Regarding the funeral lekythi in their artistic aspect, we note, as M. Pottier points out, two main characteristics—restraint and uniformity of composition. The space for the decoration being limited to about two-thirds of the whole circumference, the figures are necessarily few in number, varying from one to three, but very rarely more. Emotion and pathos are produced by the simplest means. Murray instances the prothesis lekythos in the British Museum (Plate LV. fig. 1) as an example of deep pathos expressed in a simple, yet strong and rapid manner, and two others (D 70 = Plate LV. fig. 2, and D 71) as showing almost tragic emotion expressed only by a few outlines. Uniformity of composition is manifested in the repetition of types, often copied from familiar models, yet with an infinite variety of detail (as, for instance, in the form of the stelae) which does not affect the constancy of the main idea. In this respect they may be compared with the terracotta Tanagra figures, of which many are turned out from the same mould; yet by varying the pose of the head or position of the arms the artist was able to avoid the absolute identity of any two figures.
The lekythi can hardly be classified chronologically; we cannot say to what extent the rougher examples may be earlier, and vice versa; but even in the poorest examples skill and lightness of touch are always discernible. The classification given by M. Pottier,[[1442]] however, may serve as a general indication of chronological succession and development. He collects them under three heads, as follows:
(1) The paste is of a light red colour, the walls thin, and the white slip unpolished; the main design is first sketched, then painted, the outlines being usually in red. The ornaments are palmettes and maeander, in black and red, the subjects almost exclusively funerary. The slip and colours are delicate, the style fine, and the polychromy restrained.[[1443]]
(2) The paste is grey, the walls thicker; the white is sometimes polished, and the outlines black or brown. The ornaments are palmettes and maeander, with crosses or stars, in black only. The subjects are funerary or from daily life, with figures of deities; the style is still fine, but the polychromy is more varied.[[1444]]
(3) The clay is red and light, the white unpolished, the outlines yellow. The slip is not extended to the shoulder, on which is a tongue-pattern in black; the maeander is careless. The subjects are either funerary or from daily life, the style negligent; the designs are almost entirely monochrome.[[1445]]
§ 2. The Decadence of Greek Vase-Painting
We have now reached the point at which the centre of ceramic industry is no longer to be found at Athens, but must be sought in distant colonies in various parts of the Mediterranean. The extinction of vase-painting as a decorative art at Athens was brought about as much by political events as by sheer artistic decadence at the end of the fifth century. It had until recent years been customary to assume that red-figured vases continued to be made at Athens through the greater part of the fourth century; but the evidence of excavations on many sites has been too decisive for the maintenance of such a view. That certain classes of ceramic products, such as the Panathenaic amphorae and the funeral lekythi, still continued to be made we have already seen; but these are only exceptions, and due entirely to their religious associations.
The evidence for the revised chronology has been summarised by Milchhoefer in a paper already referred to,[[1446]] in which he pointed out the importance of historical considerations. Even during the Peloponnesian War the manufacture and export of painted vases must have been much crippled, and the absence of the later Athenian wares from the tombs of Etruria clearly shows that commercial relations between the two countries had ceased.[[1447]] Similarly intercourse with Campania largely ceased after the Samnite invasion of 440 B.C., and relations with Sicily must have been entirely broken off after the outbreak of hostilities with Syracuse in 427.
Again, in the city of Rhodes, which was founded in B.C. 408, no Attic vases have been found, while all those from Kameiros must be earlier than that date.[[1448]] In Athens itself no R.F. vases of any importance have been found in fourth-century tombs, although some fragments of fine style are reported from the tomb of Dexileos, which is not earlier in date than 394 B.C.[[1449]] Hence the conclusion is irresistible that no good Attic R.F. vases can be assigned to the fourth century, which is only represented at Athens by the funeral lekythi, the Panathenaic amphorae, and a few isolated, generally inferior, R.F. specimens.
The new centres of vase-painting, from about 400 B.C. onwards, are three in number—the Crimea, the Cyrenaica in North Africa, and Southern Italy. Among the vases from the Crimea[[1450]] are some of the most magnificent that we possess, which in spite of their florid style and careless technique are really of considerable merit. They can, however, hardly be considered to rank more highly than the best of the products of Southern Italy, which we are now about to consider; in other words, they belong to a later stage of development than the “late fine” style of Attic R.F. vases, as represented by the Rhodian “pelike” with Peleus and Thetis in the British Museum, and the Gigantomachia vase from Melos in the Louvre. The fine krater with the contest of Athena and Poseidon at Petersburg (Plate [L].) is clearly a reminiscence of the Parthenon pediment, and, allowing for the difference of style, cannot be earlier than the closing years of the fifth century. Again, there is the vase signed by Xenophantos,[[1451]] who, as we have seen, expressly calls himself an Athenian, and on this ground has been regarded as a resident in Panticapaeum (Kertch). The reliefs with which this vase is partly decorated are examples of a tendency which hardly came into existence before the fourth century; the subject also is more suggestive of local taste.