the Parthenon pediments. Into the noble line-drawing of the middle style of Pheidias has come a new passionate movement, which draws the contour in more violent curves, dissolves the hair in strong waves, throws the drapery into great folds, and enlivens the clinging parts with restlessly curving inner folds. The upper garment of Dionysos is given rich effect by long border zig-zags, interspersed stars and an embroidered wreath, the expression of his eyes is strengthened by emphasis on the upper lid. Details added in white and liberal use of thinned black heighten the coloured effect. This new style with its marked enhancement of the lines is the later style of Pheidias, a reflection of the last and highest development of the Parthenon master, which pointed Attic art into new paths, and lived its life out and died in the school of Pheidias.
The amphora with twisted handles at Arezzo (Fig. [148]) must be in close connection with the last phase of the Pheidian style and cannot be far removed from the Naples stamnos. Its shape enriches the type of the Terpischore vase in London (Fig. [141]) by sharper profiling of the mouth and foot, but does not yet draw the lower part into the dull curve, which robs the amphorae and bell-kraters of the end of the century of strong and taut effect. Similarly the scene, the wild career of Pelops and Hippodameia over the sea, heightens the tendencies of Pheidian art without succumbing to the palsy which can be felt in the style of Meidias. The divine horses, the gift of Poseidon, emit sparks of the fire of the steeds on the pediments; the majestically animated attitude of Hippodameia reminds one of the Athenian lekythos (Fig. [145]); in Pelops every line is full of passion and bold movement. Here too the draperies are rich and elaborate, the restless billowing of the folds is more marked than on the Naples stamnos, and the flowing chiton folds, which cling close to the body, prepare for the exaggeration dear to post-Pheidian sculpture and painting. Not only does the drawing of individual forms show a plastic conception of space, but the whole scene is inconceivable without a contemporary big painting with considerable landscape capacities: from the tree-clad hilly coast the chariot rushes out upon the deep sea.
In fiery impetus only one of the vase-paintings of this period can compare with the Pelops vase, the somewhat later Naples fragment of a Gigantomachia (Fig. [ 149-151]). An invention of truly Titanic force, which is also echoed on other later vases, must be the basis of this picture, and even the unusual division (unsuited to vases) by an arch points to a model from another branch of art. In a rocky landscape the fight for existence of the gods and the sons of the earth-goddess takes place in the early morning, when Helios is rising on the vault of heaven and Selene is sinking down into ocean, as on the east pediment of the Parthenon. The bold movements, the twistings and bendings of the combatants, the ‘lost’ profile, the swellings and packings of the skin and muscles are rendered with sure touch. The plastic effect of the middle line of chest and abdomen is increased by doubling, and horizontal folds bring out the lower part of the forehead, the locks of hair and tips of hide flutter as if they were alive; the breasts of the earth-goddess are modelled out of the drapery as if bare, the eyes are deep-set, the underlips project.
That the rendering of the female body was now not less accomplished than that of the male, beside the lekythos in Athens, a picture of a different order may show. On an Oxford jug appears in the spaciousness favoured by these vases an old theme, Satyr and Nymph (Fig. [154]). One can scarcely realize the nobility of Pheidian conception more fully than by comparing this scene with the Phineus kylix (Fig. [74]) and its congeners. What early ages had represented
PLATE XC.
Figs. 149-151. GIGANTOMACHIA: FRAGMENT OF A RED-FIGURED KRATER.
