There are also numerous vases scattered about our museums which are of a debased and inferior B.F. type, and on good grounds have been thought to be of Italian manufacture, whether Etruscan or South Italian. The former usually display unmistakable local characteristics, and there is a class so sharply defined that its Etruscan origin is undoubted, in spite of its affinities to the Caeretan hydriae. A full description will be found in the chapter on Etruscan pottery (XVIII.). Others again have more in common with the class next to be discussed; and, generally speaking, they may all be found to show Ionian affinities. But the line is not easy to draw: debased B.F. vases may have been produced in Ionia, as they undoubtedly were at Kameiros[[1172]]; but, on the other hand, the extensive export of Ionic wares to Cumae, Cervetri, and other places may have incited the Italian potters, as in the case of the Etruscan class just mentioned, to unsuccessful attempts at imitation.
There remains yet one class of Ionic vases to be discussed, a class which can be clearly defined, but for which as yet no satisfactory name has been found. Like the Caeretan hydriae, they were first discussed by the late F. Dümmler; but his grounds for assigning them to the region of Pontus—whence they have been provisionally styled “Pontic”—have not found general acceptance.[[1173]] They were also originally, like the Caeretan group, thought to be Etruscan, a view which at first sight might seem justified by their rough execution; but style and other reasons preclude such a possibility. On the other hand, it is quite possible that some of them are imitative fabrics made in Southern Italy. All at present known have been found in Etruria.
The group is formed by a series of about twenty amphorae and sixteen oinochoae, to which Endt appends a list of twenty or so which may either be of this fabric or Italian imitations. Another example in the Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington, is illustrated on Plate [XXV]. The list might doubtless be extended. That they date from the first half of the sixth century seems indicated by the discovery of one at Orvieto, together with an early Corinthian cup. Like so many of the Ionic fabrics, they exhibit a fondness for bright colouring, with an extensive use of accessory colours. In some cases Corinthian influence seems to have been at work, especially in the technique. Incised lines are sparingly and carelessly employed, and seldom for contours. Among the subjects mythological scenes are rare, but one of the British Museum examples (B 57) has a curious subject—the contest of Herakles and the Lacinian Hera (the Roman Juno Sospita), assisted respectively by Athena and Poseidon. Winged male figures are not uncommon, and the typically Corinthian subject of grotesque figures dancing is occasionally found. But the specially characteristic feature of the group is formed by the friezes of animals. Of these there are usually two on each vase, more rarely one; sometimes they are interspersed with figures of men, not representing any definite subject, but as an imitation of stamped metal vases (as on the Bucchero vases of Etruria, Chapter [XVIII].). The animals are so characteristic as in themselves to mark off this class as distinct; sometimes they are naturalistic, sometimes conventional, and repetitions in one frieze are very rare.
The favourite quadruped is a deer; Gryphons of a peculiar type and Sphinxes are frequently found, and on some specimens a subordinate frieze of quails.[[1174]] On the necks of the amphorae heraldic groups of panthers or other animals confronted are sometimes seen, varied by palmette and lotos patterns. The latter form the chief decorative motive; but a combination of maeanders and stars (see Chapter [XVI].) is often found on the oinochoae, and this, it is interesting to note, also appears on the Clazomenae sarcophagi. On one of the vases published by Dümmler there is represented a combat of Greeks and mounted Barbarians; the latter he identified as Scythians, and mainly on this ground attributed the group to the northern coast of Asia Minor. But they are more likely to be from Phocaea, or Kyme, or one of the neighbouring cities. The oinochoae appear, from the absence of human figures, to be earlier than the amphorae, and the number of friezes often exceeds two; there are also a few minor distinctions.[[1175]]
§ 4. Early Painting in Ionia
It is now time to turn, by way of supplementing our account of Ionic pottery, to the history of the art of painting in general among these peoples, so far as it is illustrated by literary records and by existing monuments other than the vases. That the latter do afford us considerable information on the subject of painting in Ionia is amply shown in the foregoing pages; but there is yet another group of monuments which the material of which they are made would alone entitle to inclusion in this work, apart from the valuable illustration they afford of certain aspects of Ionic pottery.
In the light of modern researches, we are prepared to find in Ionia a great centre for the art of painting in the archaic period. That this region inherited the characteristics of Mycenaean art has already been so abundantly shown that we need not hesitate to believe that, among other branches of art, that of fresco-painting was firmly established in the Asiatic colonies. The art of which Crete, Mycenae, and Tiryns have furnished such remarkable examples is hardly likely to have died out. Hence it need excite no surprise when we read that as early as about 700 B.C. Kandaules, the king of Lydia, purchased for its weight in gold a picture painted by Bularchos representing a battle of the Magnetes.[[1176]] That such an elaborate subject should have been treated at this early date, when the vase-painter had not emerged from his earliest limitations, is, if we may accept Pliny’s account, a most remarkable proof of advanced art. Saurias of Samos is also mentioned as an early painter,[[1177]] who “invented silhouette drawing,” and Philokles the Egyptian, who “invented linear drawing,” was probably a Naucratite, and his “inventions” may be reflected in the outlined paintings on white ground which have been described above. Lastly, we read that about 515 B.C. Mandrokles of Samos painted a picture which represented Dareios watching his army crossing the Bosphoros,[[1178]] and Kalliphon of Samos, probably a contemporary, painted scenes from the story of Troy.[[1179]]
Combining these traditions with what we also know of Ionic painting from the pottery, we should expect to find that its characteristic form was that of figures in black silhouette or outline on a ground covered with white slip; and, further, that the subjects treated were by no means of an elementary character, but comprised elaborate battle-scenes or groups of warriors, and even historical themes. Now, these conditions are exactly fulfilled in the group of terracotta sarcophagi excavated during the last twenty years at or in the neighbourhood of Clazomenae, on the Gulf of Smyrna. It is practically certain that all have come from this district,[[1180]] and no attempt has ever been made to connect them with any other site. Further, we have already seen that there are reasons for attributing some of the vase-fabrics to this place, or at least for connecting them closely with the sarcophagi; and thus there are good grounds for regarding Clazomenae as one of the principal centres of Ionian art.
The sarcophagi which have come to light up to the present number over twenty, inclusive of fragments, but very few are anything like complete. There are fine specimens at Berlin, Paris, Vienna, and Constantinople, with paintings round the flat rims; but all are overshadowed by the magnificent example recently acquired by the British Museum,[[1181]] which is absolutely complete, with a massive gabled cover, and decorated over almost every inch of its surface with subjects or ornamental patterns. Its dimensions are: body, 7 ft. 6 in. by 3 ft. 9 in. by 2 ft. 9 in.; cover, 8 ft. by 4 ft. by 2 ft. The only undecorated portions are the central panels on the sides of the coffin and the bottom, but in some other parts the designs are largely worn away. It is made of a coarse brick-like clay of very hard consistency, which is completely covered, except on the bottom, with a thick white slip to receive the paintings. The figures are painted throughout in black silhouette, without any method of reproducing inner details except by traits réservés, i.e. by leaving them unpainted on the white ground; but the greater part has been imperfectly fired, so that the black has become bright red.
On the long sides of the interior are representations of funeral games, such as contests with spears and a chariot-race; the shorter sides have groups of warriors on horseback and on foot. The chariot-races are also repeated along the flat rim of the coffin, the exterior and the space above the interior designs being ornamented with bands of egg-and-dart moulding and the typical Ionic pattern of maeander interspersed with stars, which we have already met with in the pottery (p. [360]). The main designs on the cover are in two rows, those on one side having almost entirely disappeared; on the complete side the upper band represents an episode from the story of Dolon, the lower an ordinary scene of combat.[[1182]] The gable-ends have groups of Centaurs and horsemen, and along the lower edges of the cover, underneath, are further scenes from the Doloneia, groups of Sphinxes and Sirens, and bands of ornamental pattern (rosettes, maeander, etc.). Of the many minor details of interest in these paintings this is not the place to speak; but they have been fully discussed by Murray (op. cit.), especially peculiarities of armour and costume.