Apparently the red-figured vases which were imported into Etruria in such large numbers in the fifth century served as prototypes, not for their paintings, but for the engraved mirrors to which we have alluded. It may have been that they shrank from the task so successfully achieved by Greek painters of suitably decorating the curved surfaces of a vase, and preferred the flat even surfaces supplied by the circular mirrors and the sides of the _cistae_. Moreover, the interior designs of the kylikes, perfected by Epiktetos, Euphronios, and their contemporaries, served as obvious models for disposing a design in a circular space; and they had in the subjects of the vases a mythological repertory ready to hand. It now remains to be seen to what extent they actually were influenced in their pottery by the imported Greek vases. For considerably over a century painted pottery, at all times rare in Etruria, is practically unrepresented in the tombs except by Greek importations, Corinthian, Ionic, and Attic; the only local attempts in this direction are the Polledrara and Cervetri vases. As we have seen, early Corinthian vases appear in the _fossa_ tombs, and later Corinthian in the chamber tombs, in which, towards the middle of the sixth century, the Attic B.F. fabrics begin to make their appearance. The latest developments of the Corinthian wares are, indeed, almost unrepresented, but their place is taken by what appear to be local imitations of the Corinthian vases, a large series of which was found at Cervetri, and now forms part of the Campana collection in the Louvre. These are, however, for the most part certainly Greek, being presumably made by the Greek settlers in that town—at any rate, an Etruscan origin cannot be proved for them.[2316] We have also seen that the Ionian fabrics exercised a great influence on Etruscan art, and this leads us to another series of vases found at Cervetri, the Caeretan hydriae discussed in Chapter VIII. Some years ago it was noticed by the late F. Dümmler[2317] that there were in many museums examples of a class of vases which stood in close relation to the Caeretan hydriae, yet were obviously a different fabric. Having collected and examined these vases, he was able to demonstrate satisfactorily that they were direct imitations by the Etruscans of the Caeretan hydriae,[2318] thereby proving at the same time that the latter were imported from other sources (_sc._ Ionia), and not, as had hitherto been supposed, themselves of Italian origin. It is not unlikely that the Ionic influence in Etruria is due to the Phocaean migration of 544 B.C.; on reaching Italy the Ionian fugitives would naturally hand on their art-traditions there. ------------------------------------------------------ PLATE LVIII [Illustration: ETRUSCAN IMITATIONS OF GREEK VASES (BRITISH MUSEUM).] ------------------------------------------------------