Fig. 153. Round bodied vase embellished with figures of monsters—⅓.
It may be noted, in recapitulation, that these vases, although elaborately modeled and often well finished, are rudely decorated and very generally show use over fire; that the legs, though often graceful and well proportioned, are in many cases clumsily adjusted to the body, giving a decidedly unsatisfactory result as a whole. This ware was devoted to domestic uses, or, if otherwise, in all probability to the burning of incense. Animal forms are freely employed, but in a rather rude way. The fish form is more generally used than any other, and is in all cases embodied in the legs of the vessel, the head joining the body of the vessel and the tail resting upon the ground. These representations exhibit all grades of elaboration from the fairly well modeled to the merest suggestion of animal character—any one feature, as the mouth, the eye, the fins, or the tail, being alone a sufficient suggestion of the creature to satisfy the potter and keep alive the idea of the fish. Other animal forms are employed in modeling the legs, and exhibit equally varying degrees of elaboration, and it is
worthy of especial note that creatures are not confused or confounded, so far as I can discover, at any stage of the simplifying process—that a fish is still purely a fish if nothing is left to represent it but a node or an incision. There is no apparent relationship between the animal forms forming the legs and those attached to the body or to the rim of the vessel.
The pottery of the two groups already presented exhibits characters so uniform throughout that there need be no hesitation in placing them together as the work of one community and of one period of practice of the art; but between these groups and those that follow there is a wide gap. The differences are so marked that, if they had come from widely separated localities, very intimate relationships would not have been suggested.
Fig. 154. Cup with incurved rim and life form ornamentation—½.
Fig. 155. Cup with widely expanded rim and constricted neck—½.