ETRUSCAN VASES

a cla of beautiful ancient painted vases made in Etruria, but not strictly speaking a product of Etruscan art, since they were really the productions of a ripe age of Greek art, the workmanship, subjects, style, and inscriptions being all Greek. They are elegant in form and enriched with bands of beautiful foliage and other ornaments, figures and similar subjects of a highly artistic character. One cla has black figures and ornaments on a red ground—the natural colour of the clay; another has the figures left of the natural colour and the ground painted black. The former cla belong to a date about 600 B.c., the latter date about a century later, and extend over a period of about 300 or 350 years, when the manufacture seems to have ceased. During this period there was much variety in the form and ornamentation, gold and other colours besides the primitive ones of black and red being frequently made use of. The subjects represented upon these vases frequently relate to heroic personages of the Greek mythology, but many scenes of an ordinary and even of a domestic character are depicted. The figures are usually in profile: temples are occasionally introduced; "fy js Lip ides PH GH Li 2, y j “a ~~ Btruscan Pottery and many curious particulars may be learned from these vase pictures regarding the Hellenic ritual, games, festivities, and domestic life.