Lecture on Greek Vase-Paintings.

The lecture given by Dr. Sachs last night in Upper Boylston was upon the relation of the vases to the "Cypria," one of the lost epics which supplemented the Homeric poems. We know this poem through quotations which we find in various authors, and by its influence on Greek art and literature. In this epic we find the determination of Zeus to relieve the earth of its surplus population by a destructive war given as the cause of the Trojan war. In furtherance of this plan, Thetis was given in marriage to Peelers, that their son Achilles might be the bulwark of the Greeks. This marriage was one of the episodes which particularly attracted the vase-painters, and was subjected to endless variations in artistic handling. The Judgment of Paris was also a favorite subject in every period, although the art-types were very different in the archaic age from those of later times. The series of stereopticon views used to illustrate this incident gave a good idea of the artistic progress of the vase-makers, beginning with the stiff and conventional figures of the early vases and continuing down to the time when landscape and a background were introduced. The abduction of Helen by Paris was a fruitful theme which gave rise to several beautiful representations. Pictures of some of the masterpieces of Greek vase-painting were shown, and the ludicrous figures of the archaic vases were most amusingly commented upon by the lecturer, whose remarks called forth hearty applause.