It has been proposed to recognise the effect of the stage on vase-painting, _e.g._ in the increased pomp of the dresses. This effect might at the most have taken place indirectly; for that the vase-painters often took as their patterns votive paintings of victorious Choregi, is more than probable. And in general one may draw conclusions as to the great art from many a fine invention, which is seen on vase-paintings at second-hand, _e.g._ from the Bacchic scenes on the reverse of the ‘Pronomos’ vase. This conclusion is certainly also justified in view of the Talos vase (Fig. 153) which transforms the mighty echoes of the late Pheidian art into the pompous, as the Meidias vases into the ornamental-elegant. The vase-shape is closely allied to that of the ‘Pronomos’: the central figure in white, so popular in this period, recurs, and in its spatial effect is enhanced by shaded modelling far above the proportions of the other figures, which show plainly the conscious restraint of the vase-painters. Though the ‘Talos’ master altered the composition of his pattern to suit his vase, he must have preserved with tolerable faithfulness the grandiose invention of the centre group; the passionate impetus, which fills the whole scene and catches even the cloaked figures of the reverse, is here most convincing. With this fine masterpiece, which almost exaggerates the element of show, not separated by more than two decades from the Parthenon pediment, we close the history of the vases that show the style of Pheidias. Nay, one may regard the proper history of Greek vase-painting as closed with these post-Pheidian vases. Not merely does the potter make his vases untectonic by excessive profiling and elaborate extension, but the painter too, interrupts the unity of the vase-surface with the white-painted and plastically modelled central figure; thus in a sense the silhouette style is declared bankrupt. [Illustration: PLATE XCIII. Fig. 154. SATYR AND SLEEPING MAENAD: FROM A RED-FIGURED JUG. Fig. 155. WOMEN AT THE BATH: FROM A LATE ATTIC PELIKE. _From Furtwängler-Reichhold, Griechische Vasenmalerei._] CHAPTER VII. LATE OFFSHOOTS