Our next sub-division consists of vases, chiefly of late date, in which the decoration is by means of opaque colours laid on the surface of a vase altogether coated with black varnish or glaze. The process is not indeed one absolutely unknown in earlier times, for there is the primitive Kamaraes ware of Crete (p. 266), and also a small series of archaic vases belonging to the early part of the fifth century (p. 393) in which this principle is adhered to, the designs being painted in opaque red or white on the black varnish. The latter seem to show a development from the black-figure period, to the end of which they belong, and may have been intended to rival the new red-figure method, but failed to attain popularity. We next meet with the process in Southern Italy, where it again appears as the last effort of a worn-out fashion to flicker into life with renewed popularity. The centre of this revival, which follows on after the Apulian vases of the third century, was Gnatia (Fasano), on the coast of that district. The vases are partly modelled in relief, or have ornaments in relief attached; the decoration, in white and purple, is confined to one side only, and is very feeble and limited in its scope. An apparently local variety, perhaps made in Campania by native craftsmen, has the figures in opaque red, with details marked by rudely incised lines. The Gnatia style was adopted by the Romans in the second century for a small series of vases inscribed with names of Italian deities, such as Juno and Vesta (p. 490), and it appears in the method of decoration known as _en barbotine_ on the pottery of the Empire (see Chapters XXI., XXIII.). [Illustration: FIG. 73. VASE-PAINTER VARNISHING CUP ON WHEEL.]