In Southern Italy many of these types are continued, the most popular being that of the rhyton ending in an animal’s head (p. [193]), of which many examples have been found in Apulia. They usually have some simple design painted on the upper part, such as a figure of Eros. There are also numerous examples of vases in the form of animals or human figures (Plate [XLVI]., fig. 3), some of which are in black glazed ware with patterns in white like the vases of Egnazia, others being covered with white slip like the terracottas. With the decay of painted decoration the plastic element gradually predominates more and more, until the vase form becomes, so to speak, purely accidental. Thus in the third century the fabrics of Canosa, of which we have spoken in a previous chapter (p. [118]), entirely hold the field, and the vases pass out of the sphere of the history of vase-painting.

In all or nearly all of the vases just described we observe the same principle at work—namely, the tendency to imitate metal in terracotta. It is one that is constantly recurring throughout the whole history of Greek ceramics, with more or less persistency and prominence. Sometimes, as in the Melian, Proto-Attic, and other fabrics, the imitation is limited to the form of the handles, which is, strictly speaking, inappropriate in terracotta, though frequently found in early bronze vessels.[[1510]] It is seldom found in Ionia, but in Western Greece there are many examples during the seventh and sixth centuries, as in some of the Proto-Corinthian and early Corinthian wares,[[1511]] This is doubtless in a large measure due to the influence of the great centres of metal-work at that time, Corinth and Chalkis. We are not, therefore, surprised to find the tendency exemplified in the pottery fabrics of those two centres, and at Chalkis, as has already been noted (p. [321]), it is especially conspicuous in the form and minor details of the vases. At Athens examples are rare, with the exception of the vases of Nikosthenes, who not only copies complete vases in metal, as in his peculiarly-shaped amphorae and in a small phiale mesomphalos in the British Museum,[[1512]] but is also addicted to adorning the handles of jugs with female heads in relief, as on specimens in the Louvre and elsewhere.[[1513]] After the sixth century the tendency is far less conspicuous, owing to the high esteem in which vase-painting was then held, and little is seen of attempts at imitating metal until the revival of the plastic element in pottery in the fourth century. An almost unique exception is the Berlin krater from Corinth (2882), which must date from the fifth century. It is of black ware, with designs in relief round the body.[[1514]]

The tendency also manifests itself in a marked degree in another direction in early Greek art—namely, in that of ornamenting vases with reliefs. So much evidence of this has been yielded by discoveries on Greek soil that it is now certain that this method of decoration had its origin in Greece, and not in Etruria, although the close resemblance between early relief-wares from Rhodes and the large πίθοι of Cervetri (see p. [153]) had led archaeologists in the past to regard Etruria as its original home. The Etruscans always preferred modelled vases or relief decoration to painted ware, as their bucchero fabrics show; but we know that they had no inventive power, and even in this they have proved to be only imitators.[[1515]]

Turning to details of the early Greek vases with reliefs, we may note that there are two varieties: firstly, those in which the reliefs are made by rolling a cylinder round the vase, the design being repeated over again; secondly, those in which the reliefs are made from separate moulds, and attached with some kind of cement.[[1516]] In both classes the shape usually affected is that of a large πίθος (cf. p. [151]), of a somewhat coarse red clay. It is the first variety which so closely resemble the πίθοι found at Cervetri, and which are now known to be the prototypes, not imitations, of the Etruscan examples.[[1517]]

PLATE XLVII

From Ἐφ. Ἀρχ.
Archaic Pithos with Reliefs from Boeotia (Athens Mus.).

In Greece fragments of the first class have been found on the Acropolis at Athens, the recurring design being a two-horse chariot which a warrior mounts, with a scorpion in the field. The similarity in the clay, the shape, and the technique of the reliefs with the Cervetri vases is remarkable; the subject is one common on Corinthian vases. Other fragments have been found at Tanagra, and there is a good example in the Louvre with a series of figures, representing a dance of women, all of similar types, yet not from the same stamp, but different moulds.[[1518]] The variations of detail in dress and hair show conclusively that the cylinder process is not employed here, but that the figures are freely modelled from a single type. The costume is that typical of the women on early B.F. vases (cf. p. [372]). Some very fine examples of πίθοι with reliefs, dating from the end of the seventh century, have been published by De Ridder.[[1519]] They are all from Boeotia, and are similar to those made in Rhodes, but with the characteristic ornamental handles of metallic form. Here again the figures are freely modelled with variations of detail, and they afford interesting points of comparison with the painted vases and with the early bronze reliefs which are variously attributed to Corinth and Chalkis.[[1520]] One in Athens (Cat. 462) has the interesting subject of Artemis Diktynna; another (Cat. 466 = Plate [XLVII].), an accouchement scene. Similar finds have been made in Kythnos, Tenos, Crete, and Rhodes,[[1521]] the ornamentation being for the most part purely geometrical, but sometimes with Centaurs or human figures.[[1522]] In none of these examples is there any peculiarly Etruscan feature; all is purely Hellenic, presenting close analogies not only with metal-work in relief, but also with the Oriental art to which the Greek work of that age was so much indebted, as in the case of the cylinder process.[[1523]]