History of Ancient Pottery: Greek, Etruscan, and Roman. Volume 1 (of 2)Walters, H. B. (Henry Beauchamp)
History
History of Ancient Pottery: Greek, Etruscan, and Roman. Volume 1 (of 2)
Walters, H. B. (Henry Beauchamp)
Mythology, Classical, in art; Pottery, Ancient; Pottery, Etruscan; Pottery, Greek; Pottery, Roman
A second collection of vases belonging to Hamilton was mostly lost at
sea, but a record of it has been preserved in Tischbein’s work, _Vases
d’Hamilton_[20] in four volumes, which is more accurate and useful than
that of D'Hancarville. It is believed that many of these vases are now
in the Hope collection at Deepdene, which is unfortunately inaccessible
to archaeologists.
The Hamilton collection formed, as we have said, the nucleus of the
magnificent array of vases in the British Museum. Most of them, it is
true, belong to the later period or decadence of vase-painting, and
were not only found, but had also been manufactured, in Italy. Although
the time for a scientific study and classification was not yet to be
for some sixty years, the interest in the subject was decidedly on the
increase, and many English noblemen and gentlemen were forming
collections, as well as such foreigners as the Duc de Blacas, the Duc
de Luynes, and M. Millin. It became the fashion to produce large folio
works embodying the contents of these collections in series of coloured
illustrations, and thus we have, besides those already mentioned, the
imposing publications of Millin,[21] Millingen[22], Laborde[23], and
others. On the same lines, but mostly of later date, are the
publications of De Rossi[24], Christie[25], Moses[26], Inghirami[27],
Lanzi[28], Böttiger[29], Micali[30], Raoul-Rochette[31],
Stackelberg[32], and the Duc de Luynes[33], who published either their
own vases, as De Luynes, or some well-known collection like that of the
Duc de Blacas, or some particular class of vases: _e.g._ Micali, those
found in Etruria; Raoul-Rochette and Inghirami, those illustrating
Homer; and Stackelberg, those found in tombs in Greece Proper. Few of
these, it will be seen, were published in England, where neither public
patronage nor private enterprise were found prepared to rival the
achievements of the Continent.
In most of these works the vases are styled “Etruscan” as a matter of
course. Even nowadays it is a very common experience to hear vases
spoken of as “Etruscan” or even as “Etruscan urns,” as if every vase
was used as a receptacle for the ashes of the dead. This error has
lasted, with all the perseverance of a popular fallacy, for over a
century, and cannot now be too strongly denounced. But at the beginning
of the last century the Etruscan origin of painted vases was most
strongly maintained by erudite scholars, chiefly Italians who desired
to champion the credit of their own country, and the controversy raged
with varying force till Greece was able to substantiate her own case by
the numbers of vases that came forth from her tombs to proclaim their
Hellenic origin.
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