Douris and the painters of Greek vases

OLIN

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. P73

1909al

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DOURIS AND THE PAINTERS OF
GREEK VASES

\'\H.. I. KAN I HAKdS \Nl) K> I.I\ U'np).

Hy l)(uiii\. Itnissi-ls inul I.imimc Mviscmns,

DOURIS

AND THE PAINTERS

OF GREEK VASES

BY EDMOND EpTTIER

MBMBRB DE L'INSTITUT

TRANSLATED BY

BETTINA KAHNWEILER

WITH A PREFACE BY
JANE ELLEN HARRISON

IIOH.D.LITT.DURHAM. HON. LL.D. ABERDEEN

LONDON
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W.

1909

3i

DEDICATED

IN LOVE AND GRATITUDE TO

AtTGUST LEWIS

PREFACE

The translator of M, Pottier's monograph on
Douris has kindly asked me to write, by way
of preface, a few words on the relation of Greek
vase-painting to Greek literature and to Greek
mythology, I do this with the more pleasure
because this relation has, I think, been some-
what seriously misunderstood, and M. Pottier's
delightful monograph which, thanks to Miss
Kahnweiler, is now given to us in English
form, should do much to clear away miscon-
ception and to set the matter before us in a
light at once juster and more vivid.

First let us consider for a moment the relation
between Greek art and Greek literature.

In classical matters we are all of us, scholars
and students alike, bred up in a tradition that
is Uterary. Our earliest contact with the
Greek mind is through Greek poets, historians,
philosophers. This is well, for these remain — all
said — ^the supreme revelation. But this priority
of literary contact begets, almost inevitably, a

vi PREFACE

certain confiision of thought. Bred as we are
in a literary tradition, we come later to be
confronted with other utterances of the Greek
mind, for example graphic art — vase-painting.
This we naturally seek to relate to our earlier
and purely literary conceptions. What has
come to us second we instinctively make sub-
ordinate, ancillary. Greek art, and especially
what we call a "minor art," such as vase-
painting, is the "hand maid" of Greek
poetry, or, to drop metaphor, the function of
Greek art, is, we think, to illustrate Greek
literature. Public and publisher alike demand
• nowadays that books on Greek literature, on
Greek mythology, even editions of Greek plays,
should be " illustrated " from Greek art.

By illustration is meant translation, the
transference with the minimum of alteration of
an idea expressed in one art into the medium
of another. Were it possible in a work of art
to separate the idea expressed from the form
in which it is expressed, such transference might
be an eligible and even elegant pastime. But
every one knows that such separation of idea and
form is in art impossible. Translation of poetry
from one language to another is precarious, a
thing only to be attempted by a poet; trans-
lation from one art to another is a task so

PREFACE vii

inherently barren that the Greek, till his de-
cadence, left it, instinctively, unattempted.

Against the poison of this "illustration"
theory M. Pottier's monograph is the best
antidote, and aU students of the Greek mind
will be grateful to Miss Kahnweiler for making
his monograph more easily accessible. M.
Pottier focuses our attention on the personal
artist, a man not intent on "illustrating"
another man's work, but on producing works
of art of his own. Douris uses sometimes the
same material as Homer or Arktinos, but he
shapes it to his own decorative ends ; he draws
his inspiration naturally and necessarily rather
from graphic than from literary tradition.

Beneath the "illustration" fallacy there lurks,
as regards mythology, another and a subtler
misconception.

Until quite recent years mythology has been
again to scholars and students alike, a thing of
" mythological allusions," a matter to be " looked
up" with a view to the elucidation of obscure
passages in Pindar or dramatic choruses.
Even nowadays mythology remains, to many
a well-furnished scholar, a sort of by-product,
an elegant outgrowth of the Greek mind, a
thing merely "poetical," by which he means

viii PREFACE

having no touch with reality. Or, at best, if the
scholar be himself a poet, he loves mythology
without analysing it> he feels it as a dream
that haunts, a thing that attends and allures
him through the waste places of scholarship,
more real and more abiding than any realism,
a thing to him so intimate that he does not
ask the why of it.

Thanks to the impact of another study,
anthropology, we are awake now and look at
mjrthology with other eyes. We know that
mythology is not a last, lovely, literary flower,
but a thing primitive, deep-seated, long ante-
dating anything that can be called literature,
not a separate "subject" at all, but rather a
mode of thinking common at an early stage to
all subjects. Mjrthology is not the outcome of
an idle, vagrant fancy, but a necessary step in
the evolution of human thought; a strenuous
step taken by man towards knowledge, towards
the fashioning and ordering of the world of
mental conceptions. Mythology is the mother-
earth out of which for the Greeks grow
those stately, fruit-bearing trees, literature, art,
history, philosophy. A Greek vase-painter does
not "illustrate" mythology, he utters it in line
and colour as the poet utters it in wc 'Is and
rhythm.

PREFACE ix

Take a simple instance from the work of
Douris, the kylix in the Louvre, in the centre
of which is painted Eos carrying the body of
Memnon.

The mythologist, that is man in his early
days of thinking, cannot conceive or name the
abstract, empty " dawn." The glow of morning
is to him the print of unearthly yet human
fingers. He images " dawn " as " Dawn," in
terms of humanity, that is of the one and
only thing he inwardly felt and knew — ^liimself.
The dawn is for him a beautiful woman, and
to complete her humanity, she is a mother.
Literature, which is at first but story-teUing,
took up the tale, and knew that Eos the Dawn
who rose in the East had a child of the East
for her son, and mourned for him in his death,
and carried him away for his burial.

The vase-painter is a mythologist too, and
he takes a mythological story for his motive,
but his art has other ends than that of the
poet. He may have heard the story recited
at a Panathenaic festival, just as he may have
seen it painted on some Stoa or Lesche. But
he does not illustrate it, does not translate from
an alien art into his own. He takes the myth
and lets his own art say what it and only it
can say. He has seen in the human body

X PREFACE

the vision of a heavenly pattern ; he gives us
the grace of a bending body, the poise of a
fljdng foot, the swiftness of straight lines, tbe
majesty and poignancy of limbs stark in death.
That is all, and, surely, enpugh.

JANE ELLEN HARRISON.

CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGE
I. HOW DESIGNS ON VASES REPRESENT THE HISTORY

OF QREEK PAINTING 1

II. THE SOCIAL CONDITION OF A VASE PAINTER AT

ATHENS 9

in. THE WORKSHOP AND TOOLS OF DOURIS ... 23

IV. HOW DOURIS WORKED 30

V. THE WORK OF DOURIS 43

CONCLUSION 80

BIBLIOGRAPHY 87

INDEX 89

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Fig. 1. Kantharos and Kylix (drinking cups) by Douris.
Brussels and Louvre Museums. Taken from
Photographs Frontispiece

„ 2. Workshop of a Vase Painter (red figured hydria
in Caputi Collection at Ruvo), from Bliimner.
Technologie und Terminolog. der Gewerbe und
Kunste, ii. , -p. 85, Fig. IS .... To face p. 4

„ 3. The painter Smikros and his companions (red
figured krater in the Brussels Museum), from
Mommients et M^moires de la Fondation Piot
(article by C. Gaspari, ix., 1902^ PI. 2) • „ 8

„ 4. A Potter's Workshop ;. modelling and baking
of vases (black figured hydria, Munich
Museum), from Birch, " History of Ancient
Pottery," 1868, p. 240 „ 12

„ 6. A display of Vases and a purchaser (red figured
kylix painted by Phintias, Baltimore
Museum). Hartwig's Meisterschalen, PI. 17 . „ 16

„ fi. Youths exercising in the Palaestra (red figured
kylix by Douris, Louvre Museum), from an
original Photograph „ 20

„ 7- Aphrodite upon her Swan (Polychrome on white
background, British Museum), from A.
Murray and A. Smith, " White Attic Vases,"
PH5 ......... 24

„ 8. Eos carrying Memnon, her dead son (red
figured kylix by Douris, Louvre Museum),
from an original Photograph . . . „ 28

„ 9. Contest of Menelaos and Paris (exterior of pre-
ceding one), from an original Photograph . „ 32

xiii

xiv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Fig. 10. Contest of Ajax'and Hector (ejrterior of pre-
ceding one), from an original I'hotograph To face p. 36

„ 11. The Adventures of Theseus (red figured kylix
by Douris, British Museum), from E.
d'Eichthal et Th. lleinach Poknes choisii de
Bacchylide, p. 48 » 40

„ 12. Theseus and Kerkyon; Theseus and the
Marathonian hull (reverse of red figured cup
by the potter Euphronios, in the Louvre
Museum) taken from Furtwangler & Reich-
hold Griechische Vasenmalerei, VI. 5 . • u 44

„ 13. Nereids appealing to Nereus and Doris (red
figured cup by Douris, Louvre Museum),
taken from Wiener VorlegeblUtten, vii., PI. 2 . „ 48

„ 14. Sileni playing and dancing (red figured vase
by Douris, British Museum) Furtwangler &
Reichhold Griechische Vasenmalerei, PI. 48 . „ 62

„ 16. Hera and Iris attacked by Sileni (red figured
cup by Brygos, British Museum), Furtwangler
& Reichhold Griechische Vasenmalerei, PI. 17 ,j 64

„ 16. Contest of Ajax and Ulysses ; the voting of
the Greek Chiefs (red figured cup by Douris,
Vienna Museum), Furtwangler & Reichhold
Griechische Vasenmalerei, PI. 64 . . . „ 66

„ 17. Ulysses restoring the Arms of Achilles to
Neoptolemos (interior of preceding one),
Furtwangler & Reichhold Griechische Vasen-
malerei, PI. 54 „ 60

„ 18. Achilles killing Tro'ilos (red figured cup by
Euphronios, Perugia Museum) taken from
Rayet et Collignon, Ceramique Qrecque, Fig. 70 „ 64

„ 19. Soldiers arming (red figured cup by Douris,
Vienna Museum), Furtwangler & Reichhold,
PI. 53 „ 68

„ 20. Greek Hoplite and Persian Standard-bearer
(red figured cup by Douris, Louvre Museum),
Wiener VorlegebltUlen, vii., PI. 3. Great
surface indicates restoration . . . „ 70

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xv

Fig. 21. Seated Youth holding a Hare (red figured
kylix by Douris, Louvre Museum), from an
original Photograph . . . . To face p. 72

„ 22. Interior of a School (red figured kylix by
Douris, Berlin Museum, from Monumenti
dell' Inst. Arch,., ix., PI. 64 . . . . „ 76

„ 23. A Schoolmaster. Berlin Museum, from

Hartwig, Meistertehahn, PL 46 . . . „ 80

„ 24. Zeus carrying off a Woman (attributed to
Douris, Louvre Museum), from an original
Photograph ,,84

„ 25. A Paintei: at Work (fragment, Boston
Museum), JahrbucHi des Arch. Instituts, xiv.,
1899, PL 4, Hartwig ,,86

DOURIS AND THE PAINTERS
OF GREEK VASES

CHAPTER I

HOW DESIGNS ON VASES REPRESENT THE
HISTORY OF GREEK PAINTING

This book has not been written for the
professional archaeologist. While speaking of
Douris, we propose to give the reading public
an idea of the chief characteristics of Greek
painting.

It may be asked why the title of this little
book is not Polygnotos or Parrhasios. As
we are treating of ancient painting, why not
choose as a study one of these famous men,
whose works give to the art of his time its
distinctive character?

The answer is simple. Not a single painting
is preserved by the masters who, with the
sculptors Phidias, Polykleitos, Praxiteles, and
Lysippos, made the ages of Pericles and

2 VASES AND HISTORY [chap.

Alexander illustrious. Not a fragment of their
paintings nor a piece of their frescoes has
escaped destruction. Unfortunate chance has
thus kept the most glorious period of Greek
painting hidden from our view. Recent dis-
coveries in Mycenae, Tiryns, Crete, and Melos
have revealed astonishing works of the pre-
Hellenic age, and they have restored to us
frescoes contemporary with Minos and Aga-
memnon. And for more than a centuryj the
excavations at Pompeii and Herculaneum have
made known all the details of the decoration
of Roman houses at the time of Augustus
and Titus. But between these two periods —
separated by fifteen or twenty centuries — all
is obscurity, — a dark gap which a few marble
panels in the museum of Athens are quite
insufficient to cover. These pale remnants
of funereal monuments from the Kerameikos,
frescoes painted on marble, reproduced the life
and likeness of the departed.

Literature still remains. Pausanias, Pliny,
Lucian, and others have enumerated and de-
scribed the celebrated works of ancient painting,
and indicated the chief characteristics of the
great masters. In certain passages even the
technique is mentioned and analysed. With
the help of this literature we can, in a general

1] THE INADEQUACY OF BOOKS S

way, trace the history of Greek painting, and it
is chiefly from these records that Such classic
books have been written as Brunn's GescMclite
der Kiiiistler and Wolttaann's Geschiehte der
Malerei. For gaining a thorough knowledge
of the data of the subject, the great value of
these books is unquestionable.

But there is no doubt that a history compiled
from texts becomes excessively dry, even though
illustrations are borrowed from Pompeii and
Herculaneum. What impression would any one
who had never seen a painting by Raphael or
Michelangelo receive by merely reading about
them?

Furthermore, many ancient authors, far from
being accurate or full in their information, are
hopelessly brief; often the subject of a painting
and the nam^ of its author are mentioned in
but three words. Let us suppose that two
thousand years hence our descendants should find
a guide-book and read, " The Sacred Grove of
the Muses, by Puvis de Chavannes." WJiat
conclusions could they draw in regard to the
composition of the painting or the talent of its
author ? Such is our position in regard to many
works of antiquity. Even if, as is sometimes
the case, the descriptions are full, as in a passage
where Fausanias enumerates all the persons in

4 VASES AND HISTORY [ohap.

the two frescoes of Polygnotos at Delphi, Tlie
Visit to Hades and The Capture of Troy, the
same darkness still exists as to the placing of
the figures, their expression, their attitude, and
the technique of the colouring.

Thanks to the study devoted to painted vases,
we are now able to get a better idea of and
throw a little more light on the style and com-
position of Greek painting. M. Paul Girard's
book. La Peinture Antique is an instance.
Nearly all the illustrations in the chapters de-
voted to classic Gi'eece are taken from the deco-
ration of vases. To return to a comparison made
above. One who knew nothing of Raphael's
work, but who had seen some faience of Urbino
reproducing certain works of the time, would in
every way be more capable than those who had
not of understanding the master's composition
and his style. He would undoubtedly still
lose many things. He never would realise the
harmony of his colours or the loftiness and
purity of his designs. This is, alas! what we
must say, in comparing the painting of a Greek
vase with the lost paintings of Polygnotos or
Zeuxis. The reflection of a lost art is all that
remains to us!

We should add, however, that the distinction
between Greek manufacturers and their models

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1 ] ABSENCE OF ORIGINAL PAINTINGS 6

must have been less marked than in later ages.
Of this we cannot give material proof, but from
certain details we arrive at this conclusion. On
the one hand, the Attic craftsman was endowed,
as rarely any one has been, with the art of
design and the sense of style. On the other
hand, the ancient fresco, particularly of the fifth
century, was only drawing in flat colours, without
shading or modelling. Hence, there did not
exist the gulf which in modern times separates
a reproduction due to mechanical means from a
painting executed with all the fine shades and
skilful distinctions of chiaro oscuro. In Greece,
a painter of frescoes or a painter of vases was
above all things a good draughtsman. Here is
a common measure which reduces the distance
between them.

In the- absence of original paintings we must
descend a step and have recourse to the vase
industry, and thus discover dimly the nature of
pictorial art in the best times of classic Greece.

But here another question arises. In treating
of Greek ceramics, is the name of Douris the
most important one among the nxany artists
presenting themselves to our mind ? He formed
one of the Pleiades, who, between the expulsion
of the tyrant Hippias (510 B.C.) and the Persian
wars (490-479 B.C.), brought the manufacture of

6 VASES AND HISTORY [ohap.

Athenian pottery to its culminating point. His
rivals Euphronios and Brygos have, however,
been considered more skilled or more inspired in
their work. Why then choose Douris as the
most representative type of Greek painting?

This is the reason. We know at present
about one hundred names of manufacturers
and painters of vases. Those who during the
best period have left the greatest number of
works are Euphronios, Douris, Hieron, and
Brygos, Leaving aside simple fragments, and
only counting pieces helpful for serious study,
we possess of the first-named ten signed works,
of the third twenty, of the fourth eight. Of
Douris twenty-eight are known.

The greater number alone would justify
our choice. But another and moye important
consideration may be added to the former.
Manufacturers of vases have different trade-
marks for their ware. They trace their name
with a paint-brush on the body of the vase,
or else incise it in fine letters on the foot or
handle. The mode in which their name occurs
varies : " So-and-so made," or else " So-and-so
painted." There can be no uncertainty as to
the latter phrase; it refers to the artist who
executed the paintings decorating the vase.
But this term is far less frequent than the

i] DOURIS 7

former, which has caused many discussions.
"So-and-so made"? Is it a more elliptical
way of implying the designer, or is it the
potter who speaks in contrast to the painter
and designer? Or, again, did the same man
make the vase and then paint it? Is it the
master, the overseer who directs the entire
manufacture, and who, after the different pro-
cesses of modelling, of decoration, and of
baking have been executed under his direction
and according to his plans, affixes to the ware
of his house a sort of commercial trade-mark?
All these opinions have been supported at
different times. We cannot say that the sub-
ject has been fully elucidated. In consequence
we run a great risk of mistake in saying that
a painting is a certain potter's workmanship,
when the vase does not explicitly state who
painted it.

The inevitable conclusion remains ; to argue
with certainty about painters of vases we can
only trust one expression : " So-and-so painted."
In the most prominent group of potters of
the fifth century, it is Douris who best fulfils
all these conditions, and relieves us of all
uncertainties on this subject. He is a crafts-
man, and can make a pot or have one made
under his duection. The museum at Brussels

8 VASES AND HISTORY [chap. i.

possesses a kantharos which "Douris made"
(Fig. 1). But he is above all a draughtsman
and executes all his paintings hipiself, for the
twenty -eight examples mentioned, including
the kantharos at Brussels, bear the words,
" Douris painted." Even Euphronios, to whom
Klein devoted an entire book, making this
artist famous — and who to many represents
the vase painter par excellence — only signed as
draughtsman three or four vases, and as crafts-
man seven.

As potter and painter, Douris fulfils the
necessary qualifications of a master-craftsman ;
above all as draughtsman and painter, he
satisfies most fiilly our desire of finding in
the decoration of painted vases a reflection of
the great contemporary art. This is why the
choice of his name seemed to us imperative.

CHAPTER II

THE SOCIAL CONDITION OF A VASE PAINTER
AT ATHENS

A BioGEAPHY of Douris must not be expected.
No classical writer has honoured one of these
potters even so far as to mention his name.
Ancient literature has only left some brief
allusions to the craft, some inscriptions recall-
ing their dedications in sanctuaries. The vases
themselves and the inscriptions traced thereon
form the clearest testimony we possess. Here
again we must be guided by discretion and
not drift into romance. A learned German
assumes that Euthymides, a celebrated potter
of the fifth century and a contemporary of
Douris, must have died young, while his
rival Euphronios, after a long career, died at
an advanced age. He quite forgets that the
number of signed vases to be attributed to
any individual artist is hable to be diminished
or increased by a chance discovery, and that

we are still far from being able to survey at

9 B

10 VASE PAINTER'S SOCIAL CONDITION [ohap.

a glance the complete production of a manu-
facturer. Euthymides may have produced far
more than Euphronios; we have, however,
only tecovered seven of his vases. An enquiiy
into the lives of vase painters must be con-
fined to a consideration of the general condi-
tions of their position. All inference as to
special facts is necessarily conjectural and
fictitious.

Modern historians have made known to us
this important fact: trade in Athens, as in
other Greek cities, was chiefly in the hands
of those called "Metics," that is to say,
strangers living in the city and given certain
political rights regulated by . special laws.
Athens possessed laws most favourable to the
metics, and from the time of Solon, accord-
ing to Plutarch, strangers crowded into this
generous city, which offered such obvious
advantages to settlers.

During the time of the Peloponnesian war
(431 B.C.) the number of metics had increased
to 96,000, as compared with 120,000 citizens
— an enormous proportion. It is therefore to
be supposed that many manufacturers at the
beginning of the fifth century were aUens or
descended from foreign families. This hypo-
thesis is confirmed by the potters' names, many

Ji] NAMES OF POTTERS 11

of which are foreign: Skythes (the Scythian),
Lydos (the Lydian), Amasis (name of an
Egyptian Pharaoh of the sixth century),
Kolchos (inhabitant of Colchis), Thrax (of
Thrace), Sikanos and Sikelos (the Sicilian),
Brygos (name of a Macedonian or lllyrian
people), etc. Beside these, however, we meet
with many purely Greek or Attic names —
Klitias, Ergotimos, Nikosthenes, Epiktetos,
Pamphaios, Euphronios, Hieron, Megakles, and
others. In certain cases, the ci!'aftsman's
patronymic follows, as Kleomeries, son of
Nikias ; Euthymedes, son of PoUos. Tliis
indicates a freeman and citizen of Athens.
Once, we even find the deme mentioned:
Nikias, son of Hermokles, of the deme
Anaphlystos. We here catch a glimpse of a
society where the actual citizen associates
freely with many naturalised aliens. It is
probable that slaves or freedmen were also
employed, as one may guess from the following
nicknames : Faidikos (beautiful child), Smikros '
(the little one), Mys (the rat). Douris' name
does not appear to be Attic. It is always
written Doris on vases, but we know that in
those times the diphthong ou was simply
expressed by o. The name Doris does not
exist in the catalogue of men's names which

12 VASE PAINTER'S SOCIAL CONDITION [chat.

has come down to us, ^hile the name Douris
is well known. It may have been of Ionian
origin.

To resume, the Kerameikos of Athens
formed a district by itself, a little world where
all sorts of people belonging to different races
and societies jostled one another. The master
was the manager of the factory and a crafts-
man, capable of making a vase as well as
painting it, designing the forms, the ornaments,
and the subjects. His assistants, who were
sometimes allowed the honour of signing, were
employed under his direction in the shaping
and decorating of pottery; even women took
part in this work, as we see on a beautiful
vase painting (Fig. 2) to be described later.
Lastly, there were the workmen engaged in
working the clay, preparing the glaze and the
colours, taking care of the ovens, moving
materials, etc. Comparing the arrangements in
a modern ceramic factory, one will find about
the same conditions and these three grades of
workers.

We must naturally picture things in Greece
on a modest scale: the enterprise conducted
at less expense than nowadays, the capital
smaller, and Xhe staff reduced to those strictly
required. Above all, it is necessary to remem-

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".] AN ART DEMOCRACY 13

ber that the division of labour was far less
marked in ancient times than with us. The
same man was capable of different tasks, he
was employed according to his ability and
intelligence. There was nothing of the
mechanical spirit, which nowadays has passed
into the man from the machine, and, for the
sake of greater speed and precision, isolates a
workman in a corner of the factory without
teaching him anything else. Undoubtedly a
social hierarchy existed and weighed heavily
upon the individual; to be citizen, metic, or
slave implied profoundly different conditions of
life, which raised more formidable barriers
between classes than with us. But in the
exercise of art or industry the life of the
ancients presents itself under a singularly
democratic aspect. Their workmen shared
their mental work far more than ours do, and
were famihar with all the details of the craft.
This it is which gives to the industrial art of
the Greeks a marked distinction. No matter
how modest the work, one feels a living
intelligence therein. The history of vases is
most suggestive in this respect. We never
find the stifihess of mechanical labour, the
monotony of copy repeated to satiety. All
are not masterpieces — far from it, But not

14 VASE PAINTER'S SOCIAL CONDITION [cbat.

one is quite devoid of individuality, ajid the
best proof that can be given is that two
painted Greek vases exactly identical do not
exist.

Whether Douris was metic or citizen, we may
think of him as a craftsman, who by his know-
ledge and skill had acquired an important
position in the town, and directed one of these
flourishing establishments in the potters' quarter,
near the Dipylon Gate, and just at the entrance
to the Necropolis. His ware helped to carry the
fame of Attic taste into distant lands.

We know that the majority of Greek vases
have been gathered from Etruscan tombs, where
they formed the personal property of the dead
after having been used by families at banquets
and at religious ceremonies. Similar finds have
been made in many other sites of the ancient
world : in the islands of Sicily, Rhodes, Melos ;
on the coast 6f Africa, in Cyrenaica ; in the
Thracian Chersonese, even as far as the Crimea.
But nowhere have the finds been richer than
in Etruria; this was the favourite market for
Attic ware during the sixth and the gi-eater
part of the fifth century.

After the disastrous war in Sicily, when
communication with the TyiThenian Sea was
severed, they turned to southern Italy, the

n.] ART AND UTILITY 15

Islands, Africa, and the Scythian colonies» The
trade in vases was not limited to the home
market, to the customers of Athens and the
neighbouthood. The most important and most
thriving part of the industry was the export
into foreign countries. What we to-day term
Particle de Paris scattered over all the world
somewhat recalls the favour enjoyed by Attic
productions in that age. Great profits must
have been realised.

This trade was again combined with other
important exports. It would be an error to
consider the painted vase as a curio simply
made for the pleasure of the eyes of the
collector or artist, like the porcelain of China
and of Japan to-day. The Greeks had no bric-
a-brac. We may even say that there were no
art amateurs or collectors. UtUity was the
only foundation of art: it formed its health
and strength. We do not believe a statue
was ever made, even in the fifth century,
simply for the pleasure of creating a beauti-
ful piece of work. Each art object had a
practical purpose, and only existed by virtue
of a want : offerings to the gods, consecrations
after victories, household utensils, votive oflfer-
ings at the altar and the tomb. It follows
that industrial art was still more intimately

16 VASE PAINTER'S SOCIAL CONDITION [chap.

connected with practical needs. The amphora,
which appears as a speciality of Athens in the
ceramic industry, contained the famous oil
gathered in the plain — to-day still famous for
its olive groves — or wine from Fames. We
know positively that the Panathenaic amphorse
given as prizes at the feasts in honour of Athene
contained the savoury oil produced by the
sacred plants of the goddess. Victors carried
these to their homes as trophies. There is no
reason to believe that other vases were treated
differently. Why should the painted amphorae,
such as are found from the sixth century
onwards in great numbers in Etruscan tombs, be
sent forth empty from the workshops of Corinth,
Chalkis, or Athens ? They certainly once con-
tained a product prized by the inhabitants of
Caere and Volsinii more than the beauty of
the painting on their exterior. In consequence
of this beautiful decoration, which was a sort
of trade-mark of Greek produce, rich families
in Italy ordered entire "table services" from
Athens for special use at banquets and religious
festivals. They not only comprised receptacles
for oil and wine — amphoras, krateres, lekythoi,
decanters for wine as the oinochoai, holders of
water as the hydria— but also vases for drink-
ing, such as the kylix, the kantharos, and the

Fig. 5. A DISPLAY OF VASES AND A PURCHASER.
Kylix by Phintias. Baltimore Museum.

n] GREEK EXPORT TRADE 17

skyphos, and even plates and platters. From
the fifth century onwards Athens had succeeded
in destroying all competition. She had become
the unique centre of this trade. The character
of the art then obtained decisive importance.

The manufacture of the kylix — which was
essentially the instrument of joy and gaiety,
passing &t banquets from hand to hand and
admired by every one as it passed — received
an impetus until then unknown.

Hence it was in consequence of being in cl®se
connection with the export trade and with the
two other great industries of wine and oil that
the ceramic art of Athens developed so extra-
ordinarily. The manufacturers must frequently
have made large fortunes. Historians tell lis
that the great fortunes in Athens were in the
hands of the metics. It is not astonishing to
hear of rich offerings being made on the
Acropolis by manufacturers, some of whom
were potters. On the pedestal of an offering
we read the name of the potter Euphronios.
A votive stele, in a style of delicate archaism,
represents in bas-rehef a manufacturer of vases
seated, holding two drinking-cups in one hand.
Unfortunately a great part of the inscription
is effaced, but one can still distinguish the end
of a name " lOS " which might be Euphronios.

18 VASE PAINTER'S SOCIAL CONDITION [chap.

The style of the sculpture and the accepted
date of the ceramist would agree.

The most beautiful archaic statue found on
the Acropolis is signed by one of the greatest
sculptors of the fourth century, Antenor, and
bears a dedication made by a certain Nearchos,
who might be a maker of black-figured vases —
one of which is preserved. This identification
is unfortunately not certain, but is admitted
by several archasologists, and implies nothing
improbable. If one could definitely prove that
the potter Nearchos had ordered, of a famous
sculptor, ah important work for an offering to
the goddess Athene as a tithe of his gains, we
should possess most important evidence as to
the social and pecuniary condition of craftsmen.

Another curious record of the mode of life
led by certain potters is given on a vase in the
Museum at Brussels. A painter has painted
his own portrait in the features of a young
man at a banquet leaning on a couch, feasting
in the gay company of friends and hetairai
(Fig. 8). He is a contemporary of Douris named
Smikros. One day, his purse being well filled
in consequence of good orders, he and some
companions of the studio indulged in the
pleasures the city yielded.

If, by such information we may consider the

"•] HART WIG'S OPINION 19

pecuniary position of potters as fairly good,
shall we conclude that their education was
equal to that of the best Athenian society? ;
Here it may be well to enter a protest against
the commonly accepted opinion. Vase painters
are usually credited with qualities of originality
amounting to positive genius. The merit of
the composition and of the choice of subject,
the skiU in placing the figures, the invention of
attitude and movement, are all attributed to
them. Hartwig, an author who has closely
studied the Greek drinking cups of the fifth
century, goes so far in his admiration as to
reject as fanciful any connection between the
works of this industry and the great works of
contemporary art. He grants that vase painters
copy one another, and that they borrow mutu-
ally subjects for designs and even persons. But
he maintains that their province remains indis-
putedly theirs, and one need not look for copies
from celebrated works in their art.

This opinion appears, like many others, to
contain a truth and an error. It is quite true,
that to look for a commonplace reproduction
of great art upon painted vases would be
useless. Many subjects are strictly designed
for the express purpose of the vase, for the
form of its surface, and are drawn from scenes

20 VASE PAINTER'S SOCIAL CONDITION [chap.

of everyday life which were constantly under
the draughtsman's eyes, scenes of the palaestra,
of banquets, military armaments, processions of
cavalry, etc. Who could imagine a Greek
draughtsman not copying Nature?

But, on the other hand, how can one think
of an artisan as skilled as an Athenian ceramist,
who could remain indifferent to the lessons of
the great masters? Would not his eyes and
brain be filled with the works of art which
made all public buildings and sanctuaries
museums in the open air? And in that case,
what strange rule would forbid him to borrow
many of the subjects and persons from these
superior models? These would be abstracts,
free compositions, adaptations, but nevertheless
a borrowing.

Furthermore, what we have just said of
vase manufacturers places them in a popular
class whose members did not shine by educa-
tion. Merchants of free status, metics, freed-
men or slaves could not form a society
comparable to the one in which lived a
Polygnotos or a Phidias. Isocrates says
scornfully : " Who would dare compare Phidias
to a maker of terracottas, or Zeuxis and
Parrhasios to a painter of votive offerings?"
He would undoubtedly have said the same of

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"•] ILLITERACY OF MANY WORKERS 21

vase painters. We aflBim, in fact, that many
of these workers were quite illiterate; some
were content simply to trace sham letters or
letters in juxtaposition, without any meaning,
in the place of the usual inscription. Many
made gross mistakes, or mixed the dialect of
their own country with that of Athens. Some
did not even know how to spell the name of
the pottier for whom they were working, but
wrote it in three or four different ways. These
little facts help to illustrate the inferior condi-
tion of this society. To look here for great
artists, philosophers or thinkers, rivals of Pindar
and iSschylus, of Phidias and Polygnotos,
would be contrary to all likelihood. If
Euphronios, Douris or Brygos had genius, it
was entirely in their province as skilled
draughtsmen, guided and influenced by beauti-
ful models, besides being business men and
prudent merchants. The idea of raising such
men to the height of creators and inventors
would certainly have greatly astonished the
Athenians.

To sum up, Nature and living truth — the
works of great masters and the teachings of
the past — ;these form the double source from
which all artists, at all times, have drawn.
It would seem diflicult to exclude from one

22 VASE PAINTER'S SOCIAL CONDITION [chap. n.

or the other the painters of Greek vases. On
the contrary, in studying them we feel,
although their social position is humble, and
their private education mediocre, that they are
peculiarly great, inasmuch as their artistic
sense is always alert, always emulous of com-
petitors or works of art about them, and,
finally, great in that dominant quality which
the Greek carries within him — a keen sensitive-
ness to aU that is beautiful in life. As artisans,
craftsmen, merchants and metics, they move
in a lower sphere in their city; but nothing
shows more clearly the power of the environ-
ment than seeing in Athens, which had become
the spiritual centre of Greece, the working
man's world raising itself without effort from
its dead level to the intellectual life of the
higher classes: a phenomenon all the more re-
markable as it occurred in an ancient society,
that is to say, in an era when the social barriers
were inflexibly rigid. May modern democracies
be inspired by this example and understand
that the education of the masses comes fi-om
the highly-gifted, and the masses will never
be high-minded when those whom fortune has
placed above them are worthless.

CHAPTER III

THE WORKSHOP AND TOOLS OF DOURIS

We must regard Douris from two points of
view^: the craftsman and the artist.

Let US first see what his workshop was like.
Again, all the documents we possess are the
vases themselves, or terracotta tablets which
served as votive offerings. We see upon them
workmen in the act of turning or painting
pots, lighted ovens, pottery exposed for sale,
etc. Upon a black-figured hydria at Munich
(Fig. 4) we see such an establishment divided
into two parts: to the left is the workshop
where the turning, shaping and polishing of
vases takes place; to the right, under the
supervision of an aged man, who apparently is
the master, are other workmen carrying finished
pots to dry and bake them. In the extreme
corner is the high oven decorated with a Silenus
mask. Here, a vase from Ruvo (Fig. 2) takes
us to a painter's studio. Three painters, each
grasping a brush, are decorating the body and

24 DOURIS'S WORKSHOP AND TOOLS [chap.

neck of two krateres and one kantharos, while
other vases on the ground are awaiting their
turn. To the right, on a platform, a woman
is painting the handle of a larger krater ; above
her some small pots are leaning against the
wall. The composition is ingeniously completed
by the appearance of two Victories and Athene
armed with helmet and lance, who solemnly
crown the workmen bending over their work —
a poetic symbol to glorify the fame of Athenian
industry.

The act of painting is illustrated upon some
vase fragments, where we see the artist work-
ing with a very finely-pointed brush (Fig. 25).
Lastly, some Corinthian platters show us work-
men turning vases and watching the baking,
and the kiln filled with piles of pottery. One
even represents a merchant ship with a cargo
of pottery, oinochoai or small perfume bottles,
destined for some land across the sea. We
will mention one other kylix by the painter
Phintias, upon which are displayed a potter's
wares. A number of vases are placed on the
ground, and a youth with a purse in his hand
is stooping in the act of choosing his purchase
(Fig. 5).

AU these scenes are small genre pictures like
The Barbers or The Lace Makers of Holland

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ni.] THE FACTORY 25

and Flanders in the seventeenth century. They
teach us the chief characteristics of the ceramic
art;

An establishment of this kind implies several
buildings. The vase turners or makers would
be in a separate room from the painters. One
or more ovens would be required in a court,
with a shed for the storage of raw materials,
and for kneading and refining the clay. Lastly,
we must assume that there were some rooms
for warehousing and a sale-room adjoining the
factory, in addition to rooms for the masters
and night-watchmen. No matter how modest
the staff, it would amount to fifteen or twenty
persons, counting not only those in charge
of the factory, but labourers and stokers.
Upon the hydria at Munich (Fig. 4), in a
painting necessarily restricted, we can count
eight persons. Upon the vase &om Ruvo (Fig.
2) the studio contains four workers — three men
and one woman — all painting. To obtain a
correct idea of the staff one must at least
treble this number.

Hence a potter like Douris must have super-
intended a factory representing a commercial
enterprise of some importance. We must not
think of an artist, who, in his solitary studio,
at his leisure and according to >his inspuation,

26 DOURIS'S WORKSHOP AND TOOLS [chap.

sketches subjects or forms for vases, and leaves
the execution to others. We miist not forget
it is an industry. This practical purpose must
profoundly influence one's opinions as to the
nature of the potter's studies, his manner of
composing, and the profit he expects from his
enterprise.

We will not discuss points of technique
which demand too detailed an enquiry, and
would raise questions not yet solved. Let
us think of the materials as gathered in the
hands of the craftsman: clay carefully chosen
and refined, colours for glazing and retouching,
lustres intended to brighten the natural colour
of the clay, and the black for the design,
wheels and moulds, rules and compass, sharp
points for sketching, brushes of all kinds, etc.

The most commonly used and most valuable
ingredient is the black glaze, the composition
of which is still unknown; its basis is oxide
of iron. It is used for drawings on red clay,
to trace features, persons, accessories and
decorations, and to cover the background. It
is to the Greek what Indian ink is to the
draughtsman of Japan. In baking, it takes
on a warm, velvety tone, sometimes 9, little
olive, sometimes it becomes in the flames a
little yellow or red. It is brightened by a

ni] THE BLACK GLAZE 27

brilliant lustre which frequently produces the
effect of a mirror, but it never has the cold
or waxy tone which disfigures modern imita-
tions of antique vases. It is thick and rich,
and forms, after drying, a slight prominence
perceptible to the finger. Lastly, it is inde-
structible, even by acids, and does not change
with time, unless the surface of the clay
beneath it has been touched by damp, in
which case it flakes off.

The invention of this black was one of the
most beautiful discoveries in ancient industry.
If we could only discover its formula it would
still be of the greatest importance. It was in
use from the time of the Mycenaean age, that
is to say, more than a thousand years before our
era ; eventually potters brought it to perfection,
increasing its delicacy, thickness and brilliancy.
About the time of Douris it had reached its
perfection and retained its excellence until
the end of the fifth century. After the
capture of Athens and the ruin of the potters'
workshops, the recipe was lost or the manu-
facture of it became neglected, for vases of
the fourth century, found in Boeotia and in
Southern Italy, show a great deterioration in
this respect.

Next to the black, his brush is of the

28 DOURIS'S WORKSHOP AND TOOLS [chap.

greatest importance to the Athenian artist.
Its nature has been much discussed. In some
of the illustrations cited, we see it in the
hands of workmen while drawing (Figs. 2
and 25). It consists of a thin handle, doubt-
less of wood, to which is joined a long and
thin point. Some suppose it to be the barbule
of a bird's feather ; the feathers of the wood-
cock are particularly suitable for very delicate
lines. In the opinion of others it is merely
a hog's bristle. The brushes vary in thickness
according to the number and stoutness of the
bristles employed.

The Greeks must have been able to paint
with one single bristle, a method requiring
great patience and special skill in loading the
brush with paint and guiding it on the clay;
but in this manner particularly delicate lines of
even strength from end to end can be obtained.
Experiments have been made with ordinary
paint, proving this conclusively. Of course the
painter must have had thicker brushes at his
disposal with which to trace heavier outlines.
The background had to be put in with heavy
and broad brushes. But the fine brush is the
tool above all others with which the Greek
draughtsman accomplished wonderful feats,
placing lines of extraordinary delicacy side by

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I"] THE FINE BRUSH 29

side, or throwing out a line at a single stroke,
the impeccable straightness of which delights
and surprises the eye. We have reason to
believe that it was not a tool for craftsmen
only. Painters of frescoes and large paintings
had the same difficulties to contend with, if
we are to give credence to an anecdote by
Phny: for Apelles and Protogenes competed
who should draw the most perfect and finest
line.

CHAPTER IV

HOW DOURIS WORKED

Let us now watch the craftsman at work.
We have said that Douris was a potter, but
that usually he left to others the care of
making vases according to well-known models,
and reserved to himself the task of decoration.
In what then does his character of painter
consist ?

First he must decide on the subject. The
Greeks tried, as much as possible, to adapt
the design to the purpose of the vase. An
amphora or a krater would not usually have
the same design as a kylix. There were no
rules on the subject, and the utmost liberty
was given the artist. Nevertheless, we notice
that grave subjects and personages in attitudes
of repose are given the preference on large
vases, which had stable bases and were rarely
moved, as harmonizing best with their broad
surface and vertical lines. Animated or every-
day subjects are better adapted to the horizontal

30

CHAP. IV.] THE KYLIX 31

sides of a kylix, which circulated freely in the
hands of guests.

For the same reason, we may say that the
painting of large vases remained essentially
conservative, more attached to ancient methods
and subjects, while the painting of the kylix
constantly called forth new ideas: hence its
great importance in the fifth century.

Certain archaeologists claim to have dis-
covered two distinct branches in the industry —
but that is an error. The same distinguished
artists produced the large krater and the kylix,
as for example Euphronios. But it would be
more correct to distinguish two schools side
by side, and those artists who by preference
decorated the kylix were more "progressive."
Douris is of this number, if not in style, at
least in the choice of his subjects. He tries
to create new designs; he draws from daily
life, banquet scenes, dancing scenes, scenes
from the palasstra (Fig. 6), amorous scenes —
well adapted for a drinking cup. On the other
hand, if he approaches heroic or m3rthical com-
positions, he makes use of the opportunity to
draw beautiful bodies in motion, rape or battle
episodes: The Nereids flying from Peleus
(Fig. 13) ; Theseus kilhng the Minotaur and
Attic robbers (Fig. 11) ; or the battles of

32 HOW DOURIS WORKED [cuj^p-

heroes in Homer, as those of Menelaos and
Paris or Ajax and Hector (Figs. 9 and 10).
At other times, we find allusions to recent
glorious events which had taken place in
Greece, a Greek soldier striking down a
Persian (Fig. 20), Hoplites and Asiatic archers
at close quarters. He belonged to that group
of artists who are always looking for action,
for the new and the modern.

After what originals did the painter compose ?
We are quite ignorant here, and cannot specify
without falling into fiction and hypothesis.
Were there sketch books, representing the
individual observations of the artist, taken from
Nature or from great contemporary works?
Or did irivaKeg, tablets of wood or panels of
terracotta, serve for preliminary sketches?
Did a painter, as it were, design a "model"
which he transferred to clay or gave to his
workmen as a theme to work upon ? All these
questions remain unanswered. One is forced
to surmise that the master signed only works
on which he himself had worked, those which
he designed and circulated as his latest pro-
ductions, the editio princeps, so to speak,
inscribed with his signature. But when a
subject once composed was repeated in the
workshop, copied with slight variations by

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«v.] WIDESPREAD PLAGIARISM 33

workmen, the pottery, no matter what its
commercial value, was no longer entitled to
this personal certificate.

Subjects thus composed with free repetition
must be very numerous, for there is, as it were,
a strong family likeness among many of them :
battle scenes, banquets, gatherings of youths,
games in the palaestra. Another important
fact, must be stated, no obstacle was placed
against plagiarism in ancient times; on the
contrary, it was the spirit and essence of
industrial art. We have proof of this in the
terracottas as well as in the vases. Every one
copies or imitates his neighbour. There is no
copyright or patent for artistic property, an
idea which has become the subject of legislation
only in modern times. Considering the com-
munistic way in which these Greek craftsmen
lived, at a time when production was so intense,
and the personal reputation of a potter might
prove so great a factor in his fortune, we can
readily understand how any man may have
been led to protect himself against plagiarism
by means of a signature which authenticated a
production. A krater by Euphronios, a kylix
by Douris or Brygos, might be particularly
sought after by certain customers in Greece
and Etruria. Why should they not be assured

34 HOW DOURIS WORKED [chap.

that they had in their hands an original work
of a great master, and not a copy made by
workmen or competitors ? Have we not clocks
signed by BouUe, and chests of drawers by
Riesener, which are thus distinguished from
similar objects, sometimes very beautiful, but
which, without a trade mark, do not represent
original work?

Such then is the the sense in which we should
understand the signature of a vase by Douris.
He sought, devised and composed the design.
And even more, his own hands carried out
the painting.

Let us now reflect upon the material side
of the painter's trade.

The artist begins with a simple sketch made
by means of a hard point, it may simply be
the sharpened end of a bit of wood, which
scratches the unbaked " clay, leaving decided
traces after the final painting, baking and
glazing. There is hardly a beautiful vase of
this period, signed or not, which does not show
these traces. This sketch sufficiently proves
the absolute independence of the worker in
regard to his model, and contradicts the opinion
of those who maintain that the transfer was
made with compasses. On the contrary, one
feels how free the work is, and that the arrange-

IV.] THE ARTIST'S METHODS 86

ment was invented entirely to suit the object
decorated. And what enables us to foUow
the method of sketching still more closely, is
the fact that the stroke of the brush, coming
after, has not always exactly followed its lines.
There have been alterations at the last mon^ent,
a lowered arm has been raised, a foot advanced,
etc. It is impossible to doubt the spontaneous
character, in some respects the improvisation of
the design. It is, besides, rare to outline com-
pletely every person in a sketch. Frequently
the outlines of one or two, with their chief
characteristics, are drawn, and these determine
the rest.

When the sketch is finished, the painter
begins to put in his colour. He first takes a
broad brush and rapidly indicates in black the
outlines of the figures which compose his
picture : this broad stroke of the brush charged
with more colour and forming a projection
round the figures can be easily distinguished.
Next come the fiine brushes, composed of only
one bristle, giving in accurate and precise strokes
the chief lines of the bodies and the folds of the
garments ; others, a little heavier, are used to
indicate the hair, the beard, ornaments on the
garments, etc. The black may be used in a
variety of tones. By diluting it a more fluid

36 HOW DOURIS WORKED [chap.

matter was obtained, rather grey, which was
frequently used for the under sides of objects,
for rendering muscular details, the wavy folds
in drapery, locks of hair, etc. Usually this
diluted black would turn yellow in the baking.
An unobtrusive polychrome is the result which
the painters used with ingenuity; they were
thus able to produce blonde hair or slightly
golden folds of garments.

We have already stated that, in order to
carry out these very fine lines, the artist
probably held his brush firmly, not only with
the tips of his fingers, but with closed hand as
the Japanese painters still do (Figs. 2 and 25).
He must move slowly and firmly in tracing
these fine lines. Constantly obliged to take
fresh colour, he sometimes had to break a line
two or three times ; but these joinings are only
visible with a magnifying glass. It is said
that it was impossible to make any correction
of the stroke, and that the faultless execution
of the lines proves the wonderful skill of the
Greeks. We believe this to be an error.
A wet sponge probably sufficed to remove
any drawings or parts of them from the
clay, and when it was dry the artist could
begin work again. It was a question of
patience and skill. It is because correction

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«v.] USE OF COLOURS 37

was so easy, that the results attained are usually
perfect.

The painting finished, the pot was handed
over to a workman to fill in the background
between the figures with black as well as the
foot and the edges of the handles.

After the black had dried, the pot was
retm-ned to the artist's hands to be retouched
with colour. In the sixth century, in the
black -figured style, many colours were used,
as violet -red and white. At the time of
Douris, the red -figured vases displayed very
few complementary colours. Great simplicity
characterized the taste of the times. A few
red lines sufficed to indicate fillets tied in the
hair, belts holding swords, the reins of horses,
etc. Red was likewise used to trace inscrip-
tions or the signature of the artist (Fig. 8).
Others preferred to inscribe it in black on the
foot of handle (Fig. 15). Others again incised
it with a style in the thick colour. White
only returns again to favour after the Persian
wars. About the time of Douris, in the work-
shop of one of his rivals — Brygos — ^who may
have been a little younger, attempts were
made to heighten the effect of the red figures
by a little gilding cautiously placed on the
outlines of the armour, helmets and vases

38 HOW DOURIS WORKED [ohap.

for libations. It is a return to the rich
polychromy, which later continues to develop,
and ends in those pretty little gilt vases
devoted to scenes of child life, beloved by
Attic customers towards the end of the fifth
century. As far as we know, Douris does not
seem to have taken part in the manufacture
of the beautiful drinking cups with a white
background and fresco tones of brown, red and
violet, with which the workshops of Euphronios
and his successors were busy (Fig. 7). He
adheres to the classical method of figures left
in the red clay, and only retouched by a few
wine-coloured lines. It may be said that he
is not a colourist. To his eyes, as to those of
Ingres, drawing is the very foundation of the
art.

When the drawings were finished, his chief
task was done ; but his position as manufacturer
did not permit him to remain indifferent to
the rest. He had to carry his painted pottery
to the drying place, andj after the required
time, to have it baked. This is a very delicate
part of the manufacture of vases, on which its
success greatly depends. Ancient ovens were
probably very imperfect. There are many
examples of oxidization by contact with the
flame, which improperly reddens the side of

IV.] DEMONS OF DESTRUCTION 39

a vase or turns half a figure orange. The
supports on which vases were placed, while
drying, sometimes left round marks. In one
known instance, in consequence of two freshly
painted vases touching one another, the hoofs
of a horse have become impressed upon the
face of a youth.

Defects in the material were more hable then
than now to expose the ceramist to breakage
and various accidents, which at all times have
been the despair of the manufacturer, and
which an Homeric singer already ascribed to
special demons, "Syntrips, Smaragos, Asbetos,
Sabaktes, Omodamos, gods fatal to the furnace."
We have already described a kiln adorned
with a head of Silenus, a prophylactic fetish,
destined to cast out evil influences (Fig. 4).

At last the pottery, is taken out of the oven.
The master can contemplate his work, test the
delicacy of its sides, examine the fusion of
the colours, study the change of tone in the
baking. Other workmen come to immerse the
vases in a prepared bath, which wiU glaze
the entire visible surface, brighten the red of
the clay, the background and all the black
lines, but will leave the retouching dull. We
are quite ignorant of the ingredients of the
bath which so thoroughly accomplished all this

40 HOW DOURIS WORKED [chap.

and gave the pottery its splendour. We only
know that a red precipitate was formed, traces
of which are frequently visible under the foot
and upon the clay which had remained
uncovered. Among vases of the decline, this
red overruns the entire drawing and gives an
unpleasant appearance to the whole; in this
case, as with the black, either the ijecipe of
the glaze had been lost, or else the work was
badly executed. Possibly a dry rubbing with
leather or some other substance added finish
to the glaze.

We must not even yet regard the potter's
work as finished. He had to superintend the
sale, attract customers, confer with shipowners
in regard to the export. Nor was advertising
unknown to the ancients. It adopted many
devices. Some potters contrived to paint on
the vase subjects or inscriptions alluding to the
products therein. There are scenes of wine
and oil sales, with sentences, praising the
merchandise or the honesty of the merchant.
There are incentives to the pleasure of drink-
ing, friendly greetings and wishes of good
health to him who will use the kyUx or
kantharos. Even the details of the potter's
trade have served as matter for representation,
to recall to the customer the fame of Attic

Fi«. 11. THE ADVENTURES OF THESEUS.
By Douris. Britiih Museum.

»v.] INVITATIONS TO PATRONAGE 41 "

workshops. The prettiest allegory is the one
we mentioned above, where we saw Athene
accompanied by two little Victories entering a
workshop of painters and placing crowns on
the heads of the workmen (Fig. 2).

But the means most frequently adopted to
attract buyers was to inscribe on the body of
a vase the name of some young man of dis-
tinguished family in Athens, known either for
his beauty or his fortune, and in this way to
gain the good -will of a rich customer, who
would bring the patronage of all his family
and friends. We have a large number of such
inscriptions wherein the manufacturer invokes
" the handsome Leagros," " the handsome
Glaukon," or "the handsome Megakles," etc.,
and we recognize in these names weU-known
members of the Athenian aristocracy (Figs. 5,
7, 8).

It will be remembered that the Italian
potters of the sixteenth century put into
circulation coppe amatorie, bearing portraits of
beautiful women, surrounded by inscriptions
celebrating Lucrezia diva or " the fair Camilla."
This is a similar idea.

Lastly, we have one example of a personal
advertisement in rather an aggressive form,
coming from Euthymides, a contemporary and

42 HOW DOURIS WORKED [chap. iv.

rival of Euphronios. Upon an amphora in the
Museum at Munich, the boastful craftsman has
written this defiant apostrophe: "Euphronios
has never done so well ! "

These minute details enable us to penetrate
into the material life of the workshop. We
catch a ghmpse of the greedy struggles for>
gain, the ambitions and rivalries involved in
all commercial enterprise. It is the seamy side
of this beautiful art, which to-day appears to
us so pure and free from all material con-
siderations. As in all human efforts, there
were undoubtedly in reality many competing
interests, many cruel cares, much deceit and
hatred. But time has done its work ; has
thrown a veil over the mean and petty things
in life, and only allowed those to survive which
are truly sane and useful. Let us rejoice in
not knowing whether Douris was a successful
business man, whether he honestly made a
fortune, or whether he died miserably in debt.
That which remains of his work is the spiritual,
the true and fruitful part of his life. His
drawings teach us what he was, not as an
individual, but as an artist, as a member of
the great Athenian family, and this it is which
interests us above all.

CHAPTER V

THE WORK OF DOURIS

We will orlly consider here the works signed by
Douris, and leave aside a considerable number of
anonymous vases attributed to him. We only
wish to argue from indisputable records. The
number consists of twenty-six drinking cups,
one kantharos, and one vase for cooling wine,
forming in all about eighty paintingSj which
can be divided into three distinct groups:

1. Mythical and heroic subjects, adventures

of gods and heroes.

2. Martial subjects, scenes of arming and

battle.

3. Subjects of everyday hfe, banquets, con-

versations and exercises in the palaestra.
It would, no doubtj be interesting to study
these subjects chronologically, and to follow
step by step the career of the artist; but we
could not place much confidence in a detailed
eiiumeration of dates. We will select the first

group as most clear and precise. This will not

43

44 THE WORK OF DOURIS [chap.

prevent our examining the numerous and diverse
styles through which the talent of Douris passed.
On the whole, we may say there were two chief
periods in his style : the one, while he adhered
to ancient traditions, and his drawings remained
stiff and archaic ; the other, when his brush
became flexible to a remarkable degree, and
when he began to create. It is the story of
many artists, both ancient and modern.

1. Mythical and Heroic Subjects.

The kylix of Eos and Memnon (Figs. 8, 9,
10), well knoAvn to visitors of the Louvre, is
not only the oldest but the one which best illus-
trates the first period of Douris, and deserves
the closest attention from lovers of art. It is
a masterpiece of Greek ceramic art, at a time
when the painting of red figures, while still
retaining the stiff, archaic forms, finds means
to move the feelings by purity of line and a
deep sense of life. The vase, by the potter
Kalliades, in itself reveals an old shape (Fig. 1
right) with the foot short and squat, the sides
heavy, a deep bowl and short handles, following
the models of Nikosthenes and Pamphaios of
the sixth century. Later Douris made a kylix
of far more graceful outline, with a shallower

v.] THE COMPOSITION SYNTHETIC 46

bowl, a higher stem made slender in the middle,
and lighter handles, such as one sees in the
workshops of Euphronios, Hieron and Brygos
(Fig. 1 left). On this kylix there are a great
number of inscriptions : nearly every person is
designated by name. Besides the signatures of
the potter and painter we can read the name of
the handsome Hermogenes (Fig. 8), and with
it a fragment of a phrase, the meaning of which
remains doubtful. Seventeen or eighteen words
in all are scattered in fine red letters over the
inner surface and the reverse of the cup. This
profusion of writing is in itself archaic; men
were communicative in early times, and dehghted
in labeUing their figures like our old illuminators
of the Middle Ages. More recent works of
Douris have lost this useless mode of expres-
sion. Painting is its own interpreter, and has
no further need of this awkward assistance.

The composition is synthetic. It contains
three events in the Trojan war. On the reverse
are the combats of Menelaos and Paris, Ajax
and Hector; on the inner side the Ethiopian
King Memnon lies dead in the arms of his
mother, the goddess Eos (the Dawn). Some
archaeologists who have studied these paintings
have tried to find here a strong and learned
unity, a kind of drama in three acts, even at

46 THE WORK OF DOURIS [chap.

the expense of the inscriptions. Brunn even
maintained that the latter were faulty, as he
conceived therein an Achilleid, celebrating three
different feats of the great hero. Others have
refused to see any reference to the Epics, and
have noted the differences which distinguished
the text of Homer from these paintings. For
instance, Douris has placed behind Menelaos
the goddess Aphrodite, protectress of Troy,
which seems inconsistent ; behind Paris we see
Artemis carrying her bow ; behind Ajax is the
goddess Athene. These divinities do not figure
in the Homeric account. As regards the death
of Memnon, it appears to belong to an epic
by another cyclic poet, Arktinos of Miletos.
It is the imagination of the poet that collected
at random, as it were, these scattered subjects,
and united them according to his fancy.

The opinion we hold amid these conflicting
views vidll be more easily understood by refer-
ence to the chapters on the social and mental
conditions of the Athenian potters. To suppose
them to have conceived themes of deep mean-
ing, elaborated like an ode of Pindar or a
chorus of Sophocles with strophe, antlstrophe
and epode, seems most unlikely; and if, in
order to gain good results, the inscriptions
must be changed, we do not hesitate to reject

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such a procedure as contrary to all scientific
method. Who can believe that these profound
thinkers were so stupid as not to write correct
inscriptions? On the other" hand, we know
enough of the art of the period, of the advance
made in design, to expect a certain unity in
the whole. It is the spirit of the entire school
to unite the different parts of the vase by
subjects closely connected, or at least related.
In the present case we believe the Trojan war
to be the great theme uniting the three paint-
ings. This was the most cherished subject, even
with the people. We must remember that a
paintei: of vases had nothing in common with
a modeirn designer who has a text to illustrate
before his eyes. It is hardly likely that manu-
scripts of Homer or Arktinos were found on
the work-benches of the Kerameikos. For these
craftsmen, memory or the remembrance of some
recitation at the Panathenaic festivals had to
take the place of the book.

In consequence, the chief episode must have
made a decided impression on the mind,
without involving accuracy in minor details.
In re-reading the Iliad, Book III. (Menelaos
and Paris), and Book VII. (Ajax and Hector),
we gain the impression that the artist, who-
ever he was (for the craftsman may have

48 THE WORK OF DOURIS [chap.

copied a known work), has here reproduced
the essential elements of the drama. In adding
persons, as Athene behind Paris, or Aphrodite
behind MenelaOs, the artist simply adhered
to the conditions of the composition of a
painting, which at this period scrupulously
obeyed the rules of symmetry. Aphrodite is
placed there to restrain the arm of Menelaos,
as the gesture of her right hand indicates.
Artemis, as a companion figure on the other
side, represents the protecting gods of Troy
(Fig. 9) ; two goddesses were not too much
to watch over the handsome Paris.

The other reverse (Fig. 10) similarly conforms
to, and diverges from, the Homeric text. As
in the poem. Hector struck by a rock thrown
by his adversary sinks to his knees and Apollo
advances to support him. (The irregularly
shaped object above indicates the stone.) In
Homer, Athene does not appear, but here,
placed as she is behind Ajax, whom she
appears to be pushing forward with a gesture,
she represents the protecting goddess of the
Greeks. The symmetry of the two sides is
essential. The decorative tradition requires it,
and the painter sets his professional duty
before his respect for a poetic text, in which
no one saw anything more than a general

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theme for beautiful subjects and attitudes.
We are quite convinced that the great painters
took exactly the same liberties with the cyclic
poems they interpreted. The description of
the masterpiece of Polygnotos, The Taking
of 2Voy, bears witness to this. The artist
seems to have complied with the general
information given in the epic, but not to have
illustrated any given text.

In spite of the archaic stiffness, the execution
of the subjects delights us by the purity of
line and the great care in detail. The paint-
ing is simply a drawing, hardly retouched
with a few red hnes. It is like a dry point
engraving, in which aU the lines are somewhat
prominent. The symmetrical and parallel folds
of the garments, details of the armour, the
imbrications, the chasing of the helmets and
cuirasses, the locks and curls of hair, are
marvels of patient and conscientious work.
The ornaments, as carefully finished as the
rest, have the same stiff and rather metallic
precision. Lastly, the black glaze, thick and
velvety, gives an extraordinary brilliancy to
the entire vase.

In considering the painting of the interior
(Fig. 8), we move upwards another step. In
its small compass, we consider it one of the

G

50 THE WORK OF DOURIS [chap.

finest paintings handed down to us from
ancient times. It consoles us somewhat for
the loss of so many masterpieces, and we
cannot suppose that a potter, working alone
in his workshop^ invented this first Mater-
dolorosa, which is as touching as a Mantegna
or a Roger Van der Weyden. Nowhere is
a copy from a great painting more forcibly
evident. Every one must be impressed by the
striking resemblance of this Pagan and Greek
creation to the emblem that has moved
Christian souls for so many centuries. Eos,
standing with outstretched and beating wings,
bends toward the dead face of her son
Memnon, her strained arms supporting his
rigid body. The goddess, who represents the
radiant morning and the promises of Nature
awakening with the dawn, is here simply a
despairing mother imprinting on her mind with
one long look the beloved features she will
see no more ; the contrast is profoundly sad,
and a creation worthy of a great poet. The
body of the powerful prince of the Ethiopians,
the ally of Priam, is entirely nude as it was
taken up on the battlefield where his adversary
Achilles had robbed him of his armour. The
stiff legs are stretched out, the left foot still
contracted with pain, the arms swing limply,

v.] THE ADVENTURES OF THESEUS 51

the head drops, while the dishevelled hair,
the delicate beard, and the closed eyes arouse
an irresistible memory of the dead Christ.
We have a true Pietb, before our eyes.

What miracle in art, what unexpected chance
unites Pagan and Christian art to express the
same thought, in the same form? Is it not
a proof that across the centuries great artists
share the same thoughts, and to express the
eniotions of life create a universal language?
Is it not this again which attracts us in
Homer, in those never to be forgotten scenes,
expressing so well the deep feelings of all
men at all times; the farewell of Hector and
Andromache, the return of Ulysses to Ithaca?
Art soars above time and space, more than
all else it embodies the solidarity of succeeding
generations without any knowledge of one
another.

A kylix in the British Museum, with The
Adventures of Theseus (Fig. 11), of more recent
form and style, teaches us still better that
behind the vase painter may be concealed
other and greater personalities, who" are the
true creators of the work of art. A famous
kylix from the workshop of Euphronios shows
us similar scenes glorifying the Athenian hero,
forming with the JSos and Memnon, by Douris,

52 THE WORK OF DOURIS [ohap.

and The Taking of Troy, by Brygos, a
glorious trio of ceramic masterpieces, of which
the Louvre is justly proud. In comparing the
works of Douris with those coming from the
workshops of Euphronios, the idea suggests
itself that they either copied one another or
borrowed from one common original. Both
suppositions are possible. As already men-
tioned, no law or custom prohibited artistic
plagiarism. If Douris knew of the beautiful
work executed by his colleague, nothing pre-
vented him from adopting it for his own use.
But, on the other hand, the broad style of
Euphronios' production and the peculiar
character of the adventure of Theseus recover-
ing the ring of Minos from the bottom of the
sea, a subject treated by Mikon, one of the
great painters of the fifth century, finally
the great number of works of art which at
this period celebrated the national hero's glory,
lead us to believe that a potter had no need
to look over his neighbour's shoulder to gain
suggestions for a theme of Theseus. He was
surrounded by models in painting, sculpture,
painted bas-reliefs, models, carved and en-
graved. The supposition of a common model or
several models, from which a craftsman, in a way,
chose the desired subject, seems most probable.

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It is only in this sense and with such reserva-
tion that these two cups can be compared. In
looking at the superb vase in the Louvre, no
one wiU hesitate to give the preference to the
workshop of Euphronios. In the interior is
Tlie Visit of Amphitrite; in this painting the
author has retained all the seriousness of great
religious art with a touch of archaism in the
drawing and position of the characters, showing
thereby that he has copied an ancient fresco;
while, on the contrary, on the reverses, the
combats of Theseus with the robbers Skiron,
Prokrustes and Kerkyon, and the struggle
with the Marathonian bull, are treated as in
metopes, with bold, vigorous lines, giving rather
a feeling of the influence of sculpture (Fig. 12).

The composition of Douris (Fig. 11) is more
firmly knit, because it concentrates all the
attention on the adventures of the hero against
monsters and robbers. In the interior is the
fight with the Minotaur, an ancient and classic
theme from the sixth century ; on the reverses,
the defeat of Kerkyon, of Skiron and Sinis, and
the hunt of the boar of Krommyon ; two women
give some variety and animation to the whole,
the nymph Phaia who lived at Krommyon, and
the goddess Athene who protects her favourite
hero at his labours. Here again is a closely-knit

64 THE WORK OF DOURIS [cbai-.

trilogy; but, we must confess, the execution is
far inferior to that of the cup of Euphronios.
It is accurate and a little commonplace. There
is, however, noticeable a desire to express land-
scape, a care for external ornament, visible in
the palm tree and the small trees placed about,
and by a cloak thrown upon a tree trunk. It
is a rare mark among Greek painters, and
worthy of note.

We will look more rapidly at the paintings
of the kantharos at Brussels, the importance of
which, as being a vase moulded by Douris
himself, we have already mentioned (Fig. 1).
The figures represent " Herakles' contest with
the Amazons," an old type, nearly a century
old, but with the added beauty of a clear and
accurate style, and an admirably certain execu-
tion. Nor are the subjects new which are
treated upon another kylix in the Louvre,
The Rape of Thetis by Peleus. But Douris
deserves the credit of having skilfully revived
an old subject known on Corinthian and Attic
vases of the sixth century. It is possible to
follow in the Louvre the same painting done
in turn by a Corinthian, then by an Attic
painter of black figures, and lastly by Douris.
It is of great interest to follow the development
of the composition and of the grouping of the

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v.] TEE RAPE OF THETIS 55

figures, of their attitudes, and of the drawing
itself. We pferceive here the same differences
as in comparing a Madonna of Cimabue with
one of Lippi. Symmetry of figures, stiff and
angular outlines and severe features have given
place to life and tender touches of the brush.
At the same time, the close connection of
these successive works appears most striking —
the link with the past has never been severed ;
the fundamental conception has always remained
the same ; improvement has come from within,
and extends to every little detail.

Douris has extended his composition and
united the two reverse sides of the kylix. On
one, the hero seizes the goddess, who struggles
in his grasp and has summoned to her aid the
magic art of transformations. These are given
with all the naivete of primitive art: to tell
us that Thetis changes into a lion, and later
into a serpent, the artist has drawn on one
side a young Hon seated on the shoulder of
the goddess, and tearing with his teeth the
arm of her ravisher ; on the other a serpent
lifts its twisted coils and darts its threatening
jaws at him. The companions of Thetis, the
Nereids, frightened by so bold an attack, take
flight, and this gives the painter an opportunity
of showing us young girls punning in many

56 THE WORK OF DOURIS [okaf.

graceful attitudes — the arms are tossed in
gestures that are still angular ; the bare feet
and legs escape from the drapery, showing the
rather lean suppleness of these young maidens.
It is, at the same time, a skilful method of
uniting the whole; in fact, on the other
reverse we see other nymphs running, who
come to tell the god Nereus and his wife
Doris of the attempt. Both are seated on
ornamented thrones with the Olympian majesty
of a Jupiter and a Juno (Fig. 13). All the
beauty of the famous group in the Panathenaic
Frieze is already visible in their movements
and their attitude.

Unfortunately the interior is defaced and
restored, but the artist has shown no less
ingenuity in its design. He has taken a theme
frequently used by painters of red figures,
and thus rendered rather commonplace — the
libation; but instead of showing us the well-
known scene of a soldier departing on a cam-
paign and receiving the full cup from a woman,
he has enlarged the subject, and shows us the
god Poseidon seated, receiving a libation cup
fi-om the hands of a goddess, probably his
wife, Amphitrite. Again a synthetic trilogy
prevails in this composition: in the upper part
of the vase the god of the sea and his consort

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v.] , VARIETY OF STYLES 67

are throned; in the lower part is enacted a
little drama which takes place on the seashore,
and has sea-gods as actors. Everywhere we
find the intelligent skill of the Greek, and
the easy art with which he beautifies all he
touches. Was all this the personal work of
Douris? or does the model he copies and
follows deserve much of the credit? It will
always remain an open question. As we possess
a kylix by the potter Hieron (it has even been
ascribed to Douris), another by the painter
Peithinos, and many anonymous vases which
repeat in similar form the details of TJw
Rape of TJietis, we again incline towards the
second hypothesis. How many sanctuaries in
Greece, dedicated to the gods of the sea, must
have contained paintings or reliefs of this kind !
It is the variety of models, in a word,
which best explains the variety of styles among
painters of vases. As we remarked above, no
vase painter is of greater interest in this
respect than Douris. If any one wishes to
estimate at a single glance his often puzzling
versatility, he need only look at the mytho-
logical painting on a large receptacle for wine
in the British Museum (Fig. 14). The choice
of the subject, The Bacchic Thiasos, repeated
to satiety upon blaok-figured amphoree of the

68 THE WORK OF DOURIS [chai-.

sixth century, leads us to expect only a
commonplace painting, but the artist instead
brings us face to face with one of the most
spirited sketches Greek art has left to us.

Douris shows himself daring, amusing, free
almost to indecency, and one asks how the
same brush which 'painted many little paint-
ings, rather stiff in their symmetry, could
become animated to the point of inventing
these funambulistic movements of wild beasts
let loose. These are Sileni plajdng and dancing.
Arranged in a row, like mountebanks upon
their stage, they abandon themselves to frantic
sports under the leadership of a herald costumed
as Hermes, on his head the petasos, and in his
hand the caduceus. One lowers his head to
drink from a cup placed on the floor ; a second,
in a half-lying position, has the contents of a
goat skin and a wine jug poured together into
his mouth by two of his companions; others
toy in a ludicrous fashion with kantharoi, or
dance on one foot, and try by bending forward
to reach a full cup. Even expurgated, this
painting sufficiently shows the unbridled gaiety
and fun which the Greek designer allowed him-
self. In that again he resembles the Japanese
draughtsman, in love with buffooneries and
acrobatic postures. Those who only like to

v.] THE COMIC OR GROTESQUE 69

think of Greek art as serious and moralizing,
can take their own view. Greek art knew all
and dared all — works such as were placed upon
school walls to elevate thought, and such as
were hidden under a cloak. The same brush
drew the touching image of Eos and Memnon,
and this scene of a pagan, Kermessc.

In Athens this surprised no one. We have,
however, classified our artists, and confined
them to their specialities. We do not admit
that a "serious" artist could cause laughter,
and we have our professional caricaturists.
Leonardo da Vinci, it is true, did not disdain
to draw the grotesque. Neither ancient paint-
ing nor sculpture feared the ugly or the comic ;
but they gave to each a meaning. They did
not cause laughter for the sake of laughing.
They did not cause fear for the sake of
frightening. These important elements in real
life have a symbolic and allegoric meaning.
The head of Medusa appears as a survival of
vanished monsters, which terrified man when
he sought to estabhsh his dominion on earth.
The Learnasan hydra is, on the most ancient
vases, a gigantic octopus gripping Herakles
and lolaos, as the octopus clasps Gilliatt in
Les travailleurs de la mer. The grimacing
mask of the satyr is the inheritance of a

60 THE WORK OF DOURIS [chap.

very early' conception transformed by art. It
would not be difficult to prove, documents in
hand, that the large anthropoid apes met by
the Phoenicians in their explorations in Africa,
and drawn by them on their metal cups of
the seventh century, furnished the Ionian
artists, when combined with the Bes of the
Egyptians, with the prototype of the hairy
and shaggy Silenus, with the flat-nosed face,
that one sees on certain sarcophagi of Klazo-
menai. This is what we admire in the Sileni
of Douris. The skilful, dry point of the artist
knew how to preserve, when he sketched them
on clay, all their simian agility, their droll,
gorilla-like features, the relaxed, sinewy and
flexible Umbs, wherein we recognize the vigor-
ous beast in semblance of a man. We only
know of one other artist who has rendered
this bounding animal gait of the Sileni with
equal success — ^the painter of a kylix from the
workshop of the potter Brygos, tvhich is un-
doubtedly inspired by a sat)Tic drama; here
the goddess Hera and her companion Iris are
in great distress through falling into the midst
of such a wild band. Fortunately Hermes with
fair words, and Herakles with his club, arrive
in time to restrain these rash and disrespectful
fellows (Fig. 15).

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v.] INFLUENCE OF THE THEATRE 61

Let US finish this review of the mythological
subjects with a kylix from the Museum in
Vienna on which we see The Contest over the
Arms of Achilles (Figs. 16 and 17). It will
give us an opportunity of studying dramatic
themes in the hands of Douris, drawn from
epic poetry, and adopted by the writers of
tragedy. We know how, later, Sophocles in
his Ajax with the Scourge, showed the fatal
result of the unexpected quarrel arising between
Ulysses and Ajax for the possession of the
divine weapons, which Thetis had given to her
son Achilles. This event was a favourite theme,
and had been treated in ceramic painting from
the sixth century onwards. In what work and
what kind of production did Douris seek his
inspiration? We shall always remain ignorant
of this. We only wish to show by this
example in how great a measure the Greek
theatre influenced composition and even the
style of painted vases.

Several black -figured vases, some of which
are in the Louvre, represent this Contest',
the two heroes have come to blows and are
falling upon each other fiercely, while Aga-
memnon and other Greeks exert themselves to
separate them. This fundamental theme was
not lost on Douris, for he made use of it on

62 THE WORK OF DOURIS [chap.

one of the reverses of his kylix (Fig. 16).
But, following his fancy or other models of
which we know nothing, he adds two other
episodes: (1) on the other reverse, The Voting
of the Greek Chiefs, who all bring their votes
in the shape of pebbles, and place them on an
altar in the presence of the goddess Athene,
thus awarding the victory to Ulysses (Fig. 16) ;
(2) in the interior, Ulysses and Neoptolemos,
a painting forming, as it were, the heroic
catastrophe of the drama, where the victor
renounces the glorious weapons and restores
them generously to the son of Achilles, so
that he in turn may wear them and accomplish
the ruin of the Trojans (Fig. 17). Here, again,
Douris' favourite manner of composition results
in a trilogy. We have the three acts in a
tragedy, dominated by the memory of Achilles
and the epic of the Trojan war.

The fact will at once be recalled that to the
Greek theatre, as conceived by iEschylus and
his immediate predecessors, a similar arrange-
ment was not unknown. We find many such
examples of about the time of the Persian wars,
not only by Douris, but by his rivals as well.

To look here for an exact copy of some
contemporaneous work would undoubtedly be
absurd. We can hardly insist too strongly on

v.] THE "EPIC" MANNER 63

this point. The absence of the costumes and

accessories of the theatre, which were so

individual and expressive in their conventions,

is an indication that the painter did not try

to depict on clay the living spectacle he had

just witnessed. In a later age, the Greek vases

of southern Italy freely transferred scenes from

tragedies, but in this ancient period we have

no such examples. The composition is derived

from the theatre just as in the kylix of Eos

and Memnon, mentioned above, it depends on

Homer. It is a general impression that the

mind of the artist has absorbed, and it helps

him to arrange his subjects better.

Professor Carl Robert has very well
remarked that the vases of the sixth century
have the "epic" manner; they teU stories
and relate to us in detail like the ancient
singers. Those of the group of Douris have a
" dramatic " manner ; they habitually appeal to
us by synthetic groupings, which ;we accurately
term in the language of the theatre tableaux,
and which sum up an entire scene. We would
further remark that in Douris and his con-
temporaries, the figures assume attitudes which
one might call "scenic."

On one side of the painting of the Voting
(Fig. 16), Ulysses, with uplifted hands, expresses

64 THE WORK OP DOURIS [chap.

at once astonishment and delight to see how
the heap of little stones which represent the
votes in his favour is growing; while, on the
other side, in the right corner of the scene,
Ajax, alone and deserted and feeling defeat
inevitable, covers his head with his cloak to
hide his disgrace, a dramatic figure, suggesting
the often cited work of Timanthes — Agar
memnon hiding his face so as not to witness
the sacrifice of his daughter Iphigeneia. We
still could cite vases from the Louvre — beautiful
examples — showing Achilles returning sad and
in despair to his tent. What caused this
beautiful and tragic inspiration? Who created
these attitudes of mute eloquence if not the
Greek drama? Do we not know that one of
the great effects in the drama of iEschylus
was precisely his placing on the stage an
immovable Niobe, and a stei-n Achilles, who
^.nswered the messages of Agamemnon simply
with unrelenting silehce?

The poetry in the best compositions of Douris
is entirely derived from memories of the epic
and memories of the drama. It matters little
whether he invented them or whether they
were suggested to him; it is the very essence
of Greek painting disclosed before our eyes,
with its spirit of fireedom and ready adaptation.

Fig. 18. ACHILLES KILLING TROILOS.

By Euphronios. Louvre Museum.

v.] MARTIAL SUBJECTS 65

Everything is helpful and suggestive to an
artist. Whether derived from epic recitations,
from lyric strophes, or from the theatre, these
floating images all become fixed by his brush
and take .definite shapes, which in turn will
haunt the imagination of other artists and
guide their hands. What a rich fertility of art,
which multiplied its creations on all hands, and
united all classes of the Athenian people into
a kind of brotherhood of labour I

2. Martial Subjects.

Battle - scenes had for three centuries been
the classic subject of industrial design. As
with all primitive peoples, war had been at
first the chief occupation of the Greeks, and
in consequence one of the chief sources of art.
The Dipylon vases covered with warriors,
chariots, boats, dead and wounded, or with
pompous funeral scenes are contemporary with
the Iliad. From the seventh to the fifth
century the warrior subject was repeated to
satiety upon all ceramics with black figures.
How will Douris profit by this?

Seven drinking cups bearing twenty paintings
are devoted to this style. Most of them are
subject to the rules of symmetric composition.

66 THE WORK OF DOURIS [chap.

which we observed on the Memnon kylix, in
the contests of Menelaos and Paris, and of
Ajax and Hector. Truth and tradition unite
in giving to this subject the appearance of a
simple duel, the secondary personages, as it
were, forming a frame. Sometimes a wounded
man placed between the two champions indi-
cates the cause of the encounter, and at the
same time forms the centre of the gi'oup.
This primitive scheme, much used by the
Corinthians, is found again in many of Douris'
paintings. It is evident that he did not give
himself great trouble to invent, and that he
only reproduces a well-known theme. One
may say as much of the battle, considered as
a hand-to-hand fight; five hoplites are engaged
in a struggle in a regular and prescribed
manner, where the combatants, ordinarily paired
two and two, display their strength in the
attitudes of well disciplined duellists. It is
only a variant of the preceding subject. These
works teach us nothing new with regard to
the art of Douris, and are only of value in so
far as the minute mastery of his brush is con-
cerned. We must look elsewhere for his
ingenious mind — in the scenes of arming and
the battles of Greeks and Persians.
Arming is only an episode of military life.

v.] THE KYLIX IN VIENNA 67

Instead of showing us the battle, the painter
allows us to be present at the preparations.
A strong effect has been produced on a kylix
made in the workshop of Euphronios : Achilles,
in ambush, surprises Troilos, the youngest son
of Priam, who comes to draw water at a
fountain; he pursues him across the plain as
he flees in his chariot. The alarm is given,
and one sees the Trojans hastily arming and
running to the royal child's assistance. But
they come too late. In another painting we
see the crime already accomplished; without
pity for the tender years or the cries of his
victim, the hero cuts off the boy's head by
the altar of Apollo, where he has taken refuge
(Fig. 18).

The conceptions of Douris are not so
dramatic. The design of the kylix in Vienna,
which is a masterpiece of its kind, allows us
in a manner to penetrate into a Greek camp,
at the hour when all are preparing for the
manoeuvres or the battle (Fig. 19). It is
mediocre, even a little commonplace, as regards
observation, but it is clever by the realism of
the small practical details. In the interior is
the classic scene of a libation, a soldier before
his departure praying to the gods; a woman
brings him wine which she pours into a

68 THE WORK OF DOURIS [ohap.

sacrificial cup. On the reverse, an encamp-
ment ; the alarm has sounded, every one seeks
his arms in haste, one his sword, another his
lance or helmet. The monotony of the subject
had to be varied. The painter has succeeded
in this by introducing some old and bearded
men who help and encourage the youths, and
a woman who brings a shield and a sword.
Nothing can be more animated than the faces
and gestures of these young men arming them-
selves. One tries his sword and draws it partly
out of the scabbard, another binds the fillet
about his hair, so as to adjust his helmet more
firmly; his companion, with a finical gesture,
turns up his sleeve and the lower part of his
tunic. Elsewhere (Fig. 19), a hoplite already
helmeted places greaves on his legs, another
dons his corselet, a third hangs his sword at
his side and puts the shoulder belt over his
shoulder, a fourth makes a little gesture of
comic despair showing that he has forgotten
to place a crest on his helmet, while the last
raises and ties his long hair. These are sketches
drawn from life, and are almost like the sketch-
book of an artist who has accompanied soldiers
at their manoeuvres. What we term " military
painting," in its familiar and picturesque form,
dates from the Greeks.

z

a:

s

5
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o

v.] AJAX AND ULYSSES 69

The style of this kylix is ancient, and it
dates from the earliest period in the career of
Douris. Although found at the same time
and in the same place as the other kylix at
Vienna (Fig. 16), representing The Contest
of Ajax and Ulysses, although signed by the
same painter and moulded by the same potter
Python, it' represents an entirely different
manner. Here is a style still archaic, the
heads large, the bodies rather thickset, the
draperies with regular and symmetrical lines,
an extreme minuteness in all details. There,
the proportions are reversed, the bodies
lengthened, with small heads, the garments
with wavy folds, the entire execution freer
and with less care for detail. No one would
think of attributing the two vases to the
same master if they did not bear the name
of Douris. This comparison permits us to
appreciate the nature of the changes that took
place in a Greek potter's career. He is not
a craftsman who is satisfied to remain in the
routine of a uniform method. He is an artist
who wishes to leam, who reflects and develops.
Herr Hartwig has well demonstrated that there
was a "first" as well as a "second" style in
Douris, as in our days in Corot or Fantin-
Latour.

70 THE WORK OF DOURIS [ch*p.

To introduce glorious memories of the Persian
invasion, only recently repulsed by the Greeks,
was another mode of rejuvenating the warrior
subjects. These direct allusions to the Persian
wars, are, to our great surprise, only rarely
found on the monuments. It is a characteristic
trait of the idealism in which the art of the
fifth pentury delights. Anything in the form
of anecdote or accident, all Ihat forms the woof
of material facts, is only of slight interest to it.
It fears also to provoke the gods by extolling
the grandeur of Athens, and hence allegory and
symbol are used in preference. The Treasury
of the Athenians, raised at Delphi from a
tithe of the spoils of Marathon, glorified the
deeds of Herakles and Theseus. The pedi-
ments of the. Temple at iEgina, probably
made after Salamis, show the Trojans con-
quered by Homeric heroes. To celebrate
Greece's second victory over Asia, images of
the Trojan horse were placed on the Acropolis
and on the slopes of Delphi. Industrial
painting conforms to the same principles.
Warrior subjects were frequently represented
by battle-scenes between Greeks and Asiatics,
but appear only to contain allusions to
the Epic, or else to the battle of Herakles
with the Amazons (Fig. 1), which recalls the

Fig. 20. GREEK HOPLITE AND PERSIAN STANDARD BEARER.

By Douris. Louvre Museum.

v.] A PRECIOUS RECORD 71

great deeds of the Greeks' ancestors against
barbarians.

We may say that Douris gave proof of
originality by frankly dealing with modern
subjects. A kylix at the Louvre, unfortun-
ately damaged and restored, shows in the
interior an hoplite striking with his sword a
fallen barbarian soldier, who holds a standard
with two square-shaped flags (Fig, 20). This
typical accessory leaves no doubt as to the
meaning of the painting. A banner would
never be placed in the hands of a Trojan. It
is very probable that the victors of Marathon
picked up Persian standards on the battle-
field with the spoils, and that we have hete
the reproduction of such a trophy. We look
upon this sketch of Douris as a precious record
of the army led by Datis and Artaphernes in
490. For the vase is not of a style to be dated
after 480, that is to say, after the second
invasion conducted by Xerxes in person.

Other vases attributed to the painter
Onesimos represent battles of Greeks against
Asiatics on horseback, very realistic in form.
Here one may again see copies from Ufe.
Lastly, Greeks and Persians arb fighting on
the sculptured frieze which adorns one side
of the small temple of Nike Apteros on the

72 THE WORK OF DOURIS [ohap.

Acropolis. These, however, are rare allusions
to the greatest military achievements of the
century. It is not difficult to imagine what
they would have produced in modem art.
We must, however, beware of crediting Douris
with an exaggerated initiative, and we must
not forget that among the lost works of Greek
art, a painting by Mandrocles is mentioned,
dating from Darius' expedition into Scythia,
The Crossing of the Bosphorus, and at Athens
a Battle of Marathon, attributed to Panainos,
in which Miltiades and the chief Greek generals
were seen repulsing the Asiatic phalanxes.
Douris and Onesimos did not lack models to
guide them into this channel. The value of
their works is above all in the good fortune
which has preserved them to us, and gives
us, if not the letter, at least the spirit
of the painting dedicated to contemporary
history.

3. Everyday Scenes.

Here, again, it is convenient to divide the
work of Douris into two parts. At times,
like all the manufacturers, he made use of
old subjects with hardly any change; then,
again, he sought new ideas and popularized

1 ii<, 21, SI-AII-I) -IDUIII IKJI.DINr, A IIAHI-

Hy D"

v.] SCENES FROM THE PALAESTRA 7S

unused themes. The latter, of course, will
chiefly occupy our attention.

A general statement should first be made:
the work of Douris, as we actually know it,
shows a distinct preference for living subjects.
Of his eighty paintings we can count seventeen
dedicated to mythical subjects, twenty-two to
mUitary life, and forty-one to everyday scenes.
The proportion in favour of contemporary life is
more than three-fourths. Comparing these with
works signed in the workshops of Euphronios
(fifteen mythical subjects, two warrior subjects,
and eight everyday scenes), from the workshop
of Brygos (seventeen mythical, one warrior, and
six everyday scenes), we observe that the propor-
tion is reversed by the two most distinguished
rivals of Douris. We may, therefore, note this
characteristic in his work which he has m
common with another great designer, Hieron
(twdnty-three mythical and thirty-one familiar
scenes). These two artists thus prepared the
way for the genre picture, which was to
dominate the second half of the fifth century,
and to make women and children the favourite
subjects of painters.

The most frequent themes are scenes from
the palaestra (Fig. 6). Youths are wrestling,
running, jumping, dumb - bells in hiand, or

74 THE WORK OF DOURIS [chap.

throwing the discus; the teachers of gym-
nastics watch the sports, rod in hand, ready
to punish the lazy or check any brutality.
Sometimes a small column, or a basin intended
for ablutions, a pick-axe, or a javelin thrown
down, indicates where the scene takes place.
Only this much would a Greek draughtsman
permit himself as scenery. Man alone, action
or living forms, are the subjects of his study;
nor does he seek, as we do, to endow with
sentiment the objects in his environment.
Landscape, which moves us, leaves him quite
indifferent. But what knowledge of the human
form, what love of line and contour ! His
short, skilful brush moves freely on the clay,
throwing out delicate outlines, simplifying the
muscles and giving only the most essential,
breaking or spreading out the long folds of the
drapery, emphasizing the flexible spine, drawing
sinewy hands and grave profiles with strong
chins and heavy lips. He attacks the difficulties
over which archaic art had not yet triumphed
— foreshortening and three-quarter poses.

Kimon of Kleonai, a great painter of the
sixth century, had proved how effi2ctive the
latter could be. In the structure of the eye
he attacks another difficult problem, trying
to modify the everlasting and awkward con-

v.] REPETITION OF MODELS 76

vention of earlier times — a face in profile with
an eye full face. He tries many forms — round,
triangular, open on one side. One feels the
solution, which henceforth shall be that of all
draughtsmen, growing under his fingers. All
this is suggested by the study of his beautiful
paintings, in which Douris has not invented
much, for the school which preceded him, that
of Epiktetos, of Faidikos, of Chakrylion, offered
similar studies, but he unfolds a constant desire
for perfection of form.

In his work one may note the clever and
economical device of drawing many persons by
means of very few models. In his scenes of
the palsBstra, consisting of ten or twelve persons,
he uses, in fact, only two models — a bearded
man and a youth, who are seen under different
aspects. Many of his contemporaries made use
of the same device. It may be inferred that
in these scenes the painter used living models
more frequently than elsewhere; it is a com-
panion or an apprentice who has posed and
has been turned about on every side. In
consequence, the composition is not so bold,
but more commonplace than in the mythic
paintings inspired by superior models.

Nowhere is this inability to group the figures
in familiar scenes more apparent than in a

76 THE WORK OF DOURIS [chap.

kylix at the Louvre, in spite of an abundance
of humorous detail and pretty silhouettes.
What can be more graceful than the figure
of The Youth and the Hare (Fig. 21) ? Seated
on a stool and leaning on a stick, he looks
with tenderness at the nimble little creature,
which the Athenians liked to tame, and which
prowled about their houses as cats do with us.
At the same time it was a love token, and
one frequently sees on ceramic paintings grave
persons advance holding by the ears this frisky
gift, which they offer to young boys. Plato's
Banquet informs us on this well-known
custom of the Greeks. On the inner circle,
framing like a medallion The Youth and the
Hare, runs a band, repeating a design ten
times in almost the same form — a bearded
man rests on his stick, addressing friendly
words to a boy seated before him. One holds
a lyre; another a hare; others are wrapt, as
if chilly, in their cloaks. Similar themes
decorate the two reverse sides, m,. In all one
can count thirty-three persons, but there are in
reaUty only two actors. It is as if a metope
with two figures were constantly repeated, with
some variety, upon all the free space of the vase.
Each detail of the group is executed with zest
and spirit, but composition does not exist.

v.] INTERIOR OF A SCHOOL 11

The kylix in the Berlin Museum, The
Interior of a School (Fig. 22), shows the iSame
fault, although it may be considered as Douris'
masterpiece in everyday scenes. But the
subject is of such interest to us, and throws
so much light on the life of Greek scholars,
that we think no longer of imperfections nor of
the systematic stiffness of the groups. Here,
again, Douris is seen as an original and fertile
initiator. He here abandons the palaestra and
the gymnastic exercises, repeated a hundred
times, and" takes us into the school-room where
the music -master and the grammarian give
their lessons; on one reverse, lessons on the
lyre and recitations are given, on the other,
lessons in writing and flute-playing. In the
interior, a simple figure of a nude youth tying
his sandal, shows the boy, whose task is finished,
preparing to run and play. It is a charming
and sober painting, we should call it to-day,
" an instantaneous impression," giving a glimpse
of life which particularly attracts us. How
were the youths of Athens educated? Upon
that theme bulky volumes have been written.

As M. Paul Girard has shown in his Educa-
tion Ath^nienne, this kylix of Douris teaches
us better than the texts. We see here the
importance the Greeks attached to musical

78 THE WORK OF DOURIS [ob^p.

instruction. The word "music" expressed the
entire education ; literaiy studies, instrumental
music and singing. Music walked hand in
hand with literature and gymnastic exercises.
Plato even went so far as to say that the art
of touching the soul with song inspired the
desire for virtue. He rejected, however, as
voluptuous and enervating, certain Ionian and
Lydian modes. We must remember that
music was intended chiefly, as represented on
the vase in Berlin, to accompany the song,
and that the words were more significant than
the melody. Prayers, invocations, war-songs,
moral maxims, all contributed to make music
a powerful instrument of education, and the
apparently paradoxical words of old Damon
may in this way be explained, when he said
that the rules of music could not be changed
without shaking the state itself

The kylix of Douris corresponds closely with
these ideas. Literature is represented, on the
one hand, by a master of declamation holding
a written scroll, upon which we read the
beginning of an epic poem that a pupil is
about to recite (Fig. 22); on the other side,
a young master is tracing a page of writing,
while a pupil stands ready to copy it. Mean-
while the tutors of the boys sit on stools.

Fii. 23. A SCHOOLMASTER.

Berlin Museum.

v.] GENRE PAINTING 79

waiting for the lessons to be finished to con-
duct them home. No other ancient artist has
permitted us to enter so intimately into
Athenian life. What we term "genre paint-
ing" has appeared. It is the last and perhaps
the most fertile inspiration that Douris derived
from great contemporary art. It permits us,
at the same time, to admire the flexibility of
a great talent, starting with religious and
heroic subjects in the severe style of Eos and
Memnon, and attaining to the graceful and
brilliant compositions of The Youth and the
Hare, and The Interior of a ScJwol.

There is an amusing sketch from the work-
shop of Euphronios, which may be placed by
the side of these paintings, showing a writing-
teacher bending forward in his chair, with
forefinger raised and threatening, as if he
were scolding the little fellows confided to his
care (Fig. 28).

CONCLUSION

If we have succeeded in reproducing the rather
complex physiognomy of Douris, we hope we
have clearly indicated its two- fold character.
His talent and his originality do not raise him
above the conditions imposed upon his craft.
It would be an error to ascribe genius to him.
He owes his importance, on the one hand, to
the disappearance of great paintings, and, on
the other hand, to the innate qualities of the
Greek race, which even invested popular works
with freedom and beauty. Julius Lange, the
Danish archaeologist, has said that to judge
Greek painting from the vases is like judging
the light of the sun by the reflection we
receive from the moon. But if, in this regard,
industrial art is inferior to the lost master-
pieces, let us not forget that it is nearer to
the people, whose thoughts it so forcibly
expresses. So the anonymous sculptors of

80

FORESHORTENING AND SHADOWS 81

images in our cathedral reveal to us the
mediceval French soul far better than the
great artists can.

With these thousand sketches upon fragile
clay we can retrace an evolution which lasted
four or five centuries, and created the art of
drawing, as it is practised by all modem
nations. Indeed, after long endeavours, the
Greeks were the first who shattered the tyrannic
conventions to which artists had conformed, in
Egypt, Chaldea and Assyria. They revised
to disjoint the human form on the pretext of
showing it from a true anatomical point of
view. For the artificial reality of the body
drawn in sections, they substituted a living
silhouette seized in rapid movement, rendered
with all its irregularities of form and its lack
of symmetry. This proved the victory of art
over science. One became accustomed to
figures half turned to the spectator, to per-
spective, to parts half hidden or suppressed,
one learnt to consider Nature not as she is,
but as one sees her. The orientation of art
was completely changed.

The invention of foreshortening and of
modelling by means of shadows belongs to

82 CONCLUSION

the Greeks. Both had considerable influence
on the Roman woi:ld, and later on modern
times. We may compare these discoveries
to those in physics or in chemistry which
entirely revolutionized the domain of science.
It is an error to suppose that the scientist
alone is capable of discoveries which humanity
at large is called upon to enjoy. In art the
same action and reaction take place, and a
solidarity uniting the past and present is not
less powerful. Between an Egyptian fresco
and an oil painting by Van T)yck there is
scarcely anything in common as regards con-
ception and process. Between a drawing by
Douris and the Stratonice of Ingres a re-
semblance is very perceptible, almost a kind
of brotherhood.

The drawings of Douris teach us to under-
stand yet another thing. Greek painting at
this period had a cause at heart which the
entire fifth century upheld with passionate
conviction — the belief that the aim of the
plastic arts is the representation of man.
After the Cretans and Mycenseans had derived
such admirable inspirations from the vegetable
kingdom, from the marine fauna and flora,

THE EXPRESSION OF MAN 88

after the picturesque studies of birds and deer
which the lonians had transmitted to the
Corinthian and Attic potters, we see Greek
painting gradually eliminating all this from
design, in order to devote itself exclusively
to the representation of the human form.
Nothing can turn it aside from this coiu:se.
Whether it is a question of gods and goddesses,
heroes, or even citizens, it is always the human
form in aU its aspects, in all its attitudes,
dignified or familiar, which the draughtsman
observes. Nowhere has such complete absorp-
tion of the artistic imagination been seen.
Later, after Alexander, the Greeks themselves
somewhat modified their attitude, and learnt
once more to contemplate non-human nature;
but the limits within which Greek thought
had voluntarily confined itself remained severe
during the century of Pericles. According to
an expression of Victor B^rard, it was a
garden of humanity in which man was the
most beautiful plant. To this bias we owe
some of the purest masterpieces of which
humanity can boast. Those of sculpture are
famous in all lands; those of painting were
no le^s worthy of admiration, but we only

84 CONCLUSION

can judge them by the designs on veses.
Theseus and the Marathonian Bull on the
kylix by Euphronios (Fig. 12), the Memnon
by Douris (Fig. 8), or the Zeus carrying off
a Woman upon an anonymous kylix in the
Louvre (Fig. 24) which is attributed to him,
the Aphrodite on the Swan in the British
Museum (Fig. 7) by a somewhat later artist,
bear comparison with the most beautiful draw-
ings of the Renaissance. Never has the beauty
of the human form in motion been rendered
with more sincere joy. Here, again, the Greeks
prepared the path for the moderns, teaching
the dignity of man by proving him to be
more important and necessary in art than all
else. It is no longer Nature ruling and
crushing with its immensity mankind ignorant
of itself. It is human thought, on the contrary,
projecting itself on the external world, and
taking possession of it.

This is why we admire ancient art, and
why a drawing by Douris tells us so many
things. Doubtless Douris has his message.
He never suspected it; he did not make it
his aim ; he was the unconscious instrument
of a great people and of a great revolution.

Fig. 24. /laiS CAKIO'INC; OI-[- A WOMAN.

[,(>u\ re Museum.

THE TRIUMPH OF ART 85

This it is which makes works of the past of
such great value. Only time can show what
they contained of beauty and of fertility, even
unknown to their authors. The creative force
animating them is beyond the individual; it
springs from the depths of the race which
produces them. The sculptor who fashioned
the Venus of Melos could not foresee the
fame his statue would achieve, which he pro-
bably executed after many other similar ones.
Leonardo da Vinci would be greatly surprised
at what we see in his Gioconda. Anatole
France says : ■ " Each generation imagines anew
the antique masterpieces, and in this manner
communicates to them a progressive immor-
tality." It is not that we are duped by a
delusion, but time has done its work; moving
on, it has discovered unexpected worth in
certain objects.

Renan made the profound remark, " Admira-
tion is historic." Indeed, not only is distance
necessary, but the wearing effect of centuries,
to distinguish the good from the bad, the
eternal from the perishable, to recognize the
actual importance of a thought or an inven-
tion. Those who love to meditate will not

86 CONCLUSION

go in vain to the Louvre to look at the kylix
of Eos and Memnon. They will see a re-
flection of that which formed the grandeur
and beauty of Greek painting during the most
flourishing period of its history, and they will
recognize in one of its noblest expressions an
art for ever lost.

Fijf. 26. A Painter at Work, boblon Museum.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

R0UI.BZ, in Nuove Memorie delV Instituto, ii., 1866, p. 393.
Helbig, in Annali delt Instituto arch., xlv., 1873, p. 53.
Frobhneb, Les Musees de France, 1873, p. 37.
Raybt-Coluqnon, Hist, de la Ciramique Grecque, 1888, p.

178.
LucKENBACH, in Jdhrbuch Jwr class. Philologie, suppl. Band

xi., 1880, p. 518f.
Carl Robert, Bild und Lied, 1881, pp. 28, 87, 98, 214.

Scenen der Bias und Aithiopis, 1891. (XV. Hallisches

Winckelmanns Programm.)

Meier, in Arckoeol. Zeittmg, 1883, p. 1.
W. Klein, Euphronios, 1886.

Die griech. Vasen mit Mmtersignatwren, 1887.

Die griech. Vasen mit Lieblingsinschriften, 1898.

TsouNTAS, in Ephemffris a/rchoWogique d'Ath^nes, iii., 1886,

p. 40.
LoEWT, in Jahrbuch des deutsch. arch. Instituts, iii., 1888,

p. 139.
Jane E. Harrison, in Journal of Hellenic Studies, x., 1889,

p. 231.

Gfreek Vase Paintings, 1894, p. 21.

Beisch, in Mittheilungen des arch. Inst. Bomiscke Abth., v.,
1890, p. 331.

in Festschrift fv/r Gomperz, 1902, p. 459.

F. DtJMMLER, in Bonner Studien, 1890, p. 77.

P. .Hartwig, Die griech. Meisterschalen, 1893, pp. 200f.,

583f.
FuRTWANGLER AND Reiohhold, Die griech. Vasenmalerei,

1904, pp. 76, 114, 246, 267.
MiCHAELis, in ArchcBologische Zeitung, 1873, p. 1.
Murray, Designs from Greek Vases, 1894, p. 12f.
TarbelL, in American Journal of ArchcBohgy, 1900, iv.,

p. 183.
BiROH, Hist. Ancient Pottery, ed. Walters, 1905 i., p. 434.

87

INDEX

Achilles, 60, 62, 64, 67
Acropolis, 17, 13, 72
iEgina, temple at, 70
jEschylus, 21, 62, 64
Africa, 14, 16
AgamemnoD, 2, 61, 64
Aiax, 32, 46, 48, 61, 64
Alexander, 2, 83
Amasis, 11
Amphitrite, 66
Amphora, 16, 30
Anaphlystos, deme of 11
Antenor, 18
Apelles, 29
Aphrodite, 48

on her swan, 84

Apollo, 48

Arktinos of Miletos, 46, 47

Artemis, 48

Athene, 18, 46, 48, 53, 62

Athenian pottery, 6

Athenians, Treasury of, 70

Athens, 2, 10, 16, 27

Attic craftsmen, 6

taste, 14

Augnstus, 2

B^RABD, Victor, 83
Berlin Museum kylix, 77
Bes of the Egyptians, 60
Black figured vases, 18

glaze, 12, 26, 27, 36f, 49

Boeotia, 27

Boulle, 34

British Museum, 61, 67, 83

Brunn, 3, 46

Brushpainters 27, 28, 29, 36

Brussels Museum, 8, 18

Brygos, 6, 11, 21, 33, 62, 60,

Caere, 16
Chalkia, 16

73

89

Chakrylion, 76

Chiaro oscuro, 6

China, 16

Christ, 61

Cimabue, Madonna of 66

Clay, 12, 26

Goppe amatorie, 41

Corinth, 16

Corot, 69

Craftsman, 12

Crete, 2

Crimea, 14

Cyrenaica, 14

Datis and Artaphernes, 71
Delphi, 70

Demons of destruction, 39
Dipylon Gate, 14

vases, 66

Doris, 11

Douris, 1, 6, 6, 7, 18, 21, 26,

31, 33, 44, 67, 60, 62, 66, 72,

73,80

EDITIO PBINCEPS, 32

Egypt, 81

Eos, the Dawn, 46

and Memnon, 44, 60, 51,

69, 63, 66, 86
"Epic" manner, 63
Epiktetos, 11, 75
Ergotimos, 11
Etruria, 14, 33
Etruscan tombs, 14, 16
Euphronios, 6, 8, 10, 11, 17, 21,

31, 67, 73, 79
Euthymedes, 9, 10, 41

Fantin-Latour, 69
Flanders, 26
France, Anatole 86

90

INDEX

Genre pictures^ 24
Girard, Paul 4, 70
(Jreuce, 4
(ireek camps, 07

ceramics, 5

paintings, 2, 4, (!, 04

pictures, 24

theatre, 02, 04

Hartwig, 19, 6»
Hector, 32, 51
Hellenic age, 2
Hera, 00

Herakles, 59, 00, 70
Herculaneum, 2, :t
Hermes, 58, 00
Hierarcliy, social l:^
Hierou, 0, 11, 57, 73
Hippias, 5
History of vases, 13
Homer, 32, 47f.
Hoplites, 32
Hyilria, 10

Iliad, 47, 05
Ingres, 82
Ionian artists, 00

origin, 12

lolaos, 69

Iphigeneia, 04

Iris, 00

Islands, the 16

Isocrates, 20

Italy, 10

southern, 14, 27

Japan, 15

•Japanese draughtsman, 58

painters, 30

Juno, 50
Jupiter, 50

Kaujaoes, 44
Kantharo9, 10

at Brussels, 54

Kerameikos, 2, 12, 47

Kimon of Kleouai, 74

Klazomenai, GO

Klein, 8

Kleomenes, son of Nikias, 11

Klitias, 11

Kolchos, 11

Krater, 16, 30

Kylix, 10, 30, 31

Lanqe, Julius 80
Learniean hydra, 59
Lckythos, 10
Lippi, Madoiuia hy 55
Lucian, 2

Louvre Museum, 52, 53, 01, 04,
71, 70, 80

, kylix at the, 54

Lydian modes, 78
Lydos, 11
Lysippos, 1

Mandrocles, 72
Mantegna, 50
Marathon, 70, 71
Martial subjects, 43
Mater dolorosa, 50"
Medusa, 59
Megakles, 11
Melos, 2, 14
Mcmiton, King 46
Monulaos, 32, 45
IMetics, 10, 14
Miclielangelo, 2
Miltiadea, 72
Minos, 2, 51
Minotaur, 63
Mikon, 62
Munich Museum, 42

, hydria at, 23, 25

Music, 78
Mycena), 2
Mycenaean age, 27
Mythological subjects, 43

Nature, 20, 21, 32, 60, 81
Nearchos, 18
Necropolis, 14
Neoptolemos, 02
Nereids and I'cleus, 31
Nike Apteros, 71
Nikias, son of Hurmokles, 11
Nikostheues, 11, 44

OlNOOHOAI, 10, 24

Onesimos, 71, 72
Oxide of iron, 20

Paiuikos, 11, 75
Pamphaios, 11, 44

INDEX

91

Panainos, 72
Panatkenaic amphorae, IC

festival, 47

Paris, 32, 46, 48
Parnes, 16
Parrhasios, 1, 20
Pausanias, 2, 3
Peithinos, 57
Peloponnesian war, 10
Pericles, 1, 83
Persian, 32

wars, 6, 62, 70

Phidias, 1, 20, 21

Phintias, 24

Phoenicians, 60

Pieta, 50

Pindar, 46

IllpaKcs, 32

Plato, 76

Pleiades, 5

Pliny, 2, 29

Plutarch, 10

Polygnotos, 1, 4, 20, 21, 49

Polykleitos, 1

Pompeii, 2, 3

Poseidon, 66

Praxiteles, 1

Protogenes, 29

Puvis de Chavannes, 3

Raphael, 3, 4
Renan, 85
Rhodes, 14
Riesner, 34
Robert, Carl, 63
Roman houses, 2
Ruvo, 23

Salahib, battle of 70
Scythian colonies, 15

Sicily, 14
Sileuua mask, 23
Sikanos, 11
Sikelos, 11
Skyphos, 17
Skythes, 11
Smikros, 11, 18
Solon, 10
Sophocles, 46, 61
SuDJects of daily life, 43

Terracotta tablets, 23
Theseus, adventures of 61

and the Minotaur, 31

Thetis, Rape of 54
Thracian Chersonese, 14
Thrax, 11
Tiryns, 2
Titus, 2
Trade mark, 16
Trojan horse, 70

war, 45, 47, 62

Troilos, 67
Tyrrhenian Sea, 14

Ulysses, 50, 62
Urbino, 4

Van der Wbyden, Roger 60
Van Eyck, 82
Venus of Melos, 86
Vienna Museum, kylix, 61, 67
Vinci, Leonardo da 69, 86
Volsinii, 16

woltmann, 3

Xerxes, 71

Zevxis, 4, 20

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