VASE. A vessel of circular form used for practical or ornamental purposes. The materMI is generally pottery, though stone, glass, metal, etc., are frequently used, especially for ornament. The use of vases is common to all peoples. both ancient and modern; but it was in Ilellenie lands that vase-making attained highest perfection, both as regards form and artistic decoration; and it therefore, to the Greek vase that this article is mainly devoted.
Earthenware vessels were in almost universal use among primitive peoples, and in their clay forms and decorations furnish valuable informa tion to the anthropologist. It is not, however, till a more advanced state of artistic development has been reached, that the vases attract attention for their intrinsic merit. If. moreover, the rich prefer vessels of stone or metal, and the use of clay is confined to the poor, the potter is apt to produce cheap, rude, or carelessly made wares, even when the other crafts show the possession of high artistic skill. Thus, in Egypt, though good clay abounds, the vases are in general of little interest in themselves. The material for the study of early Oriental ceramics is neither so plentiful nor so minutely classified as is that from other lands. Moreover, the essential conser vatism of the East is strikingly displayed in the persistence of a limited number of forms and the old linear decorations, in marked contrast to the variety of the Greek types.
The Greek lands and Italy have yielded a vast mass of material, falling into well-defined groups, whose genera] succession is clear, and whose chronology is in most cases well established. The earliest forms are those found in the lower strata at Troy, the 'island graves,' and some of the pottery of Cyprus. The clay is coarse and the vases are shaped without the aid of the pot ter's wheel. The decoration, when present, con sists of incised lines in geometrical patterns. The color is black or red, according to the firing, and an apparent glaze is due to the polishing of the surface, as no coloring matter seems employed. Toward the end of this period appear vases with decoration in colors, wheel-made, and showing much taste and skill. In addition to geometric designs there now appear plants and animals. Special classes of these vases are those from Thera and the Kamares ware of Crete. whose relation to the following Myceinean pottery is still a sub ject of discussion. The earlier group of My eemean vases is decorated in dull colors on a highly polished clay. Later a more lustrous
paint is used and the clay is very fine. A favor ite form is the false-necked jar or amphora. (See Fig. 4 on Colored Plate.) Favorite subjects are representations of sea plants, the cuttlefish, nantilns, and murex, all of which are remb-red very successfully, though with a growing tendency to become mere conventional patterns.
With the fall of the Myeetnean civilization near the end of the second millennium me., then is a return to a prevailingly geometrie style, in which the straight line replaces the curves and spirals. The vases, of pale clay, are covered with meanders, zigzags, concentric circles, and triangles, to which an- later added rows of water birds and occasionally animals. Sonic vases show scenes from human life. As the first great discovery of these vases was made outside the Dipylon gate at Athens, they are sometimes called Dipylon vases, though this name should not be given to Ilirotian, Argive, or other nun Attic varieties. During the eighth and seventh centuries the increased intercourse with the East is reflected in the vases. On the islands and among the Ionians of Asia Minor was developed a great variety of local schools, all showing great fondness for elaborate decorations covering the entire surface of the vase. Mows of animals often surround the body of the vase. while the field is filled with rosettes, stars, crosses. and sim ilar ornaments. An interesting example is a plate from Rhodes (Colored Plate, Fig. 1) represent ing the conflict of Hector and Menelaus over the body of Euphorbus; it is the earliest example of an Ifomeric scene in art. While it is certain that. Ionian influence was prominent in this de velopment, it is not yet possible to determine the exact history of the local schools. On the Greek Mainland the influence may be seen in the delicate little vases commonly called Proto Corinthian (probably of Argive manufacture), and especially in the earlier Corinthian ware. Owing to the commercial importance of Corinth, her vases are found in Sicily and Italy and their manufacture seems to have continued even after the established supremacy of the Attic ware. They are of light clay, rather heavy in form and decorated with figures in black glaze with some use of red and violet. A white slip is also em ployed to indicate the flesh of women. At Nan cratis and Cyrene the body of the vase was covered with this slip. on which were painted decorations in dark color.