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II114I Ilit ^t11~IF1111 a ff!! I e I s a, .i See also:comedy is seen in subjects derived from the phlyakes, a See also:kind of See also:farce or See also:burlesque popular in See also:southern See also:Italy, and here again the setting is adapted from the See also:stage, some vases having parodies of myths, others comic scenes of daily See also:life. Many vases of this See also:period, especially those of large See also:size, were expressly designed for funeral purposes. Some of these See also:bear representations of the underworld, with See also:groups of figures under-going See also:punishment. On others shrines or tombs are depicted—sometimes containing See also:effigies of the deceased, at which the relatives make offerings—as on the Athenian lekythoi. But by far the greater portion of the subjects are taken from daily life, many of these being of a purely fanciful andmeaningless See also:character like the designs on Sevres or See also:Meissen See also:china; the commonest type is that of a See also:young See also:man and a woman exchanging presents, the presence of See also:Eros implying that they are scenes of courtship. The vases of this period are usually grouped in three or four different types, corresponding to the See also:ancient districts of Lucania, See also:Campania and See also:Apulia, each with its See also:special features of technique, See also:drawing and subjects. In Lucanian vases the drawing is bold and restrained, more akin to that of the See also:Attic vases; in Campania a fondness for polychromy is combined with careless See also:execution. In Apulia a tendency to magnificence exemplified in the See also:great funeral and theatrical vases is followed by a period of decadence characterized by small vases of fantastic See also:form with purely decorative subjects. Besides these we have the school of See also:Paestum, represented by two artists who have See also:left their names on their vases, Assteas and See also:Python. A well-known example of the See also:work of the former is a krater in See also:Madrid with Heracles destroying his See also:children, a theatrical and quasi-See also:grotesque composi- tion, and there is a See also:fine example of Python's work in a krater in the See also:British Museum, with Alkmena, the See also:mother of Heracles, placed on the funeral pyre by her See also:husband See also:Amphitryon, and See also:rain-See also:nymphs quenching the flames (See also:Plate I. fig. 55). About the end of the 3rd See also:century B.C. the manufacture of painted vases would seem to have been rapidly dying out in Italy, as had See also:long been the See also:case elsewhere, and their See also:place is taken by unpainted vases modelled in the form of animals and human figures, or ornamented with stamped and moulded reliefs. These in their turn gave way to the Arretine and so-called Samian " red wares of the See also:Roman period. In all these wares we see a tendency to the See also:imitation of See also:metal vases, which, with the growth of luxury in the Hellenistic See also:age, had entirely replaced painted pottery both for use and See also:ornament; the pottery of the period is reduced to a subordinate and utilitarian position, merely supplying the demands of those in the humbler See also:spheres of life. Collections.—The See also:majority of the painted vases now in existence are to be found in the various public museums and collections of See also:Europe, of which the largest and most important are the British Museum, the Louvre and the See also:Berlin Museum. Next to these come the collections at See also:Athens, See also:Naples, See also:Munich, See also:Vienna, See also:Rome and St See also:Petersburg; isolated specimens of importance are to be found in other museums, as at See also:Florence, Madrid or the Bibliotheque Nationale at See also:Paris. Most of the great private collections of the two preceding centuries have now been dispersed. In See also:recent years the See also:Boston Museum has raised See also:America to a level with Europe in this respect; and the See also:Metropolitan Museum at New See also:York contains a vast collection of Cypriote pottery. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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