kinds are known. A eyliz, or flat painted cup, cost a drachma, which at the different value of money in ancient times amounted to about 3s.; a crater 4 oboll,or 2s. ; a kcythus 1 obolos, or Gd. ; a small pot i an obolos, or 3d. ; and a saucer i obolos, or 2d. It is curious to contrast this with the sums paid for valuable ancient vases in modern times. The Durand collection alone, principally vases, realised 12,524/. ; in 1836 a vase, with the subject of the death of Orestes, sold for 264l.; and other important vases for as much as 280/., 210/., and 170/. each. Yet, these sums are far inferior to those paid for remarkable vases by the Naples Museum, a vase with the last night of Troy having been acquired for 10001., and the same sum was paid by the late Mr. Edwards for a large vase, now in England. The characteristics of Etruscan and Roman vales have been already mentioned. [POTTERY.] One of the most difficult portions of the history of vases has been their nomenclature, obscured by the difficulty amougst the ancients themselves of describing or (leaning vases, and the various names in we at different periods. The names of vases have been classed under their employment, as the piths, stamnos, bikes, hyrche, logynos, pytine, askos, oinophoros, anophormu, kudos, hydria, Inlpis, kromos, for contain ing liquor ; the kothon and rhyton, base, bentbylios, for wine ; the frrytkozs, olpe, alabastros, for oil ; the crater, psyetcr, and dins, for mixing wino; the Mots, chytra, thermankr, for warming liquids ; thb chums, oinochoe, prochous, epichysis, for pouring out wine; the arytaina, oryballos, colyle, cud rya thos, for drawing ; the louterion, asainintlios, pyeles, acaphe, lecene, podanipter, holkaion, perirrhanterion, ardanion, fur washing; the &pas, eleison, kissybion, kypellon, cymbion, scyphos, cantharics, carchesion, cylix, thcrik leios, phi° le, (mut os, kerns, for drinking ; and the canons, discos, pines, paropsis, tryblion,oxybaphon, and (iris, for holding food. A few ancient vases have been identified with their names, but many still remain obscure. The names of the Roman
V1809, with some exceptions, are equally difficult to determine. The dishes for the table were the patina and patella, the catellum and the lanx ; pots for cooking, the elk and cambia ; and drinking vessels, the cali.r, patera, ciborium, scutella, and concha ; the oil jugs, the ampulla, gnaws, giatulus, gutturinum, and concha ; while for mixing and pouring out wine, the amphora, lagena, cads.; and for keeping it in the cellars, the huge dolia or vats were in constant use. The capis, sinipillmni, and *inspirit= were sacred vessels, and often of earthen ware. The Roman poets indeed often use the Greek names of vases, but these were apparently borrowed from the poets of Greece, whose effusions they imitated. The Roman vases are of metals and earthen ware [Porreits], lead, pewter, and box-wood.
Amongst oriental nations the vases of China are most remarkable for their antiquity, size, and beauty; the principal shapes of the metallic vases are wine-jugs, tsun ; cups, e; pails, yew; teapots, loo; incense vases, Lung ; and tripods, tiny. Some of the metallic vases are of great antiquity, as old as the Emperor Chingtang, of the Shang dynasty, MC. 1743, and engraved with characters of a hieroglyphic nature. Some were given as honorary rewards, those offered to the emperor being made of gold, while the nobility received vessels of fine copper, and the literati iron. Others were used for ancestral worship, or for holding sticks of incense in the Buddhist and other temples. At an early period honorary vases were buried with the dead, but about sic. 200, Che-hwang-te, of the Thin dynasty, exhumed the graves of ancient sages, and many ancient vases were discovered. The vases with three feet are supposed to allude to the stars presiding over the prince, mandarin, and people. Those with four, to those stars pre siding over the four civil officers. The device of the eyes of a tiger is supposed to warn against drunkenness or gluttony; the meander, or 'thunder pattern,' to agriculture; the characters cow, new; sheep, yang ; hog, she; to agricultural merit. The inscriptions, generally in ancient seal characters, are the names of the person, the vessel, the date, the object for which it was given, and other details. Many of the Chinese vases of later periods are beautifully enamelled in various colours, and of great value : others are elegantly damascened with gold and silver patterns. The vases dated in the years of Soucntlh, A.D. 1426-36, are said to be made of a mixed metal of gold, silver, and brass, acci dentally produced at the burning of the palace. Those of porcelain have been already described. [Porrenv.) Other vases are made of jade, soapstone, and the horn of the rhinoceros, which was supposed to be an antidote against poison.
In Europe, during the middle ages, vases of rock crystal continued to be made till the capture of Constantinople by the Turks in the 15th century, when the art was transferred to Western Europe ; and rock crystal, heliotrope, and jasper were used by Italian artists for this pur polio till the 17th century, when the art was abandoned, although subsequently revived in the 18th century. The goldsmiths indeed, from the 12th century, had Introduced vases ornamented with damas cene and niello work, and many elegant examples were made in Italy, especially by Collini. As early as the 12th century glass vases of filagree work, made by a peculiar process, were produced at Venice, and the manufacture was only abandoned in the 18th. Many of these were of fantastic shapes. German vases, of cylindrical shape, with enamelled paintings of armorial bearings and other devices, were invented at a later period.
The Arabian vases of the middle ages are chiefly of metallic or glazed ware. (Porrenr.) The first kind consists chiefly of ewers and Guinn for washing the hands, and are generally of bitten, a mixture of copper and tin, chased or stamped, and embellished with knobs, arabeeqocs, mosaic and damask work slightly tooled out, champlerd, or chased out, the ground lowered and pricked or pounced, and the silver pressed upon it. Many were made at .Mossoul, in 3losopotansia, as early as the 12th century.
In modern arts vases still continuo to play a part, although not so important as those of the ancient world. Russia is probably the country where the largest and costliest specimens are produced, iu jasper, malachite, quartz, and other hard rocks, chiefly from stones found at Onk, in Orenburg, in Siberia, the sites of the manufactures being placed at Penn and Tomsk. The inland of Malta also produces small vases in hard stone, carved in the style of the renaissance ; and Tuscany Is remarkable for its vases of the pure white alabaster of Volterra, very elaborately and tastefully carved, for the purposes of decoration. England, France, and Austria also produce elegant vases of cut and culuurud glass, the successors of the old filagree glass TRIM of the Venetians ; and the European nations fabricate ornamental vases in all metals for prizes, presents, or decorations, each in their peculiar style of art and taste. The invention of electrotyping and the increase of luxury have given a new stimulus to this branch of the fine arts.
(Birch, history of Ancient Pottery, Svo, Lend. 1858 ; Thema, Disser tation on Ancient Chinos rases, Svo, Loud. 1851 ; Labarte, Illustrated Handbook of the Arts of the Middle Ages, 8vo, Loud. 1858; 1:ranier, Veber den Herkunft Griech. iewati. ras., Sve, Breslau, 1846; Krause, Anyeiologie, Halle, 1854.)