GREEK. _Study of Greek Vases_.--It is not so many years since an account
of Greek pottery would naturally have followed chronologically the
history of Egyptian pottery with little overlapping; but recent
discoveries have reversed all such ideas, and, while up to the end of
the 19th century the earliest remains to be traced on Greek soil could
be assigned at the furthest to the period 2500-2000 B.C., it is now
possible not only to show that at that period technical processes were
highly developed, but even to trace a continuous development of Greek
pottery from the Neolithic age. This result has been mainly brought
about by Dr Arthur Evans's researches at Cnossus in Crete, but traces of
similar phenomena are not wanting in other parts of Greece. Whether the
race which produced this pottery can strictly be called Greek may be
open to question, but at all events the ware is the independent product
of a people inhabiting in prehistoric times the region afterwards known
as Greece; its connexion with the pottery of the historic period can now
be clearly traced, and in its advanced technical character and the
genuinely artistic appearance of its decoration even this early ware
proclaims itself as inspired by a similar genius.
The study of Greek vases has thus received an additional impetus from
the light that it throws on the early civilization of the country, and
its value for the student of ethnology. But it has always appealed
strongly to the archaeologist and in some degree also to the artist or
connoisseur, to the former from its importance as a contribution to the
history of Greek art, mythology and antiquities, to the latter from its
beauty of form and decoration. Attention was first redirected to the
painted vases at the end of the 17th century, though for a long time
they served as little more than an adjunct to the cabinet of the amateur
or a pleasing souvenir for the traveller; but even during the 18th
century it dawned on the minds of students that they were of more than
merely artistic importance, and attention was devoted to the elucidation
of their subjects, and attempts made to arrive at a chronological
classification. Two facts must, however, be borne in mind: firstly, that
down to the middle of the 19th century the great majority of painted
vases had been found only in Italy; secondly, that these vases were
mostly of the later and more florid styles, which, if artistically
advanced, are now known to represent a decadent phase of Greek art.
From the former cause arose the notion that these vases were the product
not of Greek but of Etruscan artists, and so the term "Etruscan vase"
arose and passed into the languages of Europe, surviving even at this
day in popular speech in spite of a century of refutation. Meanwhile,
the study of the subjects depicted on the vases passed through the
successive stages of allegorical, historical and mystical
interpretation, until a century and more of painstaking study led to the
more rational principles of modern archaeologists.
[Illustration: FIG. 12.--Jug from Cyprus of Oriental style, 10 in.
high.]
_Sites and Discoveries_.--The sites on which Greek vases have been
found cover the whole area of the Mediterranean and beyond, from the
Crimea to Spain, and from Marseilles to Egypt. By far the great
majority, at all events of the finer specimens, have been extracted
from the tombs of Vulci and other sites in Etruria; those of the later
period or decadence have been found in large numbers on various sites
in southern Italy, such as Capua, Curnae and Nola in Campania, Anzi in
Lucania, and Ruvo in Apulia. In the western Mediterranean, Sicily has
also been a fruitful field for this pottery, early varieties being
found at Syracuse, later ones at Gela, Girgenti and elsewhere. Painted
vases have also come to light in Sardinia and in North Africa,
especially in the Cyrenaica, where the finds mostly belong to the 4th
century B.C. In Greece proper the most prolific site has been Athens,
where the finds extend from the Dipylon vases of the 8th century B.C.
down to the decadent productions of the 4th century; one group, that
of the white funeral _lekythoi_, is almost peculiar to Athens. Next to
this city, Corinth has been most productive, especially in pottery of
the archaic period and of local manufacture. Large quantities of
pottery of all periods have been yielded by Thebes, Tanagra and other
sites in Boeotia, and remains of the "Mycenaean" period at Mycenae,
Argos and elsewhere. But on the whole painted pottery is rare in other
parts of the mainland. Among the western islands of the archipelago,
Aegina and Euboea have proved fruitful in vases of all periods; Thera,
Melos and others of the Cyclades are remarkable for pottery of the
prehistoric period with rudely painted designs; and above all Crete is
now famous for the wondrous series of painted and ornamented pottery
of pre-Mycenacan date, which can be traced back even to the Neolithic
period, and the discovery of which has entirely revolutionized the
preconceived theories on the appearance of painted pottery in Greece.
This has been found in the recent excavations at Cnossus, Palaeokastro
and elsewhere. In Asia Minor there have been some important finds on
the mainland, but only along the coast; some of the islands, more
especially Samos and Rhodes, have been more fruitful in this respect.
At Kertch and elsewhere in the Crimea, large numbers of fine but
somewhat florid vases of the 5th and 4th centuries B.C. have come to
light. Cyprus has long been known as a rich field for pottery of all
periods, from the Mycenaean onwards, the later varieties being marked
by strong local quasi-oriental characteristics, with little
development from the more primitive types (figs. 12 and 13). The
principal sites are Salamis, Amathus, Marion (Poli) and Curium.
Lastly, in the Egyptian delta two sites, Naucratis and Daphnae, have
yielded results of considerable importance for the history of early
Greek vase-painting.
[Illustration: FIG. 13.--Pottery from Cyprus with geometrical
ornament.]
The great majority of these vases have been found in tombs; but some
important discoveries have been made on the sites of temples and
sanctuaries, as on the Acropolis of Athens, or at Naucratis. In such
cases the vases are seldom complete, having been broken up and cast
away into rubbish-heaps, where the fragments have remained
undisturbed. The tombs vary greatly in form, those of Greece being
usually small rock-graves or shafts, those of Italy often fine and
elaborate chambers with architectural details, and the manner in which
the vases are found in these tombs varies greatly. Plain unornamented
pottery is almost universal, and may be considered to have formed the
"tomb-furniture" proper--the painted vases being as in daily life
merely ornamental adjuncts.
_Shapes and Uses of Greek Vases_.--The enormous number of painted
vases now collected in museums is in itself sufficient evidence of the
important part they must have played in the daily life, of the Greeks,
and the care which was bestowed on their decoration shows the high
estimation in which they were held. It is, however, remarkable that,
with the exception of general allusions to pottery and its use in
daily life, there are singularly few passages in classical literature
which throw light on the purposes for which these vases were used.
Where any are described at full length there is always evidence that
metal vases are intended. Athenaeus and the lexicographers have indeed
put on record a long list of names of shapes, but it is only in a few
cases that we can be certain what forms they describe, or whether any
of the typical forms of existing vases can be identified with the
literary descriptions.
We have then two questions to consider in this section: firstly, the
uses to which painted vases were put by the Greeks; secondly, the
classical names of the various forms of plain and painted pottery
which have come down to us.
As we have seen, the majority of painted vases have been discovered in
tombs, which at first sight seems to suggest that they were made
principally for sepulchral purposes; but that they also had their uses
in daily life as much as plain pottery or earthenware cannot be
doubted. They stand, in fact, in the same relation to the commoner
wares of their day as china or porcelain does with us, being largely
ornamental only, but used by wealthy people or on special occasions
for the purposes of daily life, as for instance at banquets or in
religious ceremonies.
Vases were used as measures, as in the case of a small one-handled cup
in the British Museum (see fig. 15), found at Cerigo (_Cythera_) and
inscribed with the word [Greek: hêmikotylion] or "half-kotyle,"
equivalent to about one-fourth of a pint. Another vase found at Athens
is supposed to represent the official [Greek: choinix] or quart,
having a capacity of 0.96 litre; it is inscribed [Greek: dêmosion] or
"official measure," and bears the official stamp of the state.
Conversely many names of vases, such as the _amphora_ or the _kotyle_,
were adopted to indicate measures of capacity for liquid or dry
commodities. Earthenware vessels were used for storing both liquids
and food, for the preparation of foods and liquids, and for the
various uses of the table and the toilet. That the painted ware was
used at banquets or on great occasions we learn from scenes depicted
on the vases themselves, in which vases painted with subjects appear
in use. In connexion with athletics, they were given as prizes, as in
the case of the Panathenaic _amphorae_, a class of vases given for
victories in the games held at Athens at the Panathenaic festivals,
where, however, they do not represent prizes so much as marks of
honour corresponding to modern racing cups. Vases were also used as
toys for children, as is proved by the discovery of many diminutive
specimens, chiefly jugs, in the tombs of children at Athens, on which
are depicted children playing at various games. They also served a
purely decorative use as domestic ornaments, being placed on columns
or shelves; or, in the case of flat cups and plaques, suspended on the
wall. Many of the later Greek and Italian painted vases are very
carelessly decorated on the one side, which was obviously not intended
to be seen.
We come now to the use of vases for religious purposes, dedicatory,
sacrificial or funerary. Of all these uses, especially the last, there
is ample evidence. That vases were often placed in temples or shrines
as votive offerings is clear from the frequent mention in literature
of the dedication of metal vases, and it can hardly be doubted that
painted pottery served the same purpose for those who could only
afford the humbler material. Of late years much light has been thrown
upon this subject by excavations, notably on the Acropolis of Athens,
at Corinth, and at Naucratis in the Egyptian delta, where numerous
fragments have been found bearing inscriptions which attest their use
for such purposes. It was a well-known Greek custom to clear out the
temples from time to time and form rubbish-heaps (_favissae_) of the
disused vases and statuettes, which were broken in pieces as useless,
but it is to this very fact that we owe their preservation. At
Naucratis many of the fragments bear incised inscriptions, such as
[Greek: Apollônos eimi], "I am Apollo's" (possibly a memorandum of the
priest's, to mark consecrated property), or [Greek: ho deina anethêke
tê Aphroditê], "So-and-so dedicated me to Aphrodite." Fig. 14 gives
another example with a dedication to Apollo. At Penteskouphia, near
Corinth, a large series of painted tablets ([Greek: pinakes]), dating
from 600 to 550 B.C., with representations of Poseidon and dedicatory
inscriptions to that deity, were found in 1879. Votive offerings in
this latter form were common at all periods, and tablets painted with
figures and hung on trees or walls are often depicted on the vases,
usually in connexion with scenes representing sacrifices or offerings.
There is no doubt that vases (though not necessarily painted ones)
must have played a considerable part in the religious ceremonies of
the Greeks. We read of them in connexion with the Athenian festival of
the Anthesteria, and that of the gardens of Adonis. They were also
used in sacrifices, as shown on an early black-figured cup in the
British Museum and on a vase at Naples with a sacrifice to Dionysus.
In scenes of libation the use of the jug and bowl (_phiale_) is
invariable.
But their most important use, and that to which their preservation is
mainly due, was in connexion with funeral ceremonies. They were not
only employed at the burial, but were placed both outside the tombs
to receive offerings, and inside them either to hold the ashes of the
dead or as "tomb-furniture," in accordance with Greek religious
beliefs in regard to the future life. Several classes of vases are
marked out by their subjects as exclusively devoted to this purpose,
such as the large jars found in the Dipylon cemetery at Athens, which
were placed outside the tombs, the white Athenian _lekythoi_ of the
5th and 4th centuries B.C., and the large _krateres_ and other vases
of the 4th century B.C. found in the tombs of Apulia and other parts
of southern Italy. Their use as cinerary urns was perhaps more
restricted, at all events as regards the painted vases, though the
custom is well known and is referred to in literature from Homer
downwards. In "Mycenaean" times coffers ([Greek: larnakes]) of clay
were used for this purpose, especially in Crete, where fine painted
examples have been found; but of Greek pottery of the best periods
there are but isolated instances.
[Illustration: FIG. 14.--Part of vase from Naucratis with dedication
to Apollo.]
The diagrams in fig. 15 show the principal shapes characteristic of
Greek pottery in all but the earliest periods, when the variety of
form was as yet too great to permit of more than the vaguest
nomenclature; each form has its conventional name appended. These
shapes may be classified under the following heads: (1) Vases in which
food or liquids were preserved; (2) vases in which liquids were mixed
or food cooked; (3) those by means of which liquids were poured out or
food distributed; (4) drinking-cups; (5) other vases for the use of
the table or toilet. Thus we have the _pithos_ and _amphora_ for
storing wine, the _krater_ for mixing it, the _psykter_ for cooling
it, the _kyathos_ for ladling it out, and the _oinochoe_ or _prochoos_
for pouring it out; the _hydria_ was used for fetching water from the
well. The names and forms of drinking-cups are innumerable, the
principal being the _kylix_, _kotyle_, _kantharos_, _rhyton_
(drinking-horn) and _phiale_ (libation bowl). The _pyxis_ was used by
women at their toilet, and the _lekythos_, _alabastron_ and _askos_
for oil and unguents.
_Technical Processes_.--Though the Greeks succeeded in making pottery
of a very high order from the point of view of form and decoration,
the technical processes remained throughout of the most
elementary--for glaze was not used at all, the colour was of the
simplest, and the temperature at which the ware was fired was not high
enough to introduce any serious difficulties. As we should expect, it
is possible to trace a gradual improvement in the technical processes
in the direction of greater precision and refinement, for no
vase-painter of the best period could have achieved his decorative
triumphs on wares so coarse in substance and so rough in finish as
those that satisfied his predecessors. As in every other case
technical and artistic refinement went hand in hand. In the earliest
times the clay was used with very little preparation; at all events
before the introduction of the potter's wheel the finish is not to be
compared with that of the early races in Egypt. As the practice
developed no doubt, specially good clays were found in certain
districts, and these became centres of manufacture or the clays were
carried to other established centres. The primitive wares usually
exhibit the natural buff, yellow, grey or brownish colours of other
elementary pottery, and the surface is somewhat rough and possesses no
gloss. Thenceforward it becomes appreciably warmer in tone as it
becomes finer in texture, until it reaches its perfection in the
glowing orange, inclining to red, of the best Attic vases of the 5th
century B.C. In the vases of the later Italian centres the colour
again reverts to a paler hue.
The clay for the potter was doubtless prepared by a system of
sedimentation, so as to get rid of all coarse particles. It was mixed
with water and decanted into a series of vats so that ultimately fine
clay of two or three grades was obtained. Both red and whitish clays
were used, and the best potters gradually discovered that mixtures of
different clays gave the best results. The clay for the Athenian vases
was obtained from Cape Kolias in Attica; and as it did not burn to a
very warm tone, ruddle or red ochre (_rubrica_) was added to it to
produce the lovely deep orange glow that distinguishes the best vases.
Corinth, Cnidus, Samos and other places were also famous for their
clays, and at the first named tablets have been found bearing
representations of the digging of clay for pottery.
[FIG. 15.--Shapes of Greek Vases.]
The improved manipulation of the clays, and the increasing knowledge
that the colour of a clay could be modified by admixture of other
substances such as ruddle and ochre, really paved the way for what is
known as the glaze of the Greek painted vases. This delicate gloss, so
thin as to defy analysis, has been commonly called glaze, but it
cannot be a glaze in the sense of a separate coating of finely-ground
glass superimposed upon the clay. In all probability, as the Greek
potter used finer and finer clays and so was enabled to perfect his
shapes, he found that after a vase had been "thrown" he could get a
closer texture on it by dipping it in a slip of still finer clay
material and then smoothing it down and polishing it on the wheel when
sufficiently dry. But the mixtures he would use for such a purpose--of
very siliceous clay and ochre--would, when they were burnt in the
Greek kiln, not only fire to a beautifully bright colour, but also to
a glossy surface, especially where the flames had freely played about
them; and it is more in accordance with our knowledge to believe that
the exquisitely thin gloss of the finest Greek red vases was produced
in this way, for it seems impossible that it can have been a coating
of any special glaze.
In any case we may state broadly that the body of Greek vases is
always fine in grain, fired hard enough to give forth a dull metallic
sound when it is struck, but seldom fired above a temperature of about
900° C., which a modern potter would consider very low. When broken
the inside is generally found to be duller in colour, and is often
yellow or grey, even where the external surface is red. The material
is exceedingly porous, and allows water to ooze through it (another
proof that it was not glazed). Numerous analyses of the material of
Greek vases have been published, but they tell us nothing of the
secrets of the Greek potter. The results of a great number of these
analyses may be summed up as follows: silica, 52-60 parts; alumina,
13-19 parts; lime, 5-10 parts; magnesia, 1-3 parts; oxide of iron,
12-19 parts. Analyses of a thousand ordinary simple red burning clays
would give a similar result. It is to the glory of the Greek potter
that with such ordinary materials, by the exercise of selection,
patience and skill, he achieved the fine artistic results we see. He
did as much as can be done with natural clay materials, but the glory
of painted colour and glaze, like the later Persian or Chinese, was
not for him.
_Manufacture of Vases_.--The earliest Greek pottery is, like all
primitive pottery, hand-made. The introduction of the potter's wheel
into Greece was the subject of various ancient traditions, but we now
know that it can be easily traced by a study of the primitive pottery
of Crete, Cyprus or Troy. In Cyprus, for instance, the Bronze age
tombs of 2500-1500 B.C. contain only hand-made pottery, but in the
next period (1500-1000 B.C.) we find hand-made and coarse vases side
by side with a more developed kind of painted pottery--the
"Mycenaean"--obviously made on the wheel. It seems probable,
therefore, that the wheel was introduced into Greece about 1500 B.C.;
it was certainly known to Homer, as a familiar allusion shows (_Il._
xviii. 600). It was still a low circular table turned with the hand,
not the foot; representations of its use are seen on several vases of
the archaic period (fig. 16), and they further prove that the vase was
replaced on the wheel for the subsequent processes of painting,
polishing and adding separately modelled parts, as well as for the
original shaping or "throwing."
[Illustration: FIG. 16.--Votive tablet from Corinth; a potter applying
painted bands while the vessel revolves on the wheel.]
The method of shaping the vase on the wheel, which is the same as that
still in use, need not be described in detail; the feet, necks, mouths
and handles were modelled separately or shaped in moulds, and attached
while the clay was moist, as is also indicated on a vase. Large and
coarse vases, such as wine casks ([Greek: pithoi]), were always
modelled by hand on a kind of hooped mould ([Greek: kannabos]).
Parts of vases were modelled by hand at all periods by way of
decoration. Even in the geometrical period we find horses modelled in
the round on the covers of vases and later on handles enriched with
moulded figures of serpents twining round them. Such embellishments
are frequently, if not always, deliberate imitations of metal forms,
but the plastic principle is one which obtained in Greek pottery from
the very first, as for instance in the primitive pottery of Troy, in
which the vases are often modelled in human or animal forms; and the
same principle is involved in the common practice of speaking of the
"neck," "shoulder" or "foot" of a vessel. In the best period the
practice of adding moulded ornaments or of modelling vases in natural
forms took a subsidiary place, but examples occur from time to time,
as in the beautiful _rhyta_ or drinking-horns of the red-figure period
(Plate II., fig. 58), or in smaller details such as are seen in
handles enriched with heads in relief, a favourite practice of the
potter Nicosthenes. In the 4th-century vases of southern Italy the
handles are often much ornamented in this fashion, as in the large
_krateres_, where they are adorned with masks in relief.
The system of moulding whole vases or ornamenting them with designs in
relief taken from moulds really belongs to the decadence of the art,
when imitations of metal were superseding the painted pottery. Even
then it is rare to find whole vases produced from a mould, except in
the case of those in the form of human figures or animals (Plate II.,
figs. 57 and 58), which almost come under the heading of terra-cotta
figures, except for the fact that they are usually painted in the
manner of the vases. But in southern Italy the tendency to imitate
metal led to the popularity of ornaments made separately from moulds
and attached or let in to vases otherwise plain. Vases of this period,
with reeded bodies, must also have been made from moulds, as were a
series of _phialae_ or libation-bowls associated with Cales in
Campania (Plate II., fig. 56), which are known to be direct imitations
of metal.
All or nearly all of these vases are covered with a plain black glaze
or varnish, and painted decoration is rare except in the case of those
moulded in special forms or of a certain class made in Apulia with
opaque colouring laid on the varnish. Some of these plain black vases
of the 4th century are ornamented with _stamped_ patterns made with a
metal punch impressed in the moist clay. This decoration is confined
to simple patterns.
After the vases had been made on the wheel they were dried in the sun
and lightly baked, after which they were ready for varnishing and
painting; it is also probable that the gloss was brought out by a
process of polishing, the surface of the clay being smoothed with a
piece of wood or hard leather. On a vase in Berlin a boy is seen
applying a tool of some kind to an unfinished cup, probably for this
purpose; the cup, being shown in red on the vase, has evidently not
been varnished. Many vases are varnished black all over the exterior
(whether decorated with designs or not) with the exception of the foot
and lip.
The process of baking was regarded as one of the most critical in the
potter's art. It was not indeed universal, as we read of sun-dried
vessels for utilitarian purposes, but all the vases that have come
down to us have been baked. The amount of heat required was regulated
by the character of the ware, but was not very high. Many examples
exist of discoloured vases which have been subjected to too much or
too little heat, the varnish having acquired a greenish or reddish
hue. Or again the red gloss is sometimes turned to an ashen-grey
colour, the black remaining unimpaired. Other accidents were liable to
occur in the baking, such as cracking under too great heat, or the
damaging of the shape by vases knocking against one another and so
being dented in or crushed. The form of the oven was of the simplest
(fig. 17). No furnaces have been found in Greece, and only one or two
in Italy, but we have a variety of evidence from vase-paintings. They
were fed by fires from beneath, and the vases were inserted with a
long shovel. They were heated with charcoal or wood fuel, and there
are representations of men poking or raking the fires with
long-handled implements. One vase-painting gives a bird's-eye view, in
horizontal section, of the interior of an oven full of jugs of various
forms. Others have more complete presentations of potteries, with men
engaged in the different processes of vase manufacture, modelling,
painting or supplying the kilns with newly-made wares.
[Illustration: FIG. 17.--Model of Kiln found in Essex.]
_The Painting of Vases_.--We may distinguish three principal classes
of painted pottery, of Which two admit of subdivision.
1. Primitive Greek vases with simple painted ornaments, chiefly
linear and geometrical, laid directly on the clay with the brush.
The colour employed is usually a yellowish or brownish red passing
into black. The execution varies, but is often extremely coarse.
2. Greek vases painted with figures. These may be subdivided as
follows:--
(a) Vases with figures in shining black on a red glossy ground.
(b) Vases with figures left in the glossy red on a ground of shining
black.