It is possible that the battle-scenes on this and other sarcophagi may, as Murray and S. Reinach[[1183]] have suggested, have some bearing on the question of the painting by Bularchos already mentioned. It would, at all events, help to explain the selling of the painting for its weight in gold, if we may regard it as painted on terracotta; but it is not safe to say more than that the sarcophagi confirm the story to the extent of showing the popularity of such subjects in early Ionian art.
Many of the motives on the British Museum sarcophagus are found repeated again and again throughout the series, especially the battle-scenes; groups “heraldically” composed, such as a warrior between two chariots or horsemen, or pairs of Sphinxes (Plate [XXVII].), or animals confronted, are of constant occurrence. There are also various minor motives constantly repeated, such as helmeted heads of warriors (Plate [XXVII].),[[1184]] pairs of horses, one looking up, the other down (this being a convenient position for silhouettes), or dogs running under the horses.
M. Joubin,[[1185]] considering the group of sarcophagi as a whole, recognises a triple development in form, technique, and decoration, enabling him to divide them into three classes. In regard to technique we observe throughout a remarkable combination of two methods, the details of figures being expressed either by outlining or by leaving in the colour of the clay, as in the earlier Rhodian and Naucratite vases (see p. [331] ff.), or by lines of white paint laid on the black. The latter method, which is not unknown on the vases (see p. [347]), was no doubt used in place of incising, which would have been a difficult matter in the hard clay.[[1186]]
In the oldest group, then, the usual method is that of outlining or “reserving” on the clay; the second group may be regarded as transitional[[1187]]; and in the third group, which in style answers to the Caeretan hydriae and later Ionic fabrics, the use of white for details, and even of purple, is general. But it is noteworthy that, for the groups of animals at the bases of the sarcophagi or elsewhere, the old “Rhodian” method of the earlier examples is retained. This, it may be remarked, is in accordance with a principle by which an older technique tends to survive in subordinate decoration, just as on R.F. vases friezes of animals or ornamental patterns are frequently painted in the old black-on-red method.[[1188]]
PLATE XXVII
Sarcophagus From Clazomenae (British Museum).
In the decoration the development is in the direction of scenes with human figures, in preference to friezes of animals and floral patterns; the compositions advance from single figures to large groups, and accessory figures are introduced, like the dogs under the horses. Finally, we have the long friezes of figures which are so characteristic, for instance, of the British Museum sarcophagus. Mythological scenes, except the Doloneia, are conspicuously absent; battles, chariot-races, and hunting-scenes have the preference, as well as the heraldic groups of animals.