5. Developed B.F. Ionian fabrics from Clazomenae, Kyme, Naukratis, Rhodes, etc.
6. Italo-Ionic vases of the decadence and Etruscan imitations.[[1098]]
The subdivision between the earlier and later fabrics is, roughly speaking, between those with white and red ground, and between those in which ground-ornaments are used or not. Generally speaking, all the second class have more in common with the Attic B.F. vases than with “primitive” fabrics.
Before proceeding to the consideration of these fabrics in detail, it may be as well to note some of the general characteristics of Ionian pottery. In the use of incised lines and accessory pigments we may note two points: firstly, the absence for some time of any attempt at incised lines, their place being taken partly by contours drawn in outline on the clay; secondly, the use of white lines or patches for details. The incised lines, when they do appear, seem to be derived from Corinth. We may, perhaps, detect their arrival in the vases with imbrications (see p. [311]), which were imported thence to Rhodes; but another theory is that they were derived from engraved work in metal. Practically their place had been, and to some extent continued to be, taken by the white paint, which, be it noted, is obviously a Mycenaean survival or revival.[[1099]] It frequently occurs on the pottery of Ialysos and Enkomi, in precisely the same manner as we see it used in Rhodes or on the sarcophagi of Clazomenae. Sometimes both the incised lines and the white-paint details are found on the same vase, as is seen in some of the Rhodian jugs, or on a pinax from Naukratis.[[1100]] The white pigments are usually laid directly on the clay, not on the black, as at Athens. They are used for flesh tints, but not to distinguish sex (cf. the Caeretan hydriae, p. [355], where men are painted white, as on the Melian vases they are yellow).
As regards the ornamentation, the persistence of Mycenaean motives is exceedingly remarkable.[[1101]] It is seen especially in the fabrics of Rhodes and Naukratis, with their wealth of ground-ornaments, and is found not only in the more conventional motives such as spirals, or scale-pattern, but also in the vegetable patterns. There is generally in the floral decoration of the vases a tendency towards the naturalism of Mycenaean pottery. Animals, when decoratively treated, are usually arranged in long friezes, contrasting with the Corinthian method of grouping them heraldically in pairs.[[1102]] In the human figures Oriental influence is frequently prominent, as in the hybrid beings which so often adorn the vases, or in such types as the “Asiatic Artemis”; or, again, in small details, the conical caps and shoes with turned-up toes, which recall the figures on the monuments of Lydia and Phrygia. Oriental costumes generally are reproduced with great fidelity. As a rule the proportions are gross and heavy, as compared with the slimness of figures on Attic vases, wherein a curious contrast may be observed with the characteristics of Ionian and Continental architecture and sculpture, in which these features are reversed. There is, moreover, a conspicuous absence of stiffness in the Ionian compositions—rather, a remarkable freshness, vigour, and originality quite in advance of their time. Another point of contrast with the Attic vases is the absence of any differentiation of the sexes in the shape of the eye, which is always oval (cf. p. [408]).
In the choice of subjects the same law may be observed to prevail as in the Corinthian wares—that of the hiérarchie des genres. Mythological subjects appear first about the middle of the seventh century, in the Euphorbos pinax. Later we find actually scenes of a quasi-historical character, as in the battle-scenes on the Clazomenae sarcophagi and the Cyrenaic Arkesilaos vase. Throughout there is a remarkable absence of inscriptions, which are only found at the most on some half-dozen vases. The height of the Ionian style may be said to have been reached in the seventh century, lasting up to about the middle of the sixth; thence there is a rapid downfall, due mainly to historical causes, and the traces of its influence are only to be sought in Italian imitations of an inferior kind, and in some of the Attic black-figured vases, such as those of Amasis and Nikosthenes.
But the influence that was exercised during all this period by Ionian art in general on Greece is not easy to estimate; it is not confined to the pottery, but is found in sculpture and architecture as well as the minor arts. There are numerous passages in ancient writers bearing on the activity of early Ionian artists, such as Theodoros and Rhoikos of Samos, and their works, which often took the form of offerings of Asiatic princes to the Greek temples. The Ionic school of sculpture, illustrated by the early temple at Ephesos, the “Harpy” Monument, and other notable works, as well as the great Amyclaean throne, which Bathykles of Magnesia was commissioned to erect, established the fame of early Greek sculpture in no small degree; and Ionic architecture, though slower to win its way to favour in Greece Proper, reached a high degree of excellence at an early period on the eastern shore of the Aegean. Of painting in Ionia, apart from the vases, we propose to speak later. In literature and in civilisation generally Ionia was, up to the middle of the sixth century, far more advanced than any part of the Greek mainland.
§ 1. Rhodes and Asia Minor
The distinctive pottery of Rhodes,[[1103]] which, whether of local manufacture or not, is found almost exclusively in that island,[[1104]] represents the union of Mycenaean elements with a new feature, that of Oriental influence. Although primarily due to the dispersion of the Phoenicians by Assyria in the eighth century, this Orientalising of Ionia is purely artistic and industrial, not political, and is due to the commercial activity of the Phoenicians. The pottery represents a sort of transition between Assyrian and Greek decorative art, the essentially Greek elements in which are a survival of Mycenaean ornaments and a Mycenaean faculty of observation of nature, especially in the animal world. From the East were derived such features as hybrid monsters (the Sphinx, Siren, etc.), animals such as the lion, isolated motives like the lotos-flower and the rosette, and generally a tendency to imitate textile fabrics with long bands of decoration, in which the ground is strewn with these rosettes and other ornaments. We have already seen that these features also made their mark on the Corinthian style, but they are more especially characteristic of Rhodes. Human figures are exceedingly rare.
In regard to the shapes a great advance is made towards the classical types; the parts of the vase are more clearly distinguished, and the forms are few and consistent. The special Rhodian shape is the oinochoë, a large jug with trefoil lip and spherical body, decorated with two or three friezes of animals (see Plate [XX]. and p. [177]); next in popularity is the circular plate or pinax. The ornamentation is always in lustrous black paint on the characteristic white or drab-coloured slip, with a free use of purple for details. White is little used as an accessory—there seems to have been a prejudice against its use when the ground of the vase was also white—but incised lines occur more freely. On the other hand, the heads of animals are almost always outlined in black on the clay ground, a feature derived from Mycenaean pottery, and interior details are also frequently left in the ground of the clay, as in the Geometrical style. We have already mentioned instances in which the two methods are found on the same vase.