The extent to which physiognomical expressions are rendered on vases varies at different periods[2001]; but it is not true, as has sometimes been thought, that the artists altogether ignored such expressions in their figures; it was only in the earlier phases that this was the case, and even during the fifth century the advance was timid and slow, much more so than in sculpture. As a rule, in the same vase all the faces are alike, and no physiognomical distinction can be drawn between gods and heroes, or even between men and women, except (on the Attic vases) in the treatment of the eye. On the B.F. vases the ordinary type of face has a long nose, with a tendency to turn up, a pointed chin, deep rounded jaw, and large eyes, while the limbs are sinewy, angular, and tapering. Beards of some length are invariable for grown or elderly men; otherwise distinctions of age are hardly observed until the R.F. period. And as in sculpture of the archaic period all figures have the same conventional smile, so on the B.F. vases gods, heroes, and mortals alike all pursue the actions in which they are engaged with the same unvarying expression. The contrast of violent action and calm unmoved physiognomy is often quaint, and almost grotesque. Indications of expression or sentiment are, in fact, rather implicit than explicit. They are given in a sort of shorthand fashion, just as Polygnotos in his great paintings, by some subtle touch—by a change of attitude or the action of a hand—indicated the emotion he wished to convey. In the different treatment of the male and female eye there is, no doubt, an attempt to give to the man a more lively expression by means of the round pupil, while the oval form of the woman’s eye gives her a softer and less intense look. The neglect of this principle on Ionian vases, where the male eye is oval, seems to be a reflection of the effeminate tendencies of the Ionian races.[2002] At an early date we may observe a special treatment of the eye to represent it as closed, in the case of a blind or dying person. Thus the Phineus of the Würzburg cup has merely an angular mark in place of an eye, representing the fall of the upper eyelid over the lower, or the eye is represented as a vacant space without pupil.[2003] The mouth is sometimes open to express pain or anger, as in the Nessos of the Proto-Attic vase,[2004] or the quarrelling heroes on a vase in the Louvre (F 340). It is also used to express the agony of a dying or injured person, as on a vase with the outraged Polyphemos,[2005] with which we may compare the dying warrior of the Aegina pediment. But all these are rather exceptions than the rule on B.F. vases.