Panathenaic Amphora (British Museum).
Later Type (Obv. and Rev.).
The black-figure method is preserved throughout, in spite of the development in drawing, that of the fourth-century vases being perfectly free. In the latter there is a lavish use of white and purple for details, especially on the figure of Athena; and Nike, when present at the contests, is usually painted white; but the tendency of later vases to neglect the reverse at the expense of the obverse in the matter of decoration is strongly manifested. The figure of Athena becomes greatly elongated, until her head is actually painted on the neck of the vase, and in all the vases after 336 B.C. she is turned to the right instead of the left. Two signatures of artists are found—Sikelos in the fifth century, Kittos in the fourth. There also exist some miniature fourth-century examples of these vases, the purpose of which is not obvious; on the reverse of one in the British Museum is represented a runner in the torch-race.[[1243]]
A peculiar local development of the black-figure style is to be seen in the vases found on the site of the temple of the Kabeiri, near Thebes, in Boeotia. From the style of the painting, which is free and careless, they can hardly be earlier than the fifth century, and may be later, the old style being preserved, as in the Panathenaic amphorae, for religious reasons. The site was excavated in 1887–88, and yielded a large number of vases and fragments, together with Attic R.F. and plain black glazed wares. Of the local fabrics the majority are of a Dionysiac character, or have reference, more or less direct, to the cult of the Kabeiri; many bear dedicatory inscriptions to the presiding deities, such as τῷ Καβίρῳ or τῷ παιδὶ καὶ τῷ Καβίρῳ, etc.
The material is a reddish-yellow clay of good quality, on which the designs are painted in a pigment varying from yellow-brown to the deep lustrous black of the best Attic vases. Occasionally details in white or purple are added; incised lines are used only for inner markings as a rule. The shapes are confined almost entirely to one, a large deep bowl with two small ring-handles, to which are attached projections for the support of the fingers; it comes nearest to the pella described by Athenaeus (see p. [186]). The decorative motives are simple—vine-wreaths, ivy-wreaths, myrtle and olive, and the wave-pattern; sometimes the reverse is only ornamented with a pattern of this kind.[[1244]]
FIG. 98. VASE FROM TEMPLE OF KABEIRI: PARODY OF ACHILLES AND CHEIRON
(BRIT. MUS. B 77).
The subjects are interesting from the fact that they are an early instance (in vase-paintings) of intentional caricatures or grotesques; this is shown not only in the manner of treating the themes selected, but in the rude character of the drawing. Among those drawn from myth and legend may be mentioned Odysseus with Kirke (two instances) and traversing the sea on a raft; Peleus bringing the young Achilles to Cheiron (Fig. [98]); Kephalos hunting a fox; and Bellerophon slaying the Chimaera. A favourite subject is that of Pigmies in combat with cranes. But the most interesting is one which represents the deity Kabeiros (answering to Dionysos) with his son (Pais, i.e. Iacchos) at a banquet, accompanied by three symbolical figures—Mitos, Pratolaos, and Krateia. Another fragment shows a train of worshippers approaching the Kabeiros, in the manner of the Asklepios reliefs.[[1245]]
The transitional stage from black to red figures is illustrated by more than one class of vases. Those in which the two methods are united on one vase have been discussed elsewhere, in considering the characteristics of the artists who used both. But there is another class corresponding to neither method, and yet partaking of the character of both, in which the figures are painted in opaque red or white pigment laid directly on the surface of the vase, which is covered throughout with black varnish (Plate [XXXV].). Inasmuch as the method of painting in colours is more suggestive of the B.F. vases, they are classed therewith in some collections, as in the British and Athens Museums; but since their appearance and style link them more closely with the R.F. period, they are found in others, as at Berlin, ranged with the latter class. In any case they form a distinct group, in which the earlier examples correspond more with the B.F., the later with the R.F., vases. They are undoubtedly of Athenian origin, but to what extent they affected the change from black to red figures is doubtful.