During the period in which the red-figured style prevailed we find the gteatest variet\ in the shapes of vases. Figure 4 (pi 13) is a large kroler, or punch-bowl used for mixing wine and water; Figure 5 is a vase of sim ilar character, known as the oaybathon, the shape of which appears to ha\ e been an elongated form of the more ancient kelebe. A still further modification of this shape appears in the Apulian z'asi a camtana, of which an example is given on Plate 14 (Jig. 2). Vases of this character arc known as the " rich style," and were made in Southern Italy during the Hellenistic period. An architectural structure frequently forms the centre of the design, and about it appear complicated groups of figures. In col oring as well as in the composition there is an evident striving after effect. A much freer use of white lends brilliancy to the decoration, which now loses the chaste simplicity and graceful beauty of the vase-painting of the best period, and an accomplished draughtsmanship shows a decided advance in the knowledge of perspective. There are, however, a lack of taste and a carelessness which were soon to bring vase-painting into a rapid decline.
En; razed very early times the Greeks were skilled workmen in bronze, and through the best period the greatest sculptors in marble were equally famous for their work in metal. Could these works have been preserved to us, they would have told us even more clearly than the works in marble of the plastic energy of the Greek artist. Some reflec tion of it may be seen in the bronze statuettes which still remain to us. But the historian of Greek painting is more interested in the engraved bronzes, especially in the toilet-cases and the mirrors which furnish us with most valuable illustrations of Greek design.
The toilet-cases belong in general to the third century B. C., while the mirrors range from early Etruscan down to the last days of the Roman Republic. The most beautiful of the toilet-cases is known as the Ficeroni cista, in the Museum Kircherianum, at Rome. On it is represented the arrival of the Argonauts in the country of the Bebrykians in Bithynia (p/. 13, Jig. 9). To the left, Polydeukes is seen binding the savage king Amykos to a tree, while from the ship the Argonauts land freely to obtain fresh water from the spring or gaze with satisfaction on their comrade's success. It is inscribed Nozios Plautos med ,1Iacolnia filca dedil, and may be assigned to the early part of the third century.
The mirrors, chiefly of Etruscan origin, are disks of bronze provided with a handle. One side is highly polished, to reflect the image; the other is ornamented with incised designs. These have usually little artistic merit, but in a few instances they exhibit a skilled Greek hand. The sub jects arc drawn mainly from Greek mythology, often ill understood or infused with Etruscan elements. One of the best of these mirrors is given in Figure 8, and represents the Reunion of Dionysos and Semeic.
source of our knowledge of classic painting is found in the mosaic pavements and wall-decorations from Rome, Pompeii, and various countries tinder Roman dominion. Although geo metric and conventional ornament would appear to be most appropriate in this department of art, the Romans preferred picturesque effects, and utilized all the resources of perspective, light and shade, and brilliant col oring. In one instance, at least, we seem to have an actual copy of an
ancient painting. This is the famous Battle of Issos from the Casa del Fanno, in Pompeii (N. 16, fig. ti). On the left are the Macedonians, with Alexander at their head; on the right are the Persians, with Darius standing in his chariot, and in the foreground the horse upon which he is about to make his escape. The tumult of battle and the emotion of the participants are most skilfully expressed. A border of Egyptian style (not given in the illustration) adds weight to the supposition that we have here a copy of the picture of the battle of Issos by Helena, daughter of the Eg' ptian (Alexandrian-Greek) Timon—a painting which was removed by the emperor Vespasian to Rome and placed in the Temple of Peace.
Mural paintings with which the Etruscans and Ro mans adorned their houses and tombs tell us more clearly than the vases of the advance which the Greek painters had made beyond the art of their predecessors. Let us examine the earliest of such wall-paintings—those found in the so-called Grotta Campana at Veii 5, fig. 1). How strongly we are .reminded of the vases of the Oriental type! The orna mentation is arranged in parallel bands, and includes the conventional animals and flowers with which we are already familiar. The animals are painted in several colors and covered with spots, the men red, and mean ingless ornament fills up the vacant spaces. It is difficult to discern in these early paintings the promise of what was soon to follow. An approach toward correct representation of nature is to be found on the painted terra cotta plaques discovered at Ccere, the style of which is not far removed from that of the sixth-century Ionic sculptures of the Harpy Tomb at Xanthos. A finer sense of form and composition is evident in Figure 3. The painting here represented is from an Etruscan tomb at Corneto called the Grotta della Onerciola. The banquet-scene on the upper tier retains a trace of Etruscan influence, while the boar-hunt below shows a strange resemblance to Attic bas-reliefs of the fifth century.
A still further advance ill Etruscan painting is seen in Figure 2, from the famous Francois tomb at Vnlci. The central scene represents Achilles slaving Trojan Prisoners in honor of his friend Patroklos. 011 the extreme left stands Agamemnon; next to him, and gazing upon the scene with melancholy satisfaction, is the shade of Patroklos; just beyond is the White Spirit, or Angel of Life. On the right stand Charon, ready to escort his victim to the nether world, and a Greek soldier with another Trojan prisoner. A painting of this character exhibiting a knowledge of foreshortening and of light and shade, and manifesting the power of expressing various emotions in the countenance, can hardly be earlier than the third century B. c. In Etruscan painting we may trace the increasing influence of Greek art in its various stages of progress. This is particularly the case in respect to technique and style. In spirit, however, Etruscan painting reflects a sombre, individualistic realism far behind the humane idealism of Greece.