bulous beings, or arabesques. The drawings show an antiquated stiff
type, similar to those on the vessels recently discovered at Nineveh
and Babylon, whence the influence of Oriental on Greek art may be
inferred. This archaic style, like the strictly hieratic style in
sculpture, was retained together with a freer treatment at a more
advanced period. As a first step of development we notice the
combination of animals and arabesques, at first with half-human,
half-animal figures, soon followed by compositions belonging mostly to
a certain limited circle of myths. The treatment of figures shows
rigidity in the calm, and violence in the active, positions. The Doric
forms of letters and words on many vases of this style, whether found
in Greece or Italy, no less than the uniformity of their _technique_,
indicate _one_ place of manufacture, most likely the Doric Corinth,
celebrated for her potteries; on the other hand, the inscriptions in
Ionian characters and written in the Ionian dialect on vessels prove
their origin in the manufactures of the Ionian Euboea and her
colonies. The pictures on these vases, also painted in stripes, extend
the mythological subject-matter beyond the Trojan cycle to the oldest
epical myths, each story being represented in its consecutive phases.

The latter vases form the transition to the second period. The shapes
now become more varied, graceful, and slender. The figures are
painted in black, and covered with a brilliant varnish; the
_technique_ of the painting, however, does not differ from that of the
first period. The outlines have been neatly incised and covered up
with black paint; the details also of draperies and single parts of
the body are done by incision, and sometimes painted over in white or
dark red. The principle seems to be that of polychrome painting, also
applied in sculpture. Single parts of the armor, embroideries, and
patterns of dresses, hair, and beards of men, the manes of animals,
etc., are indicated by means of dark red lines. This variety of color
was required particularly for the draperies, which are stiff and
clumsily attached to the body. The same stiffness is shown in the
treatment of faces and other nude parts of the body, as also in the
rendering of movements. The faces are always in profile, the nose and
chin pointed and protruding, and the lips of the compressed mouth
indicated only by a line. Shoulders, hips, thighs, and calves bulge
out, the body being singul