ax, Atreste for Adrastus, Akle for Achilles,
Alesti for Alcestis, etc. We must also observe, that Etruscan painted
vases are very rare, and are but few in number, compared with those
for which we are indebted to the arts of Greece.

[Illustration: ROMAN VASES.]

_Greek._--The paste of these vases is tender, easily scratched or cut
with a knife, remarkably fine and homogeneous, but of loose texture.
When broken, it exhibits a dull opaque color, more or less yellow, red
or grey. It is composed of silica, alumina, carbonate of lime,
magnesia and oxide of iron. The color depends on the proportions in
which these elements are mixed; the paler parts containing more lime,
the red more iron. The exterior coating is composed of a particular
kind of clay, which seems to be a kind of yellow or red ochre, reduced
to a very fine paste, mixed with some glutinous or oily substance, and
laid on with a brush; great difference is observable in the pastes of
vases coming from widely separated localities, owing either to their
composition or baking. The paste of the early vases of Athens and
Melos is of a very pale red; that of vases of the Doric or Corinthian
style is of a pale lemon color. At the best period of the art, the
paste is of a warm orange red; but Lucanian and Apulian vases are of a
paler tone. The Etruscan painted vases of all ages are of a pale red
tone, with a much greater proportion of white, which appears to be
owing to the greater proportion of chalk used in preparing the paste.

The earliest vases were made with the hand, while those of a later
period were made with the wheel; the wheel, however, is a very early
invention. Among the Egyptians and Greeks it was a low, circular
table, turned with the foot. Representations of a potter turning the
wheel with his foot, occur on painted vases of an early date. With
this simple wheel the Greeks effected wonders, producing shapes still
unrivalled in beauty.

After the vases had been made on the wheel, Dr. Birch writes, they
were duly dried in the sun, and then painted; for it is evident that
they could not have been painted while wet. The simplest and probably
the most common, process was to color the entire vase black. The under
part of the foot was left plain. When a pattern was added, the
outline, faintly traced with a round point on the moist clay, was
carefully followed by the painter. It was necessary for the artist to
follow his sketch with great rapidity, since