A new method of decorating vases, which first makes its appearance towards the end of the fifth century, is by means of appliqué reliefs. It is doubtless due to the influence of sculpture, and perhaps more especially to that of the bronze reliefs which on vases and mirror-cases were now becoming popular. The former influence is clearly at work in the great Kertch vase with the contest of Athena and Poseidon (Plate L.), where we may see in the two central figures, which are modelled in relief and applied to the surface of the vase, an undoubted reminiscence of the western Parthenon pediment. There are also vases from Athens, Kertch, the Cyrenaica, and Southern Italy,[[1524]] in which the figures are either partially or wholly modelled in relief, like the vase of Xenophantos or a fine lekythos in the British Museum (G 23) representing the rape of Kassandra by Ajax. Another fine specimen, found at Cumae and now at Petersburg, has a group of Eleusinian deities in relief on the shoulder.[[1525]] Yet another example, recently found at Lampsakos, has the Calydonian boar-hunt as its subject; the figures are in relief on a gilded ground.[[1526]]
The imitation of metal technique[[1527]] is even more marked in the vases of Southern Italy than in those from other parts. At Capua, Cumae, and Metapontum amphorae, hydriae, and oinochoae are found, covered with a very brilliant black varnish, but without any painted decoration; the only ornament is in the form of gilded wreaths and other simple patterns, or designs in relief. The British Museum has a fine series from Capua with garlands of foliage and ornaments in the form of festoons and pendants, the whole forming, as M. Collignon says, “a brilliant and luxurious system of decoration which contrasts with the sober taste of the Attic potters.” Some of the hydriae are clearly of local fabric, imitations of the Campanian hydriae of bronze.[[1528]] The forms are often very elaborate, with ornamental handles, ribbed bodies, and moulded stems. An oinochoë has been found with an inscription which gives the names of leῖa for smooth-surfaced vases, ῥαβδωτά for those ribbed or fluted. Heavy imitations of the gilt and relief wares have often been found at Alexandria,[[1529]] and isolated specimens occur in Attica, Rhodes, and the Cyrenaica.
The growing fashion of using only vases of chased gold and silver in preference to painted pottery made itself more and more felt both in Greece and Italy during the Alexandrine period. The same tendency which we have already noted, to reproduce as far as possible the characteristics and appearance of metal, may be observed in all the pottery of this period. Not only do the subjects moulded in relief reproduce the appearance of the chased and repoussé designs, but the shapes are those of the metal vases, and even in the black glaze there are attempts to produce a metallic effect. It is clear that the pottery of this period presents throughout the effect of a striving after outward show on the part of those who were unable to afford the more precious metal for their household utensils, and were forced to be content with imitating it to the best of their ability in the humbler material.
In Greece this tendency is best illustrated by a series of vases known as Megarian or Homeric bowls, of hemispherical form,[[1530]] without handles. The former name was given to them by Dumont[[1531]] and Benndorf,[[1532]] but with little authority beyond the fact that several were found at Megara. But they might on equally good grounds be called Boeotian, others having been found at Thebes and elsewhere in the neighbourhood. They have also been found in Kalymnos, Crete, and Cyprus, but the majority are from Thebes, Tanagra, and Anthedon. Professor Robert thinks they may be identified with the vasa Samia so often mentioned by ancient writers (see Chapter [XXII].), and refers to the μαστοί dedicated at Oropos and Paphos.[[1533]] All are of red clay, with a thin metallic black glaze giving a quasi-metallic appearance; the hemispherical form is only departed from in one or two instances.[[1534]]
The other name, Homeric, has been applied to them by Professor Robert with reference to the well-known passage of Suetonius, which describes Nero as using bowls (scyphi) called Homeric because they were chased with subjects from Homer’s poems.[[1535]] Our clay examples would then be reproductions of the chased metal vases, used by those who could not afford originals, and corresponding in some degree to modern plaster casts. It is true that only five of the examples we possess have subjects from Homer; but most of the others may be so called as belonging to the Epic cycle. They thus differ from most relief-vases of the period, in that the designs are not purely decorative or repetitions of simple motives, but are, so to speak, “illustrations of the classics.”
Professor Robert distinguishes two classes: (1) those with figures made from separate stamps, attached to the vase after it was made, and often repeated; (2) vases made wholly, figures and all, in a mould, like the Arretine wares.[[1536]] In the latter case they were doubtless made from the same moulds as the metal vases, and of this we have an undoubted example, not indeed among the “Megarian” bowls, but in analogous specimens from Italy. It has already been noted (p. [134]) that in the British Museum there are two examples of a silver bowl with repoussé designs, representing round the interior four deities in chariots, which form part of a silver treasure found at Èze in the south of France; and that in the same collection there is also a clay bowl (Cat. G 118 = Plate [XLVIII]., fig. 5) which exactly reproduces the silver vase in shape, size, and decoration.
Among the subjects we have the rape of Persephone[[1537]]; the sacrifice of Iphigeneia; Achilles and Priam[[1538]]; the flight to the ships (from the Iliad), the sack of Troy and the sacrifice of Polyxena; the destruction of the suitors (from the Odyssey). From the Theban legend we have the stories of Oedipus’s childhood and the Seven against Thebes[[1539]]; other vases give the labours of Herakles or his rape of Auge (Plate [XLVIII]., fig. 2)[[1540]]; and a jug made by Dionysios has the interesting subject of Autolykos and Sisyphos.[[1541]] The British Museum possesses a very interesting bowl with scenes taken directly from the Phoenissae of Euripides,[[1542]] and other comparisons with that author may be made in the case of the bowls with Iphigeneia and Polyxena. Sometimes the scenes are inscribed with verses from the poems or plays illustrated, or with a prose description of the scene,[[1543]] or merely with the names of the figures. The letters in all cases are raised. It is clear that all these bowls belong to the same period and fabric, and many small details point to the third century as their date. We may bear in mind that this was the time of the great revival of Homeric study at Alexandria.
PLATE XLVIII
