FIG. 163. CHAIN OF PALMETTES AND LOTOS (EARLY B.F.).]
The palmette or honeysuckle ornament is not usually found as an independent ornament before the middle of the sixth century.[[2044]] Its development in this direction really belongs to the R.F. period. But in combination it is found, as we have seen, in Corinthian and Attic B.F. vases, and also in Chalcidian. Before the Athenian unification of styles it usually appears linked with lotos-flowers in a sort of double chain, each pattern being alternately upright and reversed, as in Fig. [163]; in this form it is usually found on the neck, or as an upper border to the design. This type of ornament is favoured in the Proto-Attic, Corinthian, and Corintho-Attic vases, and the earlier panel-amphorae; the palmette is here regarded as the foliage of the lotos-flower, which at first always predominates. Subsequently the palmette gains the upper hand, as on the necks of the red amphorae (see Fig. [165]), and the lotos-flower is gradually ousted altogether. It, however, returns occasionally on R.F. hydriae and amphorae.[[2045]] Another variety, which may be described as a metope-like treatment, compared with the frieze-like treatment above, consists of an interlacing arrangement filling the space of a square, with two palmettes and two lotos-flowers respectively opposed, or a symmetrical arrangement of palmettes and lotos-flowers, connected by tendrils, as in Fig. [164]. This is found under the handle, or on the neck, or in the middle of a frieze of the Corinthian “heraldic” type.[[2046]] On the red-bodied B.F. amphorae the universal neck-ornament is a band of large palmettes vertically opposed, linked by a continuous chain passing between them and separated by elongated lotos-flowers (Fig. [165]); this is also found on the Panathenaic vases and the earlier R.F. amphorae. Towards the end of the sixth century, however, there is a tendency to drop these composite ornaments, and attention is devoted to the palmette alone. The method of its application to the kylikes as a handle-ornament, linked thereto by a scroll, has already been treated in detail (Vol. I. p. [413]); it first appears on the Cyrenaic cups, and is usually employed by the “minor artists” of the B.F. period. The chief feature of the new advance is that the palmette is no longer a stiff upright design with straight unenclosed petals, the form to which it adheres down to the end of the sixth century; but now assumes a more flexible and graceful form, being encircled and linked to its fellows by means of slender scrolls or tendrils, which thus form a series of elliptical or oval forms capable of great variety of arrangement and position (Fig. [166]). This framed palmette is first found in the Fikellura or Samian ware. It occurs in the form of a frieze, with linking scrolls, on the later B.F. hydriae.[[2047]] The number of leaves or petals of which the palmette is composed is usually limited to seven. Another important and very effective improvement is achieved by placing opposed pairs of palmettes no longer vertically, but obliquely, forming an upper or lower border to the design (Fig. [167]). These are frequently found on the krater and hydria, and appear constantly on the vases of Apulia and Lucania, especially on the lip. Great attention is paid to the effective grouping of the framed palmettes in the spaces under the handles, the object aimed at being more and more naturalism rather than symmetry.[[2048]]
FIG. 164. PALMETTES AND LOTOS UNDER HANDLES (ATTIC B.F.).
FIG. 165. PALMETTE PATTERN ON NECK OF RED-BODIED AMPHORAE.
FIG. 166. ENCLOSED PALMETTES (R.F. PERIOD).
