GREECE.
General Character of Greek Ceramics.--Form and Color.--Borrowed
from Egypt and Phœnicia.--How Original.--UNBAKED CLAY: Bricks
and Statues.--TERRA-COTTA: Where
Used.--Tiles.--Models.--Vessels.--Pithos.--Amphora.--Pigments used
on Terra-cotta.--Rhyton.--GLAZED WARES: Quality of
Glaze.--Paste.--Enumeration and Description of Vessels.--Uses of
Vases.--Chronological Arrangement.--Methods of Making
Vessels.--Successive Styles of Ornamentation.--Figures.--Earliest
Style.--Archaic Style.--Human Figures.--“Old Style.”--Approach to
Best Art.--“Fine Style.”--“Florid Style.”--Decline.--Classification
according to Subjects Represented on Vases.--Reliefs and Statuettes
as Decoration.
[Illustration: Fig. 165.--Early Greek Aryballoi. Egypto-Phœnician
Style. (Trumbull-Prime Coll., N. Y. Metrop. Museum.)]
Were we to be guided solely by continuity in point of time and the
succession of ideas, our next subject would be the art of Spain and
Italy. We turn, in preference, to that of Greece. It claims the
precedence due to priority of date. It holds also a position of what
might be called isolation. Its general character has been indicated in
the Introduction. The severity and simplicity of the taste of the Greek,
and his indifference to effects in color, while permitting him to
receive suggestions from Egypt and the East, led him to disregard those
adjuncts of art which they held in highest esteem. To him beauty of form
was everything, color little or nothing. The former he brought to such
perfection that no advance has been made beyond the point he reached.
Greek form embodies all that can be said of grace and proportion. We may
imitate, but we can hardly hope to excel, what Greece accomplished in
her early bloom. We may find prototypes in Egypt for some of her vessels
(Fig. 165), but still her art, the culmination of all that was best in
preceding forms, is pre-eminently her own. We say this without
disparagement to those who were her teachers. To Egypt, in particular,
Greece turned, at a remote age, for instruction, and learned from
Phœnicia and the other nations with which trade brought her into
contact. In this connection the group (Fig. 166) of vases from Athens
may be compared with the Phœnician from Cyprus. There are in the
decoration the same geometrical designs, the same vertical concentric
circles, the same animal figures which the Phœnicians drew from
Assyria. But after making every allowance for suggestions from abroad,
after conceding that Grecian art is the development of that which
preceded it, and that it occupies a well-defined place in progressive
history, we fail to find anywhere the equals of the best ceramic works
of Greece.
[Illustration: Fig. 166.--Primitive Vessels, from Athens and Argos.]
Taking them as a whole, they are divisible into unbaked; terra-cotta, or
burnt clay, without a glaze; and glazed. The Greeks employed unbaked
clay for bricks, statues, and several kinds of decoration. The former
were used for city walls and buildings. Terra-cotta was devoted to
similar purposes. It is not improbable that we may yet return, to a very
considerable extent, to the ancient employment of this material in
architecture. The Greeks made use of it for pillars, roofs, paving,
bricks, friezes, cornices, lamps, statues, flower-pots, and numberless
domestic and sepulchral vessels and ornaments. Bricks do not appear to
have been held in very high esteem in building, but the custom of
roofing with terra-cotta tiles was widely prevalent and of great
antiquity. These tiles were occasionally embellished with painted
flowers, and designs in blue, red, and yellow. The terra-cotta figures
vary in color from red to bright yellow, and are soft in texture and
easily marked. Terra-cotta models were used in casting, and in the same
material were made copies of statues, like those in plaster of Paris of
our own time; and some painters were even accustomed to make terra-cotta
models of the figures they afterward painted. Of the specimens which
have come down to us a very great number consists of small statuettes of
the gods.
[Illustration: Fig. 167.--Greek Vase, from Apulia. (Louvre.)]
The vessels of terra-cotta are either domestic or sepulchral. The
largest was the _pithos_, which, as we have seen, was large enough to
hold a man satisfied with such limited domestic conveniences as
Diogenes. There were also _amphoræ_, large vases, somewhat smaller than
the _pithoi_; _phialai_, or saucers, plates, pots, and jugs. Of these
the _amphora_ occurs most frequently. Its name is derived from
_amphis_--on both sides, and _pherein_--to carry, and it is so called
because it had two handles, one on each side, to be grasped by the
person carrying it. It is easily recognized (see Fig. 2) by its sharp
base--so made to be stuck in the ground--its oval body, its long neck,
and its generally heavy lip. The cover was conical, and sometimes the
base is surrounded by a ring of clay to keep it more easily in an
upright position. The height of the _amphora_ ranged from three feet to
over six feet, and it was used for holding wine, water, oil, and for
storing figs and other edibles.
[Illustration: Fig. 168.--Head of Minerva, with Figure of Nike. (Prime
Coll., N.Y. Metropolitan Museum.)]
Various pigments were applied to terra-cotta, including white, red,
green, and blue, the use of which, in painting statues and architectural
decorations, formed a distinct branch of art. Colors are also found on
sepulchral vases, some of which are further ornamented with applied
bas-reliefs; that is, made separately, and fixed to the vase before
drying. This practice was carried to such an extent as to represent a
combination of the arts of potter, painter, and sculptor (Fig. 167).
Closely allied to the cinerary urns were the vases intended solely for
ornamental purposes. In one of extraordinary beauty, a large and finely
moulded head of Pallas Athene is seen surmounted by a full figure of
Victory. There are many of a similar character, representing female and
animal heads. The latter are found in the _rhyta_, or drinking cups. The
ornamental vases were often painted after being covered with a white
slip: evidently the case with the piece (Fig. 168) in Dr. Prime’s
collection.
Before treating of glazed vases we shall give the leading denominations
of all vases glazed and unglazed, and then the styles of decoration of
the former as nearly as may be in their chronological order. They are
said to be glazed, although the glaze is so slight that, as Mr. Fortnum
says, “it leaves a barely appreciable effect upon the eye, beyond that
which might be produced by a mechanical polish.” It is altogether a very
inferior kind of glaze, and is supposed to have been made from an alkali
without any admixture of lead. The paste resembles terra-cotta, and
varies in density, being in some cases scratched with ease, in others
with difficulty. It can always be marked with iron. These facts are
worth noting, were it only that that art may be thoroughly appreciated
which, out of the poorest and commonest materials, has wrought forms of
the most wonderful beauty.
[Illustration: Fig. 169.--Stamnos.]
[Illustration: Fig. 170.--Askos.]
The chief names with which we shall have to deal are the pithos,
pithakne, stamnos, cheroulion, bikos, hyrche, lagynos, askos, amphorens,
kados, hydria, kalpis, krossos, skyphos, or kothon, rhyton, lekythos,
alabastros, krater, holmos, kelebe, oxybaphon, psykter, dinos, chytrai,
tripous, oinochoe, prochoos, aryballos, epichysis, kotylos, kyathos,
skaphe, kantharos, karchesion, kylix, phiale, kanoun, pinax, and diskos.
The _pithos_, already described in part, was a large, open-mouthed cask
or jar of unglazed earthen-ware, which was used mainly for the
preservation of victuals and wines.
The _pithakne_ was a pithos of smaller size used for holding wine.
The _stamnos_ (Fig. 169) was an open-mouthed jar with two handles, and a
body inclined to be oval, but of great rotundity, curving inward to a
comparatively narrow base. It held liquids. The _cheroulia_ and _bikoi_
were modifications of the stamnos, the latter being used for holding
wine and solids.
[Illustration: Fig. 171.--Skyphos, or Kothon.]
The _hyrche_ is not very well known, either in regard to its shape or
purpose, but appears to have had a narrow neck, and to have been used in
conveying goods a long distance. Its narrow neck is a tolerably sure
indication that it was not intended to be stationary.
The _lagynos_ also appears to have had a very narrow neck, and to have
been of considerable size, varying according to circumstances.
[Illustration: Fig. 172.--Greek Rhyton.]
The _askos_ (Fig. 170), literally a wineskin, which it resembled in
shape, had an aperture and neck on one side, from which a handle passed
over a hollow on the body to the other side. Both the _askos_ and
_stamnos_ are frequently painted with red figures.
[Illustration: Fig. 173.--Krater, with Volute Handles.]
The _amphora_, already described in the form it commonly took, may be
called a general receptacle, although usually employed for holding
provisions and liquors. There were many different shapes, which varied
according to the district where made, and the special purpose for which
they were destined. The chief kinds are the Egyptian, Apulian,
Tyrrhenian, Panathenaic, Bacchic (Fig. 186), and Nolan, the last
mentioned being the most perfectly finished, and unexcelled in
gracefulness of shape. They were decorated with either red or black
paintings.
The _kados_ is the first of the vessels for drawing liquids, of which
class the _hydria_ (Fig. 188) is the best known. Its name implies its
purpose as a water-pitcher. It had two small side handles, and one
larger one, somewhat similar to that of the modern ewer. The _kalpis_
(Fig. 187) and krossos were modifications of the hydria.
The _kothon_ (Fig. 171) is supposed to have been a drinking-cup.
[Illustration: Fig. 174.--Krater.]
The _rhyton_ (Fig. 172) belongs to the later style of drinking-cups, and
its peculiarity is that it could not be set down except when empty. The
base is modelled after the head of a dog, goat, deer, or other animal,
and the neck or cup proper is either cylindrical or elongated and
sloped.
The _lekythos_ (Fig. 305) was an oil-jar of an elongated shape, neck in
proportion, cup-like orifice, and one handle. It is decorated in all the
styles of Grecian art, and is generally about one foot in height. It was
sometimes made of metal or marble.
[Illustration: Fig. 175.--Holmos.]
The _alabastros_ was a diminutive lekythos, used for toilet unguents,
with two small ears by which to suspend it.
[Illustration: Fig. 176.--Kelebe.]
The _krater_ (Figs. 173 and 174) was the vessel in which the Greeks
cooled and mixed their wine, of which it would hold about three gallons.
It is the later form of a class of vessels of which the _holmos_ (Fig.
175), _kelebe_ (Fig. 176), and _oxybaphon_ (Fig. 177) are the earlier
representatives.
[Illustration: Fig. 177.--Oxybaphon.]
The _psykter_, or wine-cooler, was a double-walled vessel of the amphora
type, rotund in shape.
The _dinos_ was another form of the wine vessel, open-mouthed, round in
body and base, and allied to the krater.
The _chytrai_ were warming-pots with two handles. The _tripous_, or
three-footed pot, was employed in a similar manner.
The _oinochoe_, in the shape most frequently occurring, resembled a jug
with a lip either round or pinched in at the sides, and with a handle
rising above the orifice. The oinochoe was used in serving the guests
from the krater.
[Illustration: Fig. 178.--Prochoos.]
The _prochoos_ (Figs. 178 and 179) was also a jug, either with or
without a handle, for either water or wine. The _olpe_ (Fig. 180)
belongs to the same class.
The _aryballos_ (Fig. 165) was round or bladder-shaped and short-necked,
and bore a close resemblance to one of the toilet vases of the
Egyptians.
The _arystichos_ was also used for serving from the krater, a usage
which gave rise to several other shapes. Of the cups designed for the
same purpose, the _kotylos_ may be mentioned, although its shape is
doubtful. The _kyathos_ (Fig. 181), or ladle, belongs to the same class.
[Illustration: Fig. 179.--Prochoos.]
The drinking-cups were of many shapes and assumed great elegance of
form. The several varieties cannot now be specified by description. The
_skyphos_ was the generic name applied also to a few special shapes now
unknown. The _kantharos_ (Fig. 182) was wide, somewhat shallow, with two
handles rising well above the lip, and either with or without a stem.
The _kylix_ (Fig. 183) was the cup most generally used, and varied in
shape. In the earliest specimens it has a long stem, two handles, and is
shallow and wide. The later forms are wider, and shorter in the stem,
which ultimately disappears entirely. The _phiale_ was the religious
counterpart of the kylix.
[Illustration: Fig. 180.--Olpe.]
The _kanoun_, _diskos_, and _pinax_ were for table use, the two latter
corresponding with our plates, with the exception that the diskos stood
upon a stem or foot.
Of the vessels named those deserving closest attention, as most
frequently presenting themselves, are the kylix, oinochoe, krater,
aryballos, kyathos, lekythos, rhyton, hydria, amphora, and pithos. The
kylix is to be specially commended for its beauty of shape, and its
decoration with red figures exemplifies some of the best art of Greece.
From the descriptions given of the various vessels, it will be seen
that many of them were devoted to household use. Vases were also made as
toys for children, as prizes to victorious athletes, for holding the
viands and liquids placed beside the dead, and more recently for the
ashes of the dead. Among the exceptional uses of pottery by the Greeks
may be mentioned the giving of receipts on potsherds, the recording on
fragments of pottery of votes for ostracizing (from _ostrakon_, a
potsherd) a citizen, and for deciding the side to be taken by the
entrants for the game called _ostrakinon_. This last was decided by
“tossing up” a piece of pottery, and assigning a side to the player
according to its falling with the red or black side uppermost. Vases
were also made in honor of great men and authors, whose names are
inscribed on them. All the vases now in museums, numbering, according to
different estimates, from twenty to fifty thousand, were taken from the
tombs of Greece, Southern Italy, and Etruria. It was the custom to place
beside the dead the vessels necessary for the religious rites, the
favorite vases and prizes of the deceased; and in this way they have
been preserved to illustrate in our age the branch of Greek art to which
they belong. No precise age can be ascribed to any one specimen.
[Illustration: Fig. 181.--Kyathos]
[Illustration: Fig. 182.--Kantharos.]
The first glazed vases date probably from the ninth century before
Christ, and from the beginning of the third century the art declined.
It had probably reached its highest point four hundred years before our
era.
[Illustration: Fig. 183.--Kylix. Black on Red. Female Faces and Feet
White. Naked Satyrs. (Trumbull-Prime Coll., N. Y. Metrop. Mus.)]
The earliest vases were made by hand, and even after glazing was
introduced that method was continued. It was also resorted to in making
the gigantic _pithoi_, which were too large to be turned on the wheel.
The finer vases were made on the wheel or moulded. After being moulded
they were dried and painted. There were two methods of painting. By the
first the figures were outlined and then filled in, leaving them black
on a red or pale ground. The vase was then glazed and fired. By the
second the figures were left untouched and of the color of the paste, by
painting the ground black. A color slightly different from that of the
body was employed for the finer lines of the figures. The vase was then
glazed and fired as before.
[Illustration: Fig. 184.--Early Greek Oinochoe, showing Phœnician
Influences. About B.C. 700-500. (Trumbull-Prime Coll., N. Y.
Metropolitan Museum.)]
We now come to the successive styles of ornamentation. The natural order
would give the first place to the uncolored vases, the second to those
painted all over in black, the next to the different styles of figures.
In addition to what has been said in the Introduction, and to go more
deeply into details, the following points may be noted in regard to the
last of the above stages--the ornamentation by means of figures. These
first took the form of simple belts of color drawn round the body of
the piece. A vase of a later but still very early period has the space
between the two zones passing round the widest part of the body filled
in with vertical designs, alternating with small rings, each containing
a cross (see Fig. 166). When animal and floral decoration was first
attempted, the artist’s work was rude and the forms were unnatural.
White upon black grounds indicate the earliest style. Another very
ancient style has the figures, which are all those of animals, painted
in dark lines upon the pale red paste (Fig. 184).
[Illustration: Fig. 185.--Greek Oinochoe. Painting, Black and Reddish
Brown. Height, 7½ in. (Appleton Coll., Boston Mus. of Fine Arts.)]
The vases of the next, or Archaic, group vary in color from a pale
yellow to a deep red, on which the figures are painted in a darker
color. One of its leading features is the profusion of flowers. The
presence of human forms, more or less skilfully drawn, may be taken as
the criterion by which to determine the later members of this group.
[Illustration: Fig. 186.--Bacchic Amphora. Black on Red Ground. Height,
15 in. (Appleton Coll., Boston Museum of Fine Arts.)]
In the next style (Fig. 186) human figures become more prominent in the
designs, and are perfectly black, with the exception of the flesh of
females, which is painted white or red. Many of the subjects are taken
from mythology and the heroic legends. This developed into the “old
style,” where the black appears greatly improved; and while the hands,
face, and exposed parts of the females are pure white, their eyes are
red. The drawing is still stiff and constrained, and where attempts at
perspective are made, they are eminently unskilful. White is also more
plentifully distributed, and is seen in the hair and beard of old men,
in horses, and in many accessories, for which red is also occasionally
employed. As the art developed, red figures were more frequently
introduced among those in black; and we also find the artist entirely
obscuring the natural color of the paste by means of a white slip, or
coat, upon which he painted the black figures.
As we approach the best art of Greece the colors are inverted. The
figures are drawn upon the paste of the red or yellow color of which
they appear, and the rest of the vase is painted black (Fig. 187).
[Illustration: Fig. 187.--Greek Kalpis. Red Figures on Black Ground.
(Appleton Coll., Boston Museum of Fine Arts.)]
The “fine style,” the culmination of Greek art, was a development of
that last described. The black ground, red figures, and white ornaments
show the highest point to which previous styles gradually led upward.
Drawing and composition are here at their best. The early stiffness has
given place to a fuller grace, and there is a nobility in the figures
and faces to which the earlier artists never attained. The limbs lose
their unnatural distortion, the muscles are less rigid--there is, in one
word, more life in the drawing. The accessories also gain by the greater
freedom of treatment. The drapery hangs more gracefully, its
straight-lined stiffness giving place to a more natural arrangement.
In the later specimens of this style--so markedly different from the
earlier ones that they have been classed together as the florid
style--there is a more minute attention to finish, a greater elaboration
of dresses and other accessories, and a decided tendency toward finding
the ideal human form in that which is most graceful. Gold appears in the
ornamentation (Fig. 188), and arabesques encircle the necks. Polychrome
vases were made at the same time, some of them showing the utmost
excellence of figure-drawing, and draperies of blue, green, or purple.
When the art began to decline, taste and execution both deteriorated.
The figures lose their graceful proportions, and acquire a heavier
appearance. They are also more crowded, and the dresses become more
garish, until at last all refinement, both of conception and treatment,
was lost in coarseness and grotesque puerility. The amphora (Fig. 189)
illustrates the decadence.
[Illustration: Fig. 188.--Hydria. Black, with Gilt on Neck, and Red Rim
with Black Studs. (Trumbull-Prime Coll., N. Y. Metropolitan Museum.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 189.--Greek Amphora, with Columnar Handles. Red on
Black. From Canosa. Height, 20 in. (Appleton Coll., Boston Museum of
Fine Arts.)]
The classification of vases by the subjects represented upon them is
unsatisfactory and confusing. Scenes are taken from mythology, heroic
legends, funeral ceremonies, from civil life, and from the gymnasium,
which permit neither of a chronological arrangement of the vases nor of
one based upon their position in the scale of art. A distinct group
might, without any loss of lucidity, be made of vases decorated with
subjects in relief, or with statuettes arranged upon the body and neck.
This was a union of sculpture and pottery occasionally embellished by
the painter’s art in the coloring of the drapery and subsidiary
ornaments. Color was also applied to sculptured reliefs. A vase now in
St. Petersburg is thus described: “It is a piece of very large size,
with three handles, and of the finest and most lustrous glaze. It is
ornamented at several heights with sculptured friezes in terra-cotta,
and gilded; but that which gives it its priceless value is a frieze of
figures from four to five inches high, sculptured in bas-relief, with
the heads, feet, and hands gilded, and the vestments painted in bright
colors--blue, red, and green--in the finest Greek style imaginable.
Several heads from which the gilding has become detached show the
modelling, which is as fine and as finished as that of the finest
ancient cameo.” Cups or vases with two heads, one on each side, such as
Hercules and Omphale, illustrate the same branch of art. Such features
as these, beautifully modelled relievos, ideal heads, figure scenes in
which drawing and composition are almost above criticism, not less than
its elegance of shape, have made the Greek vase a model for all time. We
can trace Assyrian ideas in the decoration of some of the earlier vases,
and Egyptian influences may also occasionally be detected. We can even
find foreign models for a few of the Greek forms; but the Hellenizing
process has obliterated every antecedent, and the art which Greece gave
the world is as purely Grecian as if in every particular it were
indigenous to the soil of that favored land.