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A New Early Attic Vase

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

Gisela M. A. Richter
Affiliation:
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Extract

At a time when the history of Greek vase-painting is only gradually being reconstructed as one discovery after another supplies the necessary clues, it is difficult to assign to the various classes of pottery names which will be permanently satisfactory. This difficulty is the excuse for the many misleading terms which have crept into our study of Greek vases. Names assigned purely provisionally soon became generally accepted, and when once part of the common nomenclature, it becomes a matter of convenience that they should be retained. In many cases this retention is necessary; otherwise, in the present uncertainty of the origin of so many of the early styles, we should continually be changing names according as one theory or another appeared more plausible. In other cases, however, where our knowledge rests on firmer foundations, and where a term has become a confusing anomaly, it is time that we should revise our loose use of language. Such a case is that of the ‘Proto-Attic’ vases. These vases, connecting as they do the Attic Dipylon with the Attic black-figured style, show the continuity of Athenian ceramic art. To call a vase ‘Proto-Attic’ when it is posterior to another Attic fabric is therefore a contradiction in terms.

Information

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1912

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