This process of development, so far as can be judged from existing types, reaches down to the beginning of the fourth century B.C. Steles of a different class are found, dating from a period long before this. Instead of a group, they bear only the dead man in a way to suggest his position, or vocation during life. All show distinctly a clinging to the technic of ceramic art. Sculptured steles and others merely painted exist side by side. The best known of the latter class is the Lyseas stele, in the Central Museum at Athens. Many more of the same sort have been discovered, differing from their vase predecessors in material and form, but keeping to the old principles. The outlines, for example, are first incised, and then the picture is finished with color. The Aristion stele may be taken as an example of the second order. Relief plays here the leading part; but it must still be assisted by painting, while the resemblance to vase-figures in position, arrangement of clothing, proportion and profile, remains as close as in the simply painted stele. An ever present feature, also, is the palmette acroterium, treated in conventional ceramic style. Loeschke thinks that the origin of red-figured pottery is to be found in the dark ground and light coloring of these steles. Whether the opinion be correct or not, it points to a very close connection between the two forms of art.
The influence of ceramic decoration spread still further. Large numbers of steles and bases for votive offerings have been discovered on the Acropolis, which alike repeat over and over again conventional vase-patterns, and show the use of incised lines and other peculiarities of the technic of pottery. [62]
Footnote 62:[ (return) ] BORRMANN, Jahrbuch des Instituts, III, 274.
As to specific resemblances between the pediments of the Acropolis and vase-pictures, the subjects of all the groups are such as appear very frequently on vases of all periods. About seventy Attic vases are known which deal with the contest of Herakles and Triton. One of these is a hydria at present in the Berlin Museum, No. 1906. [63] Herakles is represented astride the Triton, and he clasps him with both arms as in the Acropolis group. The Triton's scaly length, his fins and tail, are drawn in quite the same way. It is very noticeable that on the vase the contortions of the Triton's body seem much more violent; here the sculptor could not well follow the vase-painter so closely. It was far easier for him to work out the figure in milder curves; but he followed the vase-type as closely as possible. On the other hand, if the potter had copied the pedimental group the copy could perfectly well have been an exact one. The group is very similar also to a scene in the Assos frieze, with regard to which I quote from Friedrichs-Wolters; [64] "It corresponds to the oldest Greek vase-paintings, in which we find beast fights borrowed from Oriental art, united with Greek myths and represented after the Greek manner." This frieze is ascribed to the sixth century B.C., and is not much later than our pediments.
For the Hydra pediment, there exists a still closer parallel, in an archaic Corinthian amphora, published by Gerhard. [65] Athena appears here as a spectator, though she has no part in the pedimental group; but in every other point, in the drawing of the Hydra, of Herakles and Iolaos, the identity is almost complete. Athena seems to have been omitted, because the artist found it difficult to introduce another figure in the narrow space. Evidently the vase must have represented a type known to the sculptor and copied by him.
Footnote 63:[ (return) ] Published by GERHARD, Auserlesene griechische Vasenbilder, No. 111; RAYET et COLLIGNON, Hist. Céram. Grecque. fig. 57, p. 125. In the National Museum at Naples, No. 3419, is a black-figured amphora which repeats the same scene. The drawing and position of the two contestants is just as on the Berlin vase, the Triton seeking with one hand to break Herakles' hold about his neck, while with the other he holds a fish as attribute. Athena stands close by, watching the struggle.
Footnote 64:[ (return) ] Gipsabgüsse antiker Bildwerke, Nos. 8-12.
Footnote 65:[ (return) ] Auserlesene Vasenbilder, Nos. 95, 96.
For the Typhon pediment, no such close analogies are possible, at least in the form and arrangement of figures. It would seem that this is so simply because no vase-picture of this subject that we know so far answers the conditions of a pedimental group that it could be used as a pattern. In matters of detail, a hydria in Munich, No. 125, [66] offers the best illustration. For example, the vase-painting and the relief show quite the same treatment of hair, beard and wings in the figure of Typhon.
Footnote 66:[ (return) ] Ibid., No. 287.