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
It may be noted that as a general rule the Greek colonies on the coast,
which maintained from the earliest times a constant intercourse with
Greece, have yielded from their tombs a fair proportion of the older
Greek fabrics, whereas the inland cities are more remarkable for their
remains of the later Athenian and local wares, being of more recent
origin.
Beginning with Campania, we take first the famous colony of _Cumae_,
the most ancient in Magna Graecia, which was founded by the Chalcidians
of Kyme in Aeolis at an unknown date, but not later than the eighth
century. Vases of all periods have been found here, though not in great
numbers. The earliest belong to the infancy of the colony, and include
the famous lekythos of Tataie found in 1843, and now in the British
Museum.[256] It bears an inscription in the Chalcidian alphabet. But
the majority of the finds belong to the period when there appears to
have been a flourishing local fabric, about the third century B.C. They
are the most typical representatives of the Campanian style, and may be
studied to best advantage in the Raccolta Cumana of the Naples Museum,
where they are collected together.[257] Many of these were found in
1842. Cumae was famous for its pottery even in Roman times,[258] and
specimens of Roman ware with reliefs have been found here, as also at
the neighbouring Puteoli (Chapter XXII.)
Next in importance for the history of local fabrics are the vases found
at _S. Agata dei Goti_, the ancient Saticula, which can also claim a
manufacture of its own.[259] They are for the most part bell-shaped
kraters, and were chiefly excavated at the end of the eighteenth
century. Signed vases by the Paestum masters Assteas and Python (see
below) came from this site. The vases of _Abella_ form another class of
Campanian ware, but of a degenerate and late type, mostly hydriae of
very pale clay. Other sites which have yielded Campanian vases are:
Naples (Neapolis), Telese, Teano, Acerra, Sessa, and Nuceria Alfaterna
(Nocera).[260]
_Capua_, on the other hand, does not appear to have had any special
fabric of its own, although the finds of all periods are as numerous as
from any site in Southern Italy except Ruvo and Nola. Among the earlier
specimens may be mentioned the inscribed Corinthian krater in the
British Museum (B 37) from the Hamilton collection (Plate XXI.). The
red-figured vases include cups signed by Euergides, Epiktetos, and
Pistoxenos. The vases of the Decadence have, as indicated, no
distinctive features of their own. Most of the late red-figured vases
of fancy shapes (such as rhyta) in the British Museum are from this
site, whence they passed into the hands of Castellani. The black vases
with gilded ornamentation, of which the British Museum possesses some
fine specimens, are also characteristic of Capua. A large number of the
vases obtained by Sir William Temple are from this site, as is also one
of the later Panathenaic amphorae.[261]
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