The Place of Vase-Painting in Greek Art

Abstract

‘The vases of the classical period are but the reflection of classical beauty; the vases of the archaic period are archaic beauty itself.’ So Beazley; an indisputable and valuable truth, but a truth that needs some explanation. In spite of all the detailed work that has been done in the last fifty years and more on the development of Greek vase-painting and its relation to other arts, its nature still remains something of a problem. The issue is confused, of course, by the fact that vase-paintings are almost our only original Greek drawings—almost the only key-hole through which we can peep at archaic and classical painting—and this gives them an importance independent of their intrinsic worth.