It may be an open question whether these vases were imported from Athens, but at least the vase of Xenophantos testifies to the existence of a local fabric at Panticapaeum, and it is not at all unlikely that the general upheaval brought about by the Peloponnesian War led to a dispersion of Athenian artists, and thus to the continuance of their art in other lands, but not in Athens itself. We shall see that this largely accounts for the origin of the fabrics of Southern Italy. In any case Panticapaeum was a place of considerable importance in the fourth century, being the chief place whence the Athenians obtained their supplies of grain, as we learn from the orations of Demosthenes, such as the Contra Phormionem.
With the Cyrenaica circumstances were no doubt little different. But the vases from this site, though similar to those of the Crimea, are mostly inferior, of small size, and often of very rough character. Like the former they exhibit a preference for polychromy and gilding. Similar fabrics are also found in the Greek islands, such as Karpathos and Telos, in the Troad, and elsewhere,[[1452]] but for the most part of a very inferior character.
In the tombs of Southern Italy many vases are found representing the same stage of development as those of the Crimea and Cyrenaica, varying from large kraters with fine if florid designs, often enhanced by a lavish use of white pigment, to inferior and almost worthless specimens. Inasmuch as these vases are not distinguished by any stylising tendencies such as enable us to classify the other fabrics of Southern Italy and assign them to particular districts, and on the other hand bear the same relation to the later R.F. vases of Athens as do those of the Eastern Mediterranean, it is evident either that all these fabrics were imported from Athens or that Athenian artists had been driven to settle in these respective regions. And since it is exceedingly unlikely that the exportation of pottery from Athens can have gone on to any extent in the fourth century, it seems, on the whole, most probable that the latter is the true version.
We may, then, establish a class of vases intermediate between the R.F. fabrics proper and the local Italian fabrics, which represents the manner in which Athenian artists carried on their traditions under new circumstances, and serves to explain how the new Italian schools came into being.[[1453]]
These vases are often characterised by a refinement of drawing and simplicity of conception which recall the earlier R.F. period, and in such cases accessory colours, elaborate draperies, and the filling-in of the field with miscellaneous objects are studiously avoided. Even the decorative patterns show considerable restraint. It is probable that some of these belong to the latter part of the fifth century, even if they are not actually imported from Athens. But there are others of a distinctly florid kind, in which we may trace the influence of Meidias and his school. The compositions are crowded with figures, often placed at different levels (without indication of ground-lines), and there is a general tendency to elaborate decoration, both by means of white pigment and by richly embroidered draperies. As examples may be cited two fine kraters in the British Museum, one with a scene from the lesser Mysteries at Agra (F 68), another with Thetis and the Nereids bearing the arms of Achilles (F 69). The bell-shaped krater is by far the most favourite form, although practically a new one in Greek ceramics; contrary to the usual rule, the reverse often has a definite subject, in which accessories are used, although the tendency had begun some time before the end of the fifth century to neglect the decoration of the reverse in kraters and other large vases.
In its new home in Southern Italy this branch of Greek art had lighted on a very favourable soil. The great colonies such as Tarentum, Capua, Cumae, and Poseidonia, founded almost in the dawn of Greek history, were not only as completely Hellenic as Athens and Corinth, but in luxury and splendour even surpassed them at this period. Hence, art flourished in such towns far more readily than in the distant and comparatively barbarous regions of South Russia and North Africa. In the character of their productions we shall see the nature and condition of the inhabitants of Southern Italy reflected. The chief aim is splendour and general effect; and both the size and colouring of the vases indicate to some extent the luxury and magnificence in which the people lived.
It must not, however, be supposed that vase-painting was a new art introduced to this region by Athenians in the earlier part of the fourth century. In another chapter we shall speak of the early attempts at imitation of Greek vases on the part of the semi-barbarian natives of the peninsula, and reminiscences of these early attempts crop up from time to time under circumstances of greater development, as will be seen. Moreover, a constant stream of importations from Athens (small indeed as compared with that to Etruria, but still steady) had been finding its way to the Greek colonies of Southern Italy and Sicily; special fabrics were made for export to Nola, Gela, and other places; and thus the local artists had all along been undergoing an unconscious training which enabled them to take up the industry at the point where the Athenian artists left off.[[1454]]
The local fabrics of Southern Italy fall into three main classes, corresponding to the geographical divisions of Apulia, Lucania, and Campania, which three, with some modifications, include all that come under discussion in the present section. Before, however, entering upon the question of the criteria on which this classification is based, a few general considerations may be touched upon by way of preface.
The study of South Italy fabrics is to some extent a new one. At the beginning of the last century, when scarcely any vases had been found outside Italy, the majority of both public and private collections consisted of vases of this period. Of those now exhibited in the Fourth Vase Room of the British Museum, at least one-fifth are from the collections of Sir William Hamilton, Charles Towneley, and Richard Payne Knight; and in such publications as those of D'Hancarville, Tischbein, Inghirami, and Millin, a great majority of the plates are devoted to them. Hence their importance was much over-estimated; but, on the other hand, no attention was paid to questions of style or provenance, and they were only regarded as pretty pictures. Subsequently to the discoveries at Vulci, and the gradual growth of the scientific study of vase-painting, the later vases suffered greatly from neglect, as yielding less interest than the early fabrics and the products of the best Athenian artists, and even at the present day it is rare to find them made the subject of serious study. The only writer, in fact, who has attempted in recent years to apply to them the critical methods of modern archaeology is Signor G. Patroni of the Naples Museum, who has availed himself of the opportunities afforded by the extensive series under his care.[[1455]]
The vases from Southern Italy, which from their style may be regarded as undoubtedly local non-Attic fabrics, are all distinguished by certain common features. In all there is seen a perpetual striving after effect rather than beauty, manifested in the size and splendid appearance of the earlier Apulian products, in the largeness of style and bold drawing of Lucanian artists, especially the school of Paestum, and in the gaudy colouring of the Campanian vases. The later Apulian wares are chiefly remarkable for varied and exaggerated shapes.