The classification of vases by the subjects represented upon them is unsatisfactory and confusing. Scenes are taken from mythology, heroic legends, funeral ceremonies, from civil life, and from the gymnasium, which permit neither of a chronological arrangement of the vases nor of one based upon their position in the scale of art. A distinct group might, without any loss of lucidity, be made of vases decorated with subjects in relief, or with statuettes arranged upon the body and neck. This was a union of sculpture and pottery occasionally embellished by the painter’s art in the coloring of the drapery and subsidiary ornaments. Color was also applied to sculptured reliefs. A vase now in St. Petersburg is thus described: “It is a piece of very large size, with three handles, and of the finest and most lustrous glaze. It is ornamented at several heights with sculptured friezes in terra-cotta, and gilded; but that which gives it its priceless value is a frieze of figures from four to five inches high, sculptured in bas-relief, with the heads, feet, and hands gilded, and the vestments painted in bright colors--blue, red, and green--in the finest Greek style imaginable. Several heads from which the gilding has become detached show the modelling, which is as fine and as finished as that of the finest ancient cameo.” Cups or vases with two heads, one on each side, such as Hercules and Omphale, illustrate the same branch of art. Such features as these, beautifully modelled relievos, ideal heads, figure scenes in which drawing and composition are almost above criticism, not less than its elegance of shape, have made the Greek vase a model for all time. We can trace Assyrian ideas in the decoration of some of the earlier vases, and Egyptian influences may also occasionally be detected. We can even find foreign models for a few of the Greek forms; but the Hellenizing process has obliterated every antecedent, and the art which Greece gave the world is as purely Grecian as if in every particular it were indigenous to the soil of that favored land. CHAPTER III. THE IBERIAN PENINSULA. SPAIN: Ancient Pottery.--Valencia the Most Ancient Centre.--The Roman Period.--Arabs.--Valencia under the Moors.--Its Decline.--Malaga the Most Ancient Moorish Settlement.--The Alhambra Vase.--Influence of Christianity.--Majorca.--Azulejos.--Modern Spain.--Porcelain.--Buen Retiro.--Moncloa.--Alcora.--PORTUGAL: Vista Allegre.--Rato.--Caldas. [Illustration: Fig. 190.--Hispano-Moresque Vase. End of 13th Century. (S. Kensington Mus.)]