GREEK VASE-PAINTING
[Illustration: PLATE I.
Frontispiece: THESEUS, ATHENA AND AMPHITRITE: KYLIX WITH THE SIGNATURE
OF THE POTTER EUPHRONIOS
_From Furtwängler-Reichhold, Griechische Vasenmalerei._]
GREEK
VASE-PAINTING
by ERNST BUSCHOR
WITH C·L·X ILLUSTRATIONS
TRANSLATED BY G. C. RICHARDS
M.A., F.S.A., FELLOW OF ORIEL
COLLEGE OXFORD & WITH A
PREFACE BY PERCY GARDNER
LITT.D., F.B.A., PROFESSOR OF
CLASSICAL ARCHÆOLOGY
IN THE UNIVERSITY
OF OXFORD
LONDON
CHATTO & WINDUS
1921
CONTENTS
Page
Preface vii
Chapter I. The Stone and Bronze Ages 1
” II. The Geometric Style 18
” III. The Seventh Century 29
” IV. The Black-Figured Style 63
” V. The Red-Figured Style in the Archaic Period 111
” VI. The Style of Polygnotos and Pheidias 133
” VII. Late Offshoots 155
Index of Illustrations 161
Index of Names 174
PREFACE
A history of Greek vase-painting has been for a long time a desideratum
of students of Greek art and antiquity. Many years ago I planned such a
work, but the difficulty of the necessary illustration caused the plan
to break down. In the meantime an extensive literature has grown up on
the subject, mainly in German, but with contributions from other
countries. In his first chapter Dr. Buschor has shewn how the result of
excavation in Greece and Italy has been to throw our starting-point
further and further back, until it lies in the Neolithic age. But it is
not only in regard to the earlier phases of Greek vase-painting that
research has brought light: the red-figured vase-painting which is one
of the most perfect fruits of Greek art in the fifth century has been
far more minutely and intensively studied. The result has been to fix
the outlines, and more than the outlines, of the history of a fourth
great branch of Greek artistic activity; the history of architecture, of
sculpture and of coinage having been already thoroughly investigated.
And this fourth branch is not merely vase-painting; but since the fresco
and other paintings of the great age of Greece have almost entirely
perished, we may fairly say that it includes almost all that we can ever
know of the history of early Greek painting. Vase-paintings can but
feebly image the colouring of the great painters of Greece; but they can
give us invaluable information as to the principles of grouping and
perspective adopted by them; they can reflect the extreme beauty of
their figure-drawing; and they can shew us how they treated subjects
from the vast repertory of Greek mythology and poetry.
Most of those who take up the study of Greek art are strongly attracted
by vases, the subjects of which are more varied, and the treatment freer
than is the case with sculpture. For mythology, religion, athletics,
daily life, they are first-hand authorities. Yet one may fairly say
that, until a few years ago, satisfactory study of them was impossible.
Vase-paintings, in consequence of the shape of the vessels themselves,
can very seldom be adequately reproduced by photography. And the
published drawings of them, until about 1880, were quite untrustworthy;
partly because the draughtsmen had insufficient sense of style, partly
because most of the vases in the great museums were more or less
restored, often in a most misleading way.
Thus merely to reproduce published engravings of the vases was quite
misleading. The truth about them could only be known from a technical
examination of the originals scattered through Europe. Yet one must say
that in nearly all our English classical books and dictionaries, old
engravings are uncritically reproduced. It is a fouling of the springs;
and however practically inevitable such a course may often have been,
the result is that the reader never knows whether he is treading on firm
ice or on a mere crust. Anything more reckless and misleading than the
procedure of the publishers and editors of illustrated classical books
can scarcely be imagined. The errors resulting can only be weeded out by
slow degrees.
Since about 1880 things have slowly mended. The German Archæological
Institute, and the French and English Societies for the promotion of
Hellenic Studies have published really careful drawings of a multitude
of vases, Mr. F. Anderson in England being one of the most accurate and
careful of the artists employed. In the last few years the catalogues of
vases in Berlin, Paris, Munich, London and other places have given
authoritative information as to restorations. A fresh era in the
knowledge of technique and subject was begun by the magnificent
publication of Furtwängler and Reichhold, with its splendid plates. At
present the most authoritative works on early red-figured vases are
those of an Oxford man, Mr. J. D. Beazley, and an American, Mr. J. C.
Hoppin. Mr. Beazley has been good enough carefully to revise the present
translation.
We have reached a stage at which, for all but specialists, what was most
needed was a general history of Greek vases in all their periods,
compiled by a trustworthy authority, and so fully illustrated (no easy
matter) as to enable a reader to follow the text throughout. Thus would
the whole subject be mapped out, and the approach to any particular
province be made easy. Such a book is that of Dr. Buschor. His examples
are carefully chosen; his text shews full mastery of the subject; and it
is very unlikely that his treatment will be superseded for a long time
to come. It is, however, a book not adapted for a mere cursory reading,
but for careful consideration and study.
I may add a few words by way of introduction to the subject. We may
divide the whole history of Greek pottery into two sections, which are
separated one from the other by the line which divides primitive from
mature Greece, about the middle of the sixth century.
Before that time, before the age of Crœsus and the rise of the Persian
Empire, the history of Greece is very imperfectly known to us, through
the traditions of the temples and the old families, which are seldom
wholly to be trusted. Where history is uncertain it is of untold value
to have monuments and works of human manufacture to supplement it. These
provide a skeleton of fact with which to compare legend and tradition.
It is now generally recognized that before writings in the form of
inscriptions and coins come into general use, pottery furnishes the
most continuous and most trustworthy material for the dating of sites,
indications of commercial intercourse, the movements of peoples. In
recent years the study of prehistoric Greece has made immense strides,
primarily owing to the excavations of Schliemann, Evans and other
investigators. The subject seems to fascinate the younger generation of
archæologists; and the pottery found in the graves of the early
inhabitants of Greece and Asia Minor has been worked at with great
minuteness and to much result. It has revealed to us the outlines of the
early history of Crete, the Troad, Laconia, Thessaly, and a number of
other districts. Constant comparison with the results of finds in Egypt
which can be dated from inscriptions has revealed in a measure the state
of the civilization of the Ægean in century beyond century, back to
Neolithic times.
When Greek civilization became fully established, in the sixth century,
when inscriptions and coins begin to give us far more exact information
than that which can be derived from pottery, the interest attaching to
the latter does not cease, but it changes in character. We no longer go
to it to determine the outlines of the history of civilization. But it
has now become a thing precious in itself because of its beauty, its
close relation to the poetry, the religion and the life of Greece. The
elegant forms of Greek vases and the charm of the designs painted on
them have caused them to be sought after by great museums and wealthy
collectors. The graves of Italy, Sicily, Hellas, have poured out a
constant supply of these works of art, some of them beyond value.
Classical archæologists have naturally given much attention to them; and
of late years the assignment of examples to noted masters, and the study
of their technique have been zealously prosecuted. They belong too
wholly to a civilization which has passed away to be readily understood
by ordinary visitors of museums; but those who have once been bitten
with their charm find in them an occupation, a delight and a solace
which are great helps in life. Greece is the classical land of art in
all its forms, and the principles of art which were established by the
successive schools of art there can never be wholly neglected. If we set
aside the pottery of China and Japan, which is, in another sphere, of
unsurpassed beauty, the pottery of Greece is the only perfectly
developed and thoroughly consistent pottery in the world; and the noted
productions of modern Europe seem in comparison poor and half-civilized.
Dr. Buschor’s general plan has compelled him to write but in a summary
way of the works of red-figured style, which are incomparably the most
beautiful. In fact, in such small and rough illustrations as are
possible in a handbook, their quality could not be reproduced. For them
the reader must go on to other works, or visit the vase-rooms of
museums. A conspectus of successive styles and periods was all that was
possible. And I think that enough is here accomplished to arouse the
interest of those who love art and have some sympathy with the Greek
spirit.
The old supremacy of the Classics in education has passed away, and in
future they will have to hold their own not by prescriptive right but in
virtue of their intrinsic value, on which more and more stress is being
laid by those who feel what their neglect in the modern world would
mean. It is time to strengthen their hold by shewing how they lie at the
very root of philosophy, literature and art. Our successors will not be
satisfied with drilling boys in Greek and Latin grammar, but will have
to insist on the place held by ancient peoples, the Jews, the Greeks and
the Romans, in the evolution of all that is valuable and delightful in
the modern world. We have to widen the field of Classics, and illustrate
the literature from every point of view. And if it be felt that the
object of education is not merely to enable boys and girls to earn a
living, but to help them to lead a worthy and happy life, then I have no
fear that the Classics will be permanently eclipsed.
Mr. Richards’ work as a translator was very difficult. In spite of
kindred origin, the German mind in literary production moves on
different lines from the English. Not only is the order of words in a
sentence different, but the sentences themselves are much more involved,
and German scientific writers aim at an exactness in the use of terms
which we seldom attempt. Mr. Richards’ version is very accurate; but it
must be allowed to be not always easy reading. He preferred to retain as
much as possible of the meaning, even if it involved some stiffness in
the text. Students will thank him for this; and if the general reader
finds that he has to give the text a closer attention than he is used to
give to books, he will in fact have his reward.
Dr. Buschor’s work is a solid stone for the temple of knowledge, and the
main lines of the subject are now so firmly fixed by induction, that
they are not likely to suffer very much change in the future.
P. GARDNER.
CHAPTER I.
THE STONE AND BRONZE AGES
Students of the history of Greek vases have been gradually led backwards
from a late period to earlier and earlier stages of civilization by the
course of circumstances. First of all graves were opened in Lower Italy;
the first great collection of vases, formed by Sir William Hamilton,
British ambassador in Naples, and published in 1791-1803, contained
chiefly the output of later Italian manufactories. Next, from 1828
onwards, the doors of Etruscan graves were unlocked, and their contents
proved to be the rich treasures of Greek red and black-figured vases,
procured in such numbers by the Etruscans of the 6th and 5th centuries.
About twenty years later a bright light was thrown on eastern Greek
pottery of the 7th century by the discovery of a cemetery in Rhodes.
About 1870 the ‘Geometric’ style became known and the Dipylon vases at
Athens were revealed. In the seventies and eighties Schliemann’s spade
unearthed the Mycenean civilization, and in the beginning of the present
century we were introduced to the culmination of this period in Crete.
Finally in quite recent times finds of vases of the Stone Age in Crete
and in North Greece have given us a view of vase-production in the third
millennium B.C. If therefore we wish to retrace this long road, we must
begin at a period, of which the investigation has only just begun and
which presents most difficult problems.
The excavations in Northern Greece, _i.e._, in North Boeotia, Phocis
and above all Thessaly, have introduced us to a purely _Neolithic_
civilization. Here alongside of the two simpler prehistoric techniques,
unornamented (monochrome) and incised ware, was discovered, even in the
oldest strata, a richly developed painted style, with linear ornaments
painted either in red on vases with a white slip or in white on vases
made red by firing. The monochrome, red or black vases are often
brilliantly polished and of excellent workmanship. In the later layers
of the Stone Age finds this civilization differs considerably according
to locality. One class of painted (and incised) vases is very prominent:
it was found chiefly at Dimini and Sesklo, and shows quite a new
principle of decoration (Fig. 1). It combines curvilinear patterns,
especially the spiral motive, with rectilinear decoration (zig-zag, step
pattern, chequers, primitive maeander, etc.); the colouring varies,
white on red, black on white, brown on yellow. Side by side with this
style we find in other places the greatest variety of painted and
unpainted vases: even polychrome decoration appears. In the early Bronze
Age all this splendour vanishes and gives place to the production of
coarse unpainted ware.
It appears that this Stone-Age Ceramic of North Greece has no connection
with the finds of South Greece, and is rather to be traced to the North
and the civilization of the Danube valley.
The South presents us with a much more primitive picture. The large
layer of Stone Age finds, which came to light in Crete, produced vases
with incised geometrical ornament, alongside of coarse undecorated
pottery, but curvilinear patterns of Thessalian type are completely
absent and painted vases are rare. The reason for a less elaborate
development of Neolithic civilization in Crete seems to be that it gave
place to the Bronze Age comparatively
[Illustration: PLATE II.
Fig. 1. STONE AGE BOWL FROM THESSALY.]
[Illustration: Fig. 2. FACE-URN FROM TROY II-V.]
early: in Thessaly it seems to go down far into the second millennium.
According to these early vase finds one has thus to picture to oneself
the beginnings of ceramic art. First, the most essential household
vessels are fashioned by hand out of imperfectly cleansed clay, and
burnt black in the open fire, and before long the outer surface is also
polished, probably with smooth stones. Rectilinear ornaments are pressed
or incised into the soft clay, and by degrees the method of filling and
indicating the incised lines by a white substance is learned; the clay
is also treated plastically, for instance channelled. Gradually the clay
is made less impure, is more cleanly polished and more evenly baked in
the oven, and by the actual firing has various colours, red, black,
grey, yellow and brown, imparted to it. Thus a ground is also obtained
for painting, on which the rectilinear ornaments are imposed with
colour. Greater solidity and brighter colouring are obtained by covering
the vase with a slip, which moreover sets off the painting excellently.
The invention of the wrongly styled ‘varnish,’ a black colour glaze
which, though technically undeveloped, appears even in North Greece of
the Stone Age, is of the highest importance for the whole history of
Greek vase-painting. The forms are primitive, little articulated, but
already very various: the decoration covers uniformly almost the whole
vase.
But the different techniques do not regularly succeed each other;
inventions are not immediately communicated from one locality to
another; primitive methods subsist alongside of more advanced, nay even
sometimes drive them out again. This much is clear, that a section taken
through these contemporaneous prehistoric civilizations would present a
highly variegated aspect.
The Stone Age is succeeded by the Bronze Age, here earlier and there
later; here more quickly, there more slowly; i.e., metals are gradually
introduced, and with them new techniques and a new civilization. It is
evident that to the earlier Bronze Age belong a series of innovations
which are of decisive importance for the history of vases, the invention
of the potter’s wheel, the perfection of the so-called ‘varnish,’ and
the imitation of metal forms in clay. In most places the potter’s oven
and the painting of vases appear only in the early Bronze Age.
Into the early Bronze Age fall the finds from the earliest layers at
Troy. In the unalterable faith that he was discovering the world of
Homer, with the strong and weak points of a dilettante, Heinrich
Schliemann began to dig at Hissarlik, and in the excavations of 1871,
1878, 1890 and 1893 Dörpfeld and he investigated the rubbish hill, which
has become so famous, the nine superimposed settlements of which
represent as many successive civilizations down to Roman times. The
numerous ceramic finds of the five lowest layers show the transition
from rude hand-made and ill-baked ware with impressed linear patterns to
ever more developed stages. The potter’s wheel and oven finally succeed
in producing brilliant red, black, grey, brown vases of the finest
technique. The variety of shapes is very great, some are already quite
developed; the imitation of metal forms is to be traced here and there.
A notable speciality is found in the so-called Face-urns (Fig. 2), rude
imitations of the human form, produced by adding eyes, nose, mouth,
ears, nipples and navel; and there are also other vase-types, which are
not repeated in Western Greece. Painting is rare, the vases are either
monochrome or adorned with incised linear ornaments, which are often
applied in the manner of necklaces, or divide the vase vertically.
The Bronze Age civilization of the second city up to the fifth, which,
judging by the rich finds of metal utensils and
[Illustration: PLATE III.
Fig. 3. JUG FROM SYROS.]
[Illustration: Fig. 4. JUG FROM MYCENÆ.]
gold ornaments, was by no means primitive, recurs in the whole of N.W.
Asia Minor and in Cyprus. Its last phase cannot be separated in time
from the western civilization of the shaft graves (p. 7).
Parallel with Troy II-V and the mainland civilization of Marina (below),
on the islands of the Aegean is the so-called Cycladic civilization. Its
pottery, however, presents a much more variegated picture: beside the
primitive vases there are vases incised and painted with rich, not
exclusively rectilinear, ornamentation: glazed (‘varnished’) vases also
occur. The forms are very varied: bronze and stone vessels often serve
as models; the structure of the vases and the distribution of the
ornamentation show unmistakeably definite artistic intention. There is
great difference between various islands and a comprehensive view of the
development is not yet possible. Specimens like the beaked jug from
Syros (Fig. 3) are probably contemporary with the early Minoan style of
Crete (p. 7), but the pans with engraved spirals, circles, ships and
fish are later. On Melos, which has quite a separate position of its
own, the influence of the Cretan ‘Kamares’ civilization (p. 8) in
technique and decoration is obvious.
We return to the mainland and Central Greece. Hagia Marina in Phocis is
the chief place in which a pottery, following on the Neolithic, has been
found, hand-made with a black or red glaze, with or without rectilinear
ornaments in white. This was called ‘Primitive varnish ware,’ before the
Neolithic preceding stages had become known. ‘Marina’ ware superseded
the Neolithic in Boeotia (Orchomenos) and Thessaly also; similar vases
have been found in the western islands (Leukas) and in the Argolid
(Tiryns). It is also related to the Cycladic civilization, as is
indicated by the jug imitated from metal models, which is common to both
styles.
The ‘Marina’ layer is succeeded at Orchomenos by a ware of a totally
different kind, which probably spread from this locality and is
therefore called ‘Minyan,’ dark-grey and grey or yellow vases,
especially (_a_) drinking-cups, with tall channelled foot, and (_b_)
profiled two-handled cups (Fig. 6), turned on the wheel, and in shape
more plainly even than the Marina ware dependent on metal models. The
wide extension of this already finely developed ware combines a series
of bronze-age sites into a chronological unit, the so-called ‘Shaft
grave’ stage (p. 7). In Northern and Central Greece as well as in Leucas
it follows on the ‘Marina’ ware, in Attica and Aegina it takes the place
of the monochrome and incised ware, in the islands it supersedes the
Cycladic pottery, in Troy it is parallel with the ware of Asia Minor and
Cyprus, in the Argolid the Marina finds of Tiryns are followed by the
shaft graves of Mycenae with Minyan vases.
Almost everywhere along with the Minyan ware we find vases not so finely
constructed, generally hand-made, which are neither burnt dark nor
glazed, but show a decoration applied in dull colour. This lustreless
painting (_Mattmalerei_) in Central and Northern Greece, and also in
Attica (white-ground ware of Aphidna, Eleusis), uses only geometrical
ornaments; in the Argolid on red or light clay vases linear patterns,
wavy lines, running spirals or even figured decorations (_e.g._ birds,
Fig. 4) are painted in brown colour. The decoration generally emphasises
the shoulder; the lower part of the vase is unadorned and separated by
stripes from the upper.
The next stage is that Minyan ware and lustreless painting are almost
everywhere driven out by Creto-Mycenean ‘Varnish’ pottery. In many
places this process did not take place till the end of the Bronze Age,
as in Thessaly, Central Greece and Attica (Eleusis). It was apparently
[Illustration: PLATE IV.
Fig. 5. KAMARES VASE FROM KNOSSOS.
Fig. 6. KYLIX FROM MYCENÆ.]
the lords of the Argolid who first and most freely opened their gates to
Cretan importation and influence; in the shaft graves of Mycenae, famous
for their rich treasure of gold, discovered by Schliemann in 1874 behind
the Lion Gate, the oldest Cretan import in the shape of vases of the
first late Minoan style (p. 10), appears beside Minyan and lustreless
ware (Figs. 4 and 6).
By the side of these local products, the ‘Varnish’ vases in the shaft
graves appear like children of a strange and sunnier world,
representative of a quite different and superior style of art. The idea
that they came from Crete has been confirmed by the excavations carried
on since 1900, which in different parts of the island disclosed a
compact civilization of markedly un-Greek character, developing without
a break from the third millennium to the end of the second, which is in
striking contrast to that of the mainland. This civilization has been
named Minoan after the fabulous king Minos, the builder of the
labyrinth, and it has been divided into three epochs, of which the first
two precede the period of the shaft graves.
In the early Minoan period, following on the miserable Stone Age (p. 2)
the Cretans must have laid the foundation of their riches, if an
inference may be drawn from the stone vases and goldsmith’s work of
Mochlos. The ceramic art enters on two paths, which have a future before
them. The vases were hitherto unpainted and only incised. Now _either_
they are covered with brilliant black paint (‘varnish’) on which the old
patterns are painted in tenacious white colour, a technique which
celebrated its triumph in the subsequent period, or the vases are left
in the colour of the clay and painted with bands of ‘varnish’; to this
so-called ‘Mycenean’ technique belongs the whole late period (p. 10).
There is a special group of flamed ware, the patterns of which, like
much that is Minoan, are far nearer to modern applied art than to
Greek. Even in the first half of this period the kiln seems already to
be known; the potter’s wheel appears in the second, which is
characterized by the first appearance of curvilinear patterns,
especially the wave series and running spiral.
The Middle Minoan period, a pure and richly-developed bronze
civilization, is the height of polychromy: the clay is finely cleansed,
the black glaze is at its very best, red in different shades occurs
besides white. A transition leads to the brilliant period of the Kamares
style, named after the first discoveries in the Kamares cave on Mt. Ida.
The ‘Mycenean technique’ occurs not infrequently alongside of the
polychrome; but as it often edges the ornaments with incised lines or
puts white spots on them, it does not reject the tendency to richer
effect, which is a feature of the age and is also expressed in the
relief-like ornamentation of many vases (Barbotine). The ornamentation
is still very fond of linear patterns, and also develops the spiral
still further, and lays the foundation of the numerous decorative
motives which characterize the later periods; living creatures also
(birds, fishes, quadrupeds) are represented in painting. The motive of
drops falling from the brush, which would be inconceivable in Greek
vase-painting proper, occurs already. There is a simultaneous use of
decoration in bands, and without division; the emphasizing of the
shoulder by ornamentation is found in contrast with the lower part
decorated, if at all, with stripes (Figs. 3 and 4). The stock of forms
increases, and the imitation of metal-work is often unmistakeable.
In the Kamares style proper (Figs. 5 and 9) polychromy (white, red, and
dark yellow on black) reaches its highest development, the greatest
variety of plastic decoration appears, the Mycenean technique (dark on
light) is relegated to the background.
[Illustration: PLATE V.
Figs. 7 & 8. FUNNEL-VASES OF LATE MINOAN I STYLE. FROM PALAIKASTRO AND
PSEIRA.
Fig. 9. KAMARES PITHOS FROM PHAISTOS.]
The shapes become continually more delicate, metal vases are often
directly copied; cups, beaked jugs, beaked saucers, and amphorae with
handles at the mouth are specially common. The list of ornaments is much
increased and can scarcely be described in few words. By the side or in
the place of geometrical motives, crosses, zig-zags, groups of strokes,
and richly developed circle, bow and spiral motives, appear vegetable,
leaves, branches, rosettes, and most important of all, the continuous
wavy tendril. Even living beings appear occasionally.
The plant ornamentation of the Kamares vases is in a peculiar relation
to nature. Though nature is here for the first time consistently
imitated, the reproduction is not at all ‘naturalistic’ but thoroughly
and from the first severely stylized. Not only does the colouring bear
no relation to the object represented, not only is the combination of
vegetable and geometric motives of purely decorative character, but the
natural object imitated is often barely recognizable. The Kamares potter
only aims at a pretty combination of colour and line, not at
representations. Nor is he concerned with structural arrangement:
division by bands and emphasizing the lower part of the vase by leaves
pointing upward are uncommon. Usually the decoration spreads freely over
the field and is not subordinated to the structure of the vessel. This
undisputed predominance of the ornamentation is in the sharpest contrast
to the procedure of Greek art proper.
The Kamares civilization, starting from Crete, exercised influence over
the islands of the Aegean: the importation and imitation of its ware can
be proved for Thera and Melos. Isolated finds in Egypt are of
importance, first because they prove the relation of Crete to the Nile
valley, and secondly because they give a fixed date (XII Dynasty). The
technique did not disappear with the Middle Minoan Age, but was long
maintained alongside of the new style.
The Kamares finds come mostly from the older palaces of Phaistos and
Knossos. The investigation of their ruins has shown that these buildings
were destroyed by fire and soon afterwards replaced by still finer new
edifices. The vase finds in these later palaces show a complete break
with the old style. Polychromy is no longer the principal attraction; it
is given only a secondary place: the new style (Middle Minoan III and
Late Minoan I, Figs. 7, 8, 10 and 11), which is no longer satisfied with
gay ornamentation, but with fresh vigour essays the conquest of Nature
and her excellences, throws off the bands of the old technique, and with
bold freedom depicts the newly discovered world in dark colour on light
clay. In contrast to the Kamares style, it did not arise on the vases
themselves by the enrichment of an ornamental style, but it is to be
understood as the reflection of higher techniques. Vase-painting gives
only a small extract from the rich array of subjects, which the other
lesser arts and the wall-painting of the period conjure before our eyes.
Of the wonderfully vivid representations of men and animals, in which
the Cretans were masters, nothing is to be found on the vases. This is
certainly not an accident, but a sign of the purely decorative feeling
of these artists. They did not want to stylize the human or animal body
till it became decorative, to distort it for the eye by placing it on a
curved surface, and by combining figures to upset the ease and flow of
the decorative scheme. Thus they entirely gave up all reproduction of
them, and are thus in marked contrast with Greek vase-painting, the
history of which may be regarded as a constant struggle to represent
mankind and animal creation. The Cretans took to other objects instead,
which could be represented in the vigorous way they aimed at, and yet
also filled the field decoratively, without any loss to the picture from
the
[Illustration: PLATE VI.
Fig. 10. STIRRUP-VASE OF LATE MINOAN I STYLE FROM GOURNIA.
Fig. 11. AMPHORA OF LATE MINOAN I STYLE FROM PSEIRA.]
curve of the vessel. The vegetable world had entered the decoration of
vases in the Kamares period: now it does so afresh, but in a totally
different spirit. Grasses, branches, ivy, crocuses, lilies as they grow
and wave in nature, surround the vases. But these people were specially
concerned with the sea, marine plants and live creatures. Lotus flowers,
sea-weeds and reeds wave in the water, the cuttle-fish stretches out his
feelers, the nautilus swims about, starfish and snails, corals and
sea-anemones surround the living objects, and dolphins gambol around.
What impelled the Cretan vase-painters thus unweariedly to represent the
marine world exclusively on vases? The explanation can only be sought in
that supreme law of the development of artistic style, the talent for
invention in a few pioneer brains and the slowness in invention of the
many. The excellent idea of having the cool liquid in the vases
surrounded by this decorative play of marine life, which filled the
field and was so life-like, perhaps came from a single gifted brain. The
idea became popular, and the common run of vase-painters created
countless variations of the theme.
The excellent naturalism directly inspired by nature, which it transfers
with a bold brush to the vases, is limited to a short creative period:
immediately the schematic and conventional assert themselves; life
disappears, but fixed decorative formulæ remain, and to them the future
belongs. Moreover, the stylized ornamentation never ceased to exist
alongside of the natural; nay, often appears on the same vase in
conjunction with it, in the shape of wavy lines, spirals in different
combinations, continuous tendrils (which are also treated naturally) or
stylized plants. Thus two methods of decoration are in contrast, one
‘tectonic’ with arrangement in bands, another, which freely scatters
naturalistic representations over the vase, a kind of ornament which
has made almost everyone who has spoken of it adduce the parallel of
Japanese art. The freely adorned vases are also most characteristic of
the art of the Cretans, and show most plainly their gay and heedless
manner, their free decorative work, their direct relation to nature,
foreign to abstraction and idea: they set this art in contrast with the
contemporary old civilizations of the Nile and Euphrates as well as with
the Greek.
The naturalism of the first Late Minoan period has narrower limits than
has been usually estimated. Not only is the stock of themes scanty (Fig.
11 is an exception); but also the reproduction of nature is purely
superficial, knows nothing of perspective or shading, and stylizes the
forms into the style of decorative drawing: thus, for instance, the
marine world is represented without any indication of water. Of course,
this does not mean that such abstraction from reality is not an
advantage from the point of view of decorative art. Often the
vase-shapes show a cultivated feeling for form in the way the body
swells and contracts, but appear simple and constrained when compared
with the fine lines of contour in the next period. Among new types that
emerge may be mentioned the ‘stirrup vase’ (Fig. 10) and the ‘funnel
vase’ (Figs. 7 and 8).
The superiority of these Cretan vases to all contemporary ceramic output
showed itself in a vigorous export. The Egyptian finds of this ware give
as a date the XVIII dynasty, approximately 1500 B.C., a date confirmed
by some Egyptian objects found in Crete. Cretan vases were also exported
in quantities to Melos and Thera: there the native industry loses itself
in imperfect imitations of this imported ware. The Cretan civilization
also enters the Greek mainland, especially the Argolid. The shaft graves
of Mycenae (p. 7), from which the Late Minoan civilization transplanted
to the mainland has been named ‘Mycenean,’
[Illustration: PLATE VII.
Figs. 12 & 13. AMPHORÆ OF THE PALACE STYLE FROM KNOSSOS.]
are the oldest instance of this fact. The imported vases of the six
graves are distributed over the whole of the first Late Minoan (early
Mycenean) period, containing late specimens of Kamares style and early
specimens of the Palace style: but the bulk of the ‘varnish’ vases found
on the mainland belong to the succeeding period.
The second Late Minoan period of vase production in Crete, the so-called
Palace style (Figs. 12 and 13) is not so sharply divided from the first,
as the latter is from the Kamares style. Both phases are connected by
several transitional forms and run parallel for a time. An important
difference is that the last traces of the Kamares technique (the
imposition of white, red and orange on a black ground) disappear: there
is simply painting in black on light clay (Mycenean technique). The
decoration neglects the neck and foot of the vessel and emphasizes the
shoulder, particularly with the characteristic half-branches. The
animated reproductions of nature in the preceding style are treated in a
fanciful way; they become fixed and are changed into ornaments and
patterns for filling; the significant unity of the design is interrupted
by foreign elements; the marine and plant ornamentation now never covers
the whole vase but retires into a single band. In short, the
naturalistic style gives place to a tectonic style, the representations
are not the chief thing aimed at, which is the filling of the space.
Beside the ornaments produced by the schematizing of living natural
forms come new ones, which often look like a borrowing of architectural
forms; moreover, the juxtaposition and combination of the ornaments show
the same spirit, and also the emphasis now laid on the shape of the
vase, in which the structure and the swinging contour reach their
highest form of elegance, as can be seen most plainly in the amphorae.
This art had a wide influence outside Crete. To the beginning of the
period, the transition from the first to the second Late Minoan style,
belong many mainland finds, especially from domed tombs, in Peloponnese
(Vaphio, Argos, Mycenae, Old Pylos), in Attica (Athens, Thorikos,
Spata), in Boeotia (Thebes, Orchomenos) and in Thessaly (Volo). The
finds continue during the period of the developed Palace style. The
majority of these ‘varnish’ vases seem not to have been imported from
Crete but made by Cretan artizans in the country. The Mycenean local
princes, who from their lofty citadels controlled the surrounding
country, surrounded themselves more and more with the splendour of this
southern civilization, ordered weapons, ornaments, precious vases from
Crete, used them in life, gave them to the dead in graves; they also
took into their service foreign artists, and gave employment to Cretan
masons, painters and potters.
The islands too acquire Cretan vases: they were exported as far as
Aegina, Melos, distant Cyprus, and the sixth city of Troy.
About the end of the second Late Minoan period the Cretan palaces of
Phaistos, Knossos, and Hagia Triada are destroyed, and with the
destruction of these and other sites the Palace style decays.
The pottery of the Late Mycenean (or third Late Minoan) period (Figs.
14-17) is very inferior to that of the Palace style. The technique is at
first neat but afterwards falls off: the smooth yellowish clay takes a
green tinge, the brilliant glaze colour, often burnt red, becomes a
lustreless black. The ornamentation consists of the last remains of the
naturalistic decoration, now become quite lifeless and poor, with which
are associated purely geometrical patterns of the simplest kind, wavy
lines, spirals, concentric circles. Rectilinear patterns (groups of
strokes, hatched triangles) become ever more prominent. The decoration
is generally
[Illustration: PLATE VIII.
Fig. 14. LATE MYCENEAN CUP FROM RHODES.
Fig. 15. LATE MYCENEAN STIRRUP-VASE FROM RHODES.]
very loose, emphasizes the shoulder band, and usually puts on the lower
half of the vase only a few stripes: vertical division of the field into
‘metopes’ is common.
But, on the other hand, figured representations are not unusual on late
Mycenean vases. Two classes can be distinguished off-hand:--(_a_) animal
representations, in traditional ornamental style and very ‘geometrical’
in treatment, particularly birds with cross-hatched bodies, certainly
continuations of the old lustreless painting (cp. Fig. 4 with Fig. 15);
and (_b_) larger compositions taken over from wall-painting, often
provided with ornaments to fill the field, like the chariot-race on the
krater from Rhodes (Fig. 17). The best-known example is the Warrior vase
from Mycenae representing the departure for the battle-field.
Apart from these figured representations, one may say that Cretan
vase-painting, after its brilliant achievements in the Kamares, shaft
grave, and Palace styles, sinks down to that primitive level from which
it started: it becomes once more a geometrical style.
The area over which we find this pottery is enormous, being practically
the whole Mediterranean basin, Crete, Egypt, the Cyclades, the coast of
Asia Minor (sixth city of Troy) and its adjacent islands (_e.g._
Rhodes), Cyprus (where the Mycenean supersedes an old and plentiful
pottery akin to that of Troy), Phoenicia, Italy, Sicily, and especially
all important sites of the Greek mainland. In many places, where the
‘varnish’ painting did not enter earlier, it now comes into contact with
the old indigenous technique, with the monochrome, incised and
lustreless vases: many backward settlements, like Olympia, seem to have
had practically no acquaintance with the Mycenean style.
Here again the Egyptian finds give us a date: they last from about the
end of the 15th down into the 12th century. But since it is not
conceivable that we should date the Geometrical period, which followed
the Mycenean, back into the second millennium, the late Mycenean style
must have lasted at least four centuries; the rate of development, which
in the time of great achievements had been very rapid, must have become
considerably slower.
To arrange the huge mass of late Mycenean vases in this long development
is impossible, until the material has been sifted and worked through.
But one thing already can be said with certainty, that it was not merely
exported from Crete; indeed it is more than questionable, whether Crete
played the leading part. In this period the native seat of the brilliant
Minoan civilization is no longer in the foreground; the centre of
gravity has shifted to the mainland, in particular the Argolid. Even in
the period of the shaft graves we see the Peloponnesians eagerly
adopting Cretan civilization; in the following period the mainland vies
with Crete in the production of Mycenean vases, and finally must have
wrested the lead from the southern outpost. This applies not merely to
civilization but to political conditions. A hypothesis, in favour of
which there is much to be said, connects the destruction of the Cretan
palaces with the invasion of conquering ‘Achaeans,’ the name Homer
applies to the lords of the mainland. Just as the wall-painting
originally borrowed from Crete was still flourishing on the mainland,
when it had died out at home, so the late Mycenean pottery must have
been produced mainly in continental Greece, and the new style must have
been formed by the Peloponnesians. Thus we can explain the non-Minoan
elements, the strong geometrical influence on the decoration, and the
taking over of figured scenes from wall-painting, which was rejected by
the old Cretans.
So it was probably the ‘Achaeans’ who spread the late Mycenean pottery
all over the Mediterranean. They had
[Illustration: PLATE IX.
Figs. 16 & 17. LATE MYCENEAN VASES FROM RHODES.]
become a seafaring nation on a great scale. Of their entry into Crete we
have just spoken, of their united campaigns of conquest in Asia Minor,
in which the Cretan king has the Argive Agamemnon as his overlord, the
Homeric poems tell us, and of their colonizing expansion in the
Mediterranean the vase finds among other things give evidence, as they
justify conclusions about new localities of manufacture (Troy, Rhodes,
Cyprus, etc.).
In the beginning of the first millennium the scene is totally altered.
On the coast of Asia Minor and the islands are settled Hellenic races,
among which the Aeolians and Ionians are probably descendants of the
emigrated Achaeans, while the Dorians represent a new tribe come in from
the north, which subdued the Peloponnese and Crete and extended to the
south of the Aegean Sea.
These shiftings of population, the so-called Dorian invasion, with which
Greek historians begin the history of their country, mark the end of the
Bronze Age and of the Mycenean civilization. Iron weapons, only
sporadically to be found in the late Mycenean age, take the place of
bronze; the Mycenean vase style vanishes all along the line, and gives
way to a new style, the Geometric.