It must always be an open question how much credit for artistic feeling
can be given to primitive races. The production of pottery was, at
first, the supplying of a need. Clay offered a medium for the making of
household utensils which were at once fireproof and impervious. The work
does not belong strictly to the earliest stages of civilization but is a
development of advancing refinement.[A]
[A] Those who wish to study Indian pottery in detail are referred to
Dr. W. H. Holmes' work on the Aboriginal Pottery of the Eastern
United States, published by the Smithsonian Institution,
Washington, D. C.
Crude and unprepared clays were used for the most part but the makers
could scarcely have been conscious of the charming color-play produced
by the burning of a red clay in a smoky fire. The pottery of the Indians
is artistic in the sense of being an expression of an indigenous art and
much of it is beautiful, though whether the makers possessed any real
appreciation of beauty is open to doubt.
The pottery was exclusively the work of the women. No wheel was employed
but the ware was mainly constructed by coiling. Long strips of clay were
rolled under the hands and made of uniform size and these were then
coiled in spiral form, the rolls being welded together with water. After
proceeding a certain height the walls of the growing jar would become
weak under their own weight. The piece would then be set aside to
undergo a partial hardening upon which the work would be carried forward
another stage. The shape being completed and partially dried, the maker
would work over the whole surface with stones or simple tools until the
marks of the coils had disappeared and the walls had reached a
sufficient thinness. A great deal of skill was exercised in
accomplishing this.
Many of the Indian forms are transitional. The basket, the gourd and the
bark-made jar suggested their shapes to the potter; indeed it is
sometimes evident that clay vessels were constructed as linings to
wicker forms, the outer layer of twigs being afterwards burned off. The
firing was performed in the open flame without any protection, a fact
which accounts for the great irregularity found in quality and color.
The decorations used by the Indian women were of the type common to
unglazed wares. The clay was incised or embossed and natural earths were
used as pigments. This accounts in great measure for the fitness which
may be observed in aboriginal decoration. There is an absence of
artificial coloring, nor is there any straining after effect, but
instead there is shown a sober strength and a sane expression of values
which would do credit to a modern designer.
America is fortunate in possessing abundant relics of primitive times
but it cannot be doubted that in other lands similar work was done,
making allowance, of course, for the characteristic variations in
national traits. The potter's craft is of such a nature, using an
omnipresent material and requiring the minimum of tools, that almost
every nation on the globe has practiced it. In some it has never been
developed beyond the narrow limits of the stone age, in others it has
reached the utmost perfection of cultured skill.
For perfection of quality in crude pottery, no ware has ever surpassed
that of Greece. It is not practicable here to deal with the numerous
branches and sub-branches of Greek pottery; let it suffice for the
present purpose to speak of only two main groups. In the first, the
background of the decoration was supplied by the tint of the bare clay;
in the second, this tint afforded the color of the decoration itself,
the background being covered with a black pigment. To speak briefly
these groups are known as black-figured and red-figured wares.
The wheel was early adopted by the Grecian potters as a means of
producing form and although molds were sometimes used, the wheel was, to
all intents and purposes, the sole method of manufacture. Greek pottery
is once fired. Birch classes it as glazed terra cotta, but the glaze is
nothing more than the black pigment with which the decoration is carried
out. The uncolored part of the clay is not glazed but polished with a
hard tool. Probably some famous potters employed assistants either to
make the pieces or to decorate but it does not appear that there was any
reproduction, at least, during the best period. At first primitive ideas
prevailed. Geometric designs were succeeded by rhythmic friezes of
beasts and birds done in black. When the human figure made its
appearance the faces were all in profile with full-fronting eye while
the prominent details of feature and drapery were scratched with a sharp
point before burning.
The change of method to red on black gave much wider scope for the
treatment of the human figure, rendered a fuller expression possible and
enlarged the power of pictorial action. Great skill in drawing was
manifested and details of both drapery and features were expressed with
great care by means of the brush.
Such was the state of the art when the decadence set in and the work
fell into the hands of plagiarists and charlatans. Meretricious coloring
and gaudy ornament succeeded the refinement and restraint of the earlier
days and so the art perished.
To the inventive power of the Romans the ceramic art owes more than one
novelty. It would appear that the desideratum of the early days was a
black ware. Homer in his hymn wrote:
"Pay me my price, potters, and I will sing. Attend, O Pallas, and with
lifted arm protect their ovens, Let all their cups and sacred vessels
blacken well And baked with good success yield them Both fair renown and
profit."
The Greeks accomplished this blackening by means of a pigment, the
Romans secured a similar result by a manipulation of the fire.
It is well known that the oxide of iron which imparts to the clay a red
color will, if burned in what is known as a "reducing" fire, turn black.
This is accomplished by keeping the air supply at the lowest possible
point and the effect is heightened by the smoke which is partly absorbed
by the clay. This black ware is known as Upchurch pottery from the name
of a locality in England where large quantities have been found, but
numerous examples occur in Germany and, indeed, wherever the Roman hosts
encamped.
A second type of pottery is called Castor ware and consists of a dark
clay upon which the decoration is traced in clay of a lighter color. The
decoration was applied as a slip or cream and hence was the forerunner
of the modern slip painting or _pâte-sur-pâte_. This ware is well worth
a study. The decorations consisted largely of conventional borders and
panels but it is specially notable on account of the free use of motives
drawn from daily life. One of the commonest scenes depicted is the hunt
of hare or stag, the animals and trees being often woven into an almost
conventional frieze.
The most valued type of Roman pottery seems to have been the Aretine or
Samian ware. This is a bright red color and possesses an extremely thin
glaze. A particular clay was evidently used, but all knowledge of its
source has been lost.
With the importation of Chinese porcelain by the Dutch the whole trend
of pottery manufacture was changed. No longer was black a desirable
color, white was seen to be much more delicate and beautiful and
henceforth the endeavor of the potter was to produce a ware which should
be as nearly like porcelain as possible. The crudeness of the clay kept
this ideal from being realized, but various expedients were adopted and
gradually better results were obtained.
Throughout the East a type of white pottery was made which, though
stimulated by the Chinese example, may have been a relic of the
knowledge of the Egyptians. A crude clay was coated with a white
preparation, possibly ground quartz, and upon this there were painted
conventional designs in sombre colors. A clear glaze covered the whole
and imparted to the colors a beautiful quality as of pebbles under
water. The nature of the glaze is made evident by the hues assumed by
the metallic oxides employed as colorants. Copper oxide affords a
turquoise blue, manganese, a wine purple, and iron, a brick red. If the
glaze had contained any considerable amount of lead oxide, these colors
would have been quite different; copper would have produced green,
manganese, dark brown, and iron, yellowish brown. The iron pigment was
evidently a clay, sometimes spoken of as Armenian bole. The red color is
always in raised masses because if a thin wash had been used the color
would have yielded to the action of the glaze.
This ware, commonly called Oriental _engobe_ ware, affords a fruitful
study. Effects similar in character were produced by the late Theodore
Deck of Paris, but no considerable use of the ancient methods has ever
been attempted.
The use of tin and lead in glazing was known to the Arabian and Moorish
potters but these ingredients were not abundant in the East. When,
however, the Moorish hosts conquered a part of Spain in the twelfth
century it was found that both lead and tin were available. The result
was the development of the enameled ware known by the generic name
Maiolica. Some have maintained that this was first made in Italy but the
name is derived from the island of Maiorca from which much of the
pottery was exported. The famous Alhambra vase remains as a monument to
the skill of the Hispano-Moresque craftsmen, but it was the Italian
artists of the Renaissance who brought the enameled wares to perfection.
The interest here is artistic and technical rather than historical, but
no one can study the work of the period without learning something of
Luca della Robbia and Giorgio Andreoli, of Gubbio and Pesaro and Castel
Durante.
The use of lead in the glaze proved seductive. It simplified the
technical problems and provided a brilliant surface but alas! the colors
suffered and one by one they succumbed. The blue of cobalt, however,
proved indestructible and so, when the technical knowledge of the South
met the traditions borrowed from the Chinese, there was born, in the
little town of Delft in Holland, the blue enameled ware which has ever
since been known by the name of its native place.
As to the technical details of the production of Delft ware a great deal
of information is available. The clay used contained a goodly proportion
of lime and this served to hold the enamel in perfect union with the
body. The decoration was painted in cobalt blue upon the unburned
surface of the enamel. This was, in a measure, courting a difficulty but
it is the glory of the craft that a difficulty is cheerfully accepted if
in the overcoming there is found success. If the Delft potters had
burned their enamel in order to make the painting easy, the world would
never have enjoyed the tender tone of blue for which this pottery is
famous. By painting the blue color over the powdery enamel, a more
perfect union of enamel and color was accomplished than would have been
possible by any other means. This fact alone is sufficient to account
for the unsatisfactory nature of the modern, so-called, Delft.
Difficulties have been avoided rather than met and the success of the
early masters has eluded their recent followers.
Much of the pottery made in France in the seventeenth century was
inspired by the Italian renaissance. In fact the word faience is due to
the avowed intention of the manufacturers of Nevers to copy the enameled
pottery of Faenza. Almost the only novelty of the time was the
inversion, by the Nevers potters, of the Delft idea. Instead of a white
enamel with a blue decoration they used, in part, a blue ground with a
decoration in white. It is not known that this variation found
acceptance in any other place but in many localities, notably at Rouen,
the manufacture of enameled wares was pursued with great success. The
only real difference between the wares of Spain, Italy and France, lies
in the decorative treatment. Sometimes the emphasis was laid upon
lustres, sometimes on blue and white and again upon polychrome painting.
In one place there was an extensive use made of pictorial treatment, in
another all was conventional. The differences are interesting to a
student or a collector but to the craftsman enameled pottery affords but
one, though by no means an unimportant, means of expression.
France, however, gave birth to two important and interesting departures
from the beaten track; the so-called Henri deux ware, and the faience of
Bernard Palissy. Important as these are to the ceramist, it is a
remarkable fact that neither of them had any appreciable influence upon
the art as a whole nor did they leave any descendants.
A good deal of controversy has raged around the pottery commonly known
as Henri II, some authorities claiming that it should be called Faience
d'Oiron, and others assigning to it the name Saint Porchaire. It was,
quite evidently, the production of an individual or group of individuals
who had no connection with ordinary pottery manufacture, and the small
quantity produced is evidence that it was made for personal pleasure.
The name Henri II is undoubtedly satisfactory, for it was made in the
reign of the second Henry and some pieces bear the monogram of the king.
On the other hand H may be the initial of Helene d'Hengest, who occupied
the chateau d'Oiron and who had in her employ one Bernard who filled the
position of librarian. The style of the work seems to indicate a
devotion to books, for the patterns are suggestive of book-binding tool
work but were not produced in the same way. The ware was made of a
natural cream-colored clay and the shapes were modeled with great skill.
Upon the plain surface patterns were tooled or incised and the hollows
thus formed were filled in with dark-colored clays. The whole was then
covered with a clear lead glaze which afforded a finish very much like
modern earthenware.
The origin of this work is a matter of little more than academic
interest but the technical details are of such importance as to be well
worth a study. The ware is original and unique. No pottery either before
or since has approached it in method, and the quality of most of the
pieces is all that could be desired. Such was the elaboration of detail
that no price could have been set upon the ware and it was evidently not
made for sale. A distinct growth in style can be traced. The first
pieces were somewhat archaic and even crude but as skill was acquired
greater perfection was attained. As is too often the case, however, the
skillful hand overreached itself and the later pieces are loaded with
meretricious detail in many colors. There are only about fifty pieces
known and these are equally divided between the museums of France and
England.
Bernard Palissy was a versatile genius but is here only considered as a
potter. He states in his records that he was inspired by seeing an
enameled cup. It was at one time supposed that this cup was of Italian
maiolica but later authorities incline to the belief that it was a piece
of Chinese porcelain which Palissy supposed to have been enameled. No
white clay was known to him but enameled wares were quite accessible. It
can scarcely be believed that maiolica was a novelty but it can easily
be understood that a piece of white porcelain, viewed in the light of
the contemporary knowledge of enamels, would appear of marvellous
quality.
Palissy essayed to imitate this wonder but attacked the problem from the
standpoint of an opaque glaze. He spent fifteen years in experimenting
but never realized his ideal. He did, however, produce a palette of
marvellous colored enamels. He was a close student of nature and modeled
all kinds of natural objects, glazing them in the proper hues. He also
designed and made vases and service pieces, some with figure
embossments. The story of his struggles is readily accessible to any who
are interested.
Palissy left little or no impression upon the ceramic art of his time
but in recent years some work has been done in colored glazes fusible at
a low temperature. This ware is sometimes sold under the name of
maiolica but it is more nearly an imitation of Palissy. The main
difference between the two types is that while the maiolica or
tin-glazed pottery of Spain, Italy and France consisted for the most
part of a white enameled surface upon which painting was applied,
Palissy used little or no white enamel but decorated his wares with
tinted glazes which themselves supplied the colors.
In the low countries and the German states there was made the striking
and original pottery known as _Grès de Flandres_. The clay was of the
type commonly used for the manufacture of stone-ware and appears in
three colors, brown, gray and cream. The ware was made on the wheel and
embossments more or less elaborate were subsequently added. The unique
feature consisted in the method of applying the glaze. This was simply
common salt, thrown into the heated kiln and volatilized. The salt vapor
bathed the glowing pottery and combined with its substance, thus
producing the delightful orange-skin texture known as salt glaze.
The knowledge of this method was conveyed to England in the seventeenth
century and gained wide acceptance there. The English potters preferred
to use clays which were almost white, and after glazing a decoration in
brilliant colors was sometimes added. Naturalistic treatment was not
attempted but conventionalized subjects were used with almost the effect
of jewelry. The temperature at which this work can be produced varies
with the clay. Many fusible clays will take a salt glaze but the beauty
of the product depends to a large extent upon the purity of the body.
This necessitates a hard fire, for white-burning clays always need a
high temperature for vitrification. The early potteries of England were
dependent largely upon clay effects. Some little enameled ware was made
and is known as English Delft; but the bulk of the work was slip
painted, incised, marbled or embossed. Each of these methods is capable
of an intelligent application and all are within the reach of the artist
potter.