[Illustration: FIG. 21.--Primitive black pottery from the Troad.]
Outside Crete the earliest Greek pottery has been found in Cyprus and at
Troy, with simple incised or painted patterns on a black polished
ground, the vases being all hand-made, and often treated in a plastic
fashion with rude modelling of human or animal forms (figs. 21, 22);
these cover the period 2500-2000 B.C. Early painted pottery, parallel
with the Kamares ware, has been found in Thera and in the important
cemeteries of Phylakopi in Melos. But until the general spread of
Mycenaean civilization and art in the latter half of the second
millennium there is no site except Crete where a continuous and
successful development can be studied.
[Illustration: FIG. 22.--Primitive red pottery from the Troad.]
About the time which is represented in Greek tradition by the Dorian
invasion (1100 B.C.) the then decadent Mycenaean civilization was
replaced by a new one much more backward in development, making pottery
of a far simpler and more conventional type, the decoration being
largely confined to geometrical patterns to the exclusion of motives
derived from plant forms. This is usually known as the geometrical
style, and the pottery covers the period from about 1000 to 700 B.C. It
is found all over the mainland and islands of Greece, and exhibits a
certain development towards a more advanced stage. The patterns include
the chevron, the triangle, the key or maeander, and the circle, in
various combinations, painted in dull black on a brown ground. In most
places the art advanced no further, but in Boeotia, and still more at
Athens, we can trace the gradual growth of decorative skill, first in
the introduction of animals, and then in the appearance of the human
figure. In the Athenian cemetery outside the Dipylon gate a series of
colossal vases has come to light, on which are painted such subjects as
sea-fights and funeral processions. The human figures are exceedingly
rude and conventional, painted almost entirely in silhouette, but there
is a distinct striving after artistic effect in the composition and
arrangement. In Boeotia the vases do not advance beyond the animal
stage, and many exhibit a tendency to decadence in their carelessness,
as contrasted with the painstaking helplessness of the Athenian artists.
[Illustration: FIG. 23.--Vase with bands of animals, Oriental in style,
(British Museum.)]
[Illustration: FIG. 24.--Ionic amphora, with contest between Heracles
and Hera, and bands of birds and animals; black, with incised lines.]
In Ionia and the islands of the Aegean such as Rhodes, the art of
vase-painting from the first carried on the Mycenaean tradition, and was
distinguished by its naturalism and originality, and by the bold and
diverse effects produced by variety of colour or novelty of subject. The
ornamentation is at first elementary, consisting of friezes of animals,
especially lions, deer and goats (figs. 23 and 24). These figures stand
out sharply in black against the creamy buff ground which is
characteristic of nearly all Ionic pottery, and details are brought out
by means of engraved lines, patches of purplish iron pigment, or by
drawing parts of the figures, especially the heads, in outline on the
clay ground. Another feature is the general use of small ornaments such
as rosettes and crosses in great variety of form to cover the
background and avoid the vacant spaces which the Greek artist abhorred.
The system of decoration has been thought to owe much to Assyrian
textile fabrics.
One of the best though most advanced examples of early Ionic pottery is
a _pinax_ or plate from Rhodes in the British Museum, on which is
represented the combat of Menelaus and Hector over the body of Euphorbus
(fig. 25); their names are inscribed over the figures, and this is
almost the earliest known instance of a mythological subject, the date
of the painting being not later than 600 B.C. To a slightly later date
belongs another remarkable group of cups with figures on a white ground,
probably made at Cyrene in North Africa. Of these the most famous has a
painting in the interior, of Arcesilaus II., king of Cyrene from 580 to
550 B.C., weighing goods for export in a ship. Others have mythological
subjects, such as Zeus, Atlas and Prometheus, Cadmus and Pelops.
But these vases, though still retaining the older technique, really
belong to the second class, that of black-figured vases, and they belong
to a time when in all Ionian centres this method was being superseded by
the new technique which Corinth had introduced and Athens perfected, to
the consideration of which we must return.
[Illustration: FIG. 25.--Early inscribed pinax from Rhodes, with contest
of Menelaus and Hector over the body of Euphorbus.]
For some 150 years Corinth almost monopolized the industry of pottery on
the west of the Aegean. Large numbers of examples have been found in or
near the city itself, many bearing inscriptions in the peculiar local
alphabet. They show a continuous progress from the simplest
ornamentation to fully-developed black-figured wares. In the earliest
(Plate I. fig. 52) oriental influence is very marked, the surface being
so covered with the figures and patterns that the background disappears
and the designs are at times almost unintelligible. The general effect
is thus that of a rich oriental tapestry, and the subjects are largely
chosen from the fantastic and monstrous creations of Assyrian art, such
as the sphinx and gryphon. The vases are mostly small, the ground varies
from cream to yellow, and the figures are painted in black and purple.
Both in Ionia and at Corinth during the early part of the 6th century
the same tendencies are seen to be at work, tending to a unification of
styles under the growing influence of Athens. In Ionia (see above)
figure subjects become more common, and the technique approaches
gradually nearer to the black-figure method. Similarly at Corinth the
ground ornaments diminish and disappear, the friezes of animals are
restricted to the borders of the designs, and human figures are
introduced, first singly, then in friezes or groups, and finally engaged
in some definite action such as combats or hunting scenes. In the last
stages Greek myths and legends are freely employed. A new development,
traditionally associated with the painter Eumarus of Athens, was the
distinguishing of female figures by the use of white for flesh tints. A
somewhat similar development was in progress at Athens, though
represented by comparatively few vases. Here the adoption of Corinthian
and Ionian technical improvements evolved by the middle of the 6th
century the fully developed black-figure style which by degrees
supplanted or assimilated all other schools.
II. _Black-figured Vases_.--At the head of this new development stands
the famous Francois vase at Florence, found at Chiusi in 1844 (Plate I.
fig. 53). Its shape is that of a _krater_ or mixing-bowl, and it bears
the signatures of its maker and decorator in the form "Ergotimos made
me, Klitias painted me." It might be described as a Greek mythology in
miniature, with its numerous subjects and groups of figures all from
legendary sources such as the stories of Peleus, Theseus and Meleager,
or the return of Hephaestus to heaven. All the figures have their names
inscribed.
The general technique of the black-figured vases has already been
described. It may be noted as a chronological guide that the use of
purple for details is much commoner in the earlier vases, white in the
later, but towards the end of the century when the new fashion of red
figures was gaining ground, both colours were almost entirely dropped.
The drawing of the figures is, as might be expected, somewhat stiff and
conventional, though it advanced considerably in freedom before the
style went out of fashion. Many vases, otherwise carefully and
delicately executed, are marred by an excess of mannerism and
affectation, as in the works of the artists Amasis and Exekias (Plate I.
fig. 54). The treatment of drapery is a good indication of date, ranging
from flat masses of colour to oblique flowing lines of angular falling
folds.
The shapes most commonly employed by the Athenian potters of this period
are the _amphora, hydria, kylix, oinochoe_ and _lekythos,_ the
first-named being the most popular. A special class of _amphorae_ is
formed by the Panathenaic vases, which were given as prizes in the
Athenian games, and were adorned with a figure of the patron goddess
Athena on one side and a representation of the contest in which they
were won on the other (fig. 26). They usually bear the inscription
[Greek: tôn Athênêthen athlôn eimiruv] "I am (a prize) from the games at
Athens." Some of these can be dated by the names of Athenian archons
which they bear, as late as the 4th century, the old method of painting
in black figures with a stiff conventional pose for the goddess being
retained for religious reasons.
FIG. 26.--Panathenaic amphora.
The chief interest of the black-figured vases is really derived from
their subjects, which range over every conceivable field, the proportion
of myth and legend to scenes from daily life being much greater than in
the succeeding period. They include groups of Olympian and other
deities, and the various scenes in which they take part, such as the
battle of the gods and giants, or the birth of Athena (treated in a very
conventional manner, as on a fine _amphora_ in the British Museum);
Dionysus and his attendant satyrs and maenads, the labours and exploits
of Heracles and other heroes, subjects taken from the tale of Troy and
other less familiar legends; and scenes from daily life, battle scenes,
athletics, the chase and so on. The same classification of course holds
good for the later periods of vase-painting, with some exceptions. The
proportion of genre-scenes subsequently becomes greater, and some myths
disappear, others rise into prominence, new deities such as Eros
(Love), and Nik[=e] (Victory) appear for the first time, and, generally
speaking, the later subjects are characterized by a sentimentality or
tendency to emotion which is entirely foreign to the conventional
stereotyped compositions of the 6th century artist.
A remarkable feature of the subjects on black-figured vases is that a
stereotyped form of composition is invariably adopted at least for the
principal figures, but minor variations are generally to be found, as,
for instance, in the number of bystanders; and it is almost an
impossibility to find any two vase-paintings which are exact duplicates.
The form of the composition, was partly determined by the field
available for the design; when this took the form of a long frieze the
space was filled up with a series of spectators or the repetition of
typical groups, but when the design is on a framed panel or confined by
ornamental borders the method of treatment is adapted from that of a
sculptured metope, and the figures limited to two or three. In many
cases it is difficult to decide, in the absence of inscriptions, whether
or no a scene has mythological signification; the mythological types are
over and over again adopted for scenes of ordinary life, even to the
divine attributes or poses of certain figures.
[Illustration: Vase by Andocides. Black figures on obverse.
Vase by Andocides. Red figures on reverse.