1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Ceramics/Greek

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1911 Encyclopædia Britannica - Ceramics  Greek

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Greek

Page7, Volume_05

Page7, Volume_05

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 rgth century the earliest remains to be traced on Greek soil could be assigned at the furthest to the period 2 500-2000 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 fiorid 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.

Sites and Discoveries.-The sites on which Greek vases have been fou11d 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, Cumae 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, Cvirgenti 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 grou, that of the white

funeral lriekythoi, 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 pot'tery

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

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FIG. 12.-]ug from Cyprus of

Oriental style, IO in. high.

remarkable for pottery of the

prehistoric period with rudely

Crete is now famous for the wondrous series of painted and ornamented pottery of pre-Mycenaean 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

painted designs; and above all

Greece. This has been

found in the recent excavations

at Cnossus, (' I

Palaeoka?troA andMclse- j

wiere. n sia inor , ji 1

there have been some . ii if

important finds on the j' s. °F

mainland, but only fl ., i i, : along the coast; some j Z =, f

of the islands, more E “P” ' -

especially Samos and f

Rhodes, have been more '¢-3 "fr '. fruitful in this respect. , ,.».., yr, At Kertch and use- 1 l2;tl;='l%t , r where in the Crimea, 'W i, f, if, ,"'i, ,, j1?5§ ~;,1li3"* W large numbers of fine; ,

but somewhat florid .L

vases of the 5th and

4th centuries B.c. have

come to light. Cyprus

has long been known as

FIG. 13.-Pottery from Cyprus with

geometrical ornament.

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. 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.

713

GREEK; CERAMICS 713

been found bearing representations of the digging of clay for pottery.

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 Bronze age tombs of 2 500-1500 B.c. contain only hand-made pottery, but in the next period (1500-100O 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 a

 1 ' /II,

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I " Kyathos

Rhyton Kylix

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Y

Kotyle Kantharos Lekythos Alabastron

Oinochoe

1e?'-:Q Aryballos

<

%-*.¢

Amphora Calyx-krater Stamnos Kalpis

FIG. 15.-Shapes

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 hner 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 lqw. 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 Sanother 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, I3-I9 parts; lime, -I0 parts; magnesia, I-3 parts; oxide of iron, I2-I9 parts. Analsyses 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 b a study of the primitive pottery of Crete, Cyprus or Troy. In C/yprus, for instance, the of Greek Vases.

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." t 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 mgigt, '»~n~» , ,, , inttux*~».~.m:;~@'r “'-, v u»r' r, :f-r:lm.> , ,'>' <t;: »uf=, ,~ , as is also indicated *li ffl(, Q" ll. w ~“ ' 'um  » ,

on a vase. Large, tg " 1

and coarse vases, 3 , ,““'”"f'l'w lf? ji" such as wine casks lt: ,  »'"' v :', "'i~“L "Trl q 'ftzyllf (1ri0ot), were always  » l;Jf2...v ', *ffl modelled by hand Q L.. 'w i "*""' on a kind of hooped it © " ' S ' ' il mould (mivvaéos). , mf <-  » 2V lit, i t Parts of Vases lil r ' i"lflf'fllf]'li “H, " " ', ,, l§ '.'ilii'lii§ ;::;, 'lil were modelled by ~ gin', llf ilil ~"l"~', ;» ~ '1jH hand at all periods 'll :gf - *"', ,, twillWsysmjx, , fllh by way of decora- ii;;l“', 'llf§ '~§ =T, k t, § ,15lll~»“, ,, ' 'QW "ll tion- Even in the . if ~», :l| < i"v~, , Mlilitlt“lQ's#';Jl';fT' lid g@°mgfi§ a1hr>@fi<>d , ,, ,., ¢..!v17 we n orses - . f -

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 FIG. 16.-Votive tablet from Corinth; a potter applying painted bands while the vessel revolves on the Wheel.

714

714 CERAMICS [GREEK

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 sundried 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

g, ;:, ége remaining unimpaired.

Other accidents were liable

'{;

; 1 jj. F? to occulr; in thedbakmg, such

>?i. iiéié? , ff? as crac in un er too great T fp, heat, or thi damaging of the

shape by vases knocking

f~; H ' against one another and so

isis; being dented in or crushed.

V 1 fTl!he fornq of tlge ovegn vglas

, J}§§ €; §§ 7§ o the sim est . 17 . o

-gf F§ '§ %T*i?~ f§ ', furnaces have beegh found in W ., , , . . , , , WI, , ...., ., =. of i..I;i Greece, and only one or two ""' ~' "" ' " f f in Italy, but we have a variety of evidence from

vase-paintings. They were

fed by fires from beneath,

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. The Painting of Vases:-We may distinguish three principal classes of painted pottery, of which two admit of subdivision. I. Primitive Greek vases with simple painted ornaments, chiefly linear and geometrical, laid directly on the clay with the brush. FIG. 17.-Model of Kiln found in

Essex.

and the vases were inserted with

The colour employed is usually a yellowish or brownish red passing into black. The execution varies, but is often extremely coarse. f 5. Greek vases painted with figures. These may be subdivided as O OWS?"

(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.

3. Vases with polychrome decoration.

(a) Vases of various dates with designs in outline or washes in various colours on white ground (these range from the 6th to the 4th century B.C.).

(b) Vases of various dates with designs in opaque colour laid over a ground of shining black (ranging from the primitive period to the 3rd century B.C.).

Of these the second group is by far the largest and most important, including the majority of the finest specimens of Greek vase-painting, and the followin account will deal mainly with the technical processes by which the most successful results were obtained. In both the classes (a) and (b) the colouring is almost confined to a contrasting of the glossy red ground and shining black. This black varnish (P) is particularly deep and lustrous, but varies under different circumstances according to differences of locality, of manufacture or accidents of production. It is seen in its greatest perfection in the “ Nolan ” amphome of the earlier red-figure period, at its worst in the Etruscan and Italian imitations of Greek vases. The gradations of quality may be partly due to the action of heat, i.e. stoving at a higher or lower temperature. It also varies in thickness. At present no certainty has been attained as to its composition-Brongniart's oft-quoted analysis cannot be accepted -nor has any acid been found to have an effect upon it, though the chemical action of the earth sometimes causes it to disappear. The method of its use forms the chief distinction between the black-figured and red-figured vases, but there is a class of the former which approaches near in treatment to the latter, the whole vase being covered with black except a framed panel which is left red to receive the figures. It is obvious that the transition to merely leaving the figures red is but a slight one. But in all black-figured vases the main principle is that the figures are painted in black silhouette on the red ground, the outlines being first roughly indicated by a pointed instrument making a faint line. The surface within these outlines being filled in with black, details of anatomy, dress, &c., were brought out by incising inner lines with a pointed tool. After a second baking or perhaps stoving had taken place, 'the designs were further enriched by the application of opaque purple and white pigments, which follow certain conventional principles in their respective use. After a third baking at a lower heat still to fix these colours the vase was complete.

In the red-figured vases the shining black is used as a background. But before it is applied the outlines of the figures are indicated not by incised lines, but by drawing a thick line of black round their contours. Recent researches have attempted to show that the instrument with which this was achieved may have been a feather brush or pen, by which the lines were drawn separately, not concurrently. The other tools used for painting would be an ordinary metal or reed Tpen and a camel's-hair brush, or at any rate something analogous. hus the outlines of the figures were clearly marked, and the process is one of drawing rather than painting, but it was in draughtsmanship that the best vase-painters excelled. The next stage was to mark the inner details by very fine black lines or by masses of black for surfaces such as the

hair; white and purple were also employed, but more sparingly than on the

earlier vases. The main processes always

remain the same down to the termination

of vase-painting, though the tendency to

polychrome, which came in about the end

of the 5th century B.C, , effected some

modifications. The blacking of the whole

exterior surface—a purely mechanical

process-took place after the figures

had been completed and protected from

accidents by the thick black border of

which we have spoken.,

A fragment of an unfinished vase preserved in the Sevres Museum gives a very

clear idea of the process just described, the figures being completed, but the background not yet applied (fig. I8). There is

also another vase in existence which gives the interior of a vase-painter's studio, in which three artists are at work with their brushes, their paint-pots by their side.

In the class of vases (3 (a)), with polychrome figures on awhite ground, the essential feature is the white slip or engobe with which the naturally pale clay is covered. In the archaic vases of the 7th and 6th centuries B.C., especially in the Ionian centres, as at Rhodes, Naucratis and Cyrene, this slip is frequently employed, but with this difference, that the figures are painted in the ordinary black-figure method, the only additional colour being purple laid on the black. We first find polychrome decoration, whether in Wash or outline, in a small class of fragments from Naucratis, of the 6th century B.C., which technically are of a very advanced character. The colours used either for outline or wash include purple, brown, yellow, crimson and rose-colour, but some, if not all, of these colours were not fired.

In the 5th century this practice was revived at Athens, chiefly in the class of lekythoi or oil-fiasks devoted exclusively to sepulchral uses. Here the vases, after leaving the wheel and being fitted with handles, &c., were covered with a coating of white clay. A second coating of black was applied to the parts not required for decoration, and the white was then finely polished, acquiring a dull gloss, and finally fired at a low temperature. The decoration was achieved as follows: a preliminary sketch was made with fine grey lines, ignoring draperies, &c., and not always followed when the colours were laid on. This was done when the first lines were dry, the colour Q

W

(From a photo supplied by the

Director of the Sevres Museum).

FIG. 18.-Fragment of

unfinished red - figured

vase.

715

GREEK] CE RA

being applied with a fine brush in monochrome-black, yellow or red-following the lines of the sketch. F or the drapery and other details polychrome washes were employed, laid on with a large brush. All varieties of red from rose to brown are found, also Violet, yellow, blue, black and green. Hair is treated either in outline or by means of washes.

Finally, we have to deal with the class of vases (3 (b)) in which opaque pigments are laid over the surface of the shining black with which the whole vase is coated. This method is met with at three distinct periods in the history of vase-painting, separated by long distances of time.

We first find it in the earlier Cretan or Kamares ware, where it seems to have been introduced not long after the close of the Neolithic period, about 2500 B.C., and where it holds its own for about a thousand years against the contrasted method of “ dark on l1ght " painting, till it was finally ousted by the latter at the height of “ Mycenaean ” civilization in Crete. The colouring 1S very varied, orange, brown, pink and white being the principal tints employed, The process appears again at the end of the 5th century in a small class of Attic vases, which have been regarded as a sort of transition between the black-figured and red-figured. White and orange-red are here employed, sometimes with accessory details in purple and black and incised lines, so that the technique 1S virtually black-figured, though the appearance of the vases is often red figured. Lastly, it appears in southern Italy as a final effort of vase-painting to flicker into life again about the end of the 3rd century. Some of these vases were made in Campania, where the method resembles that of the Attic class just described, others in Apulia, probably at Gnathia. The latter have feeble conventional decoration in purple and white with details in yellow, confined to one side of the vases, and are also distinguished by the use of ornaments in relief. They were also occasion ly made in Greece proper. Remarkably few colours were used by the Greek vase painters, especially in the best periods. The deep purple used for accessory details was produced from iron oxide, but the red used for lines on the white lekythoi is an ochre (pikros, rubrica). The white also used for accessories is an earth or clay; in the slip coating of the white ground vases it assumes the consistency of pipe-clay. Yellow, where used for details on the later vases, is an ochre, and blue and green are produced from artificial compounds containing copper. A number of the colours, such as blue, rose and green, used by the polychrome painters, are obviously artificial pigments which have not been fired. When gilding was employed it was laid on over a raised ground of clay finely modelled with a small tool or brush, and was attached by varnish, not by fire.-Potters and Inscriptions.-The potters who made these vases were mostly-at least at Athens in the 6th and 5th centuries, B.C.-p, é1-oucot, or resident aliens, as their names in many cases imply. We have an Amasis (an Egyptian name), a Brygus (a Scythian), a Lydus and a Scythes. The dialect of many of the inscriptions on Attic vases seems to show foreign influence, though in other cases peculiarities may be merely due to the use of a vernacular. They formed a gild or fraternity, and in each pottery there was probably more or less division of labour, the more simple processes being the work of slaves. This seems to be implied in the vase-paintings representing the interior of potteries. Others again “specialized ' in different shapes, and were known as XUTP01l"xé»00L,)KU60'I|'0L0[, and so on. Over a hundred names of artists are known, found on some five hundred vases. They go back to about 700 B.C., the earliest names being found on Corinthian and Boeotian vases; but the majority of the signatures are found on Attic black- and red-figured wares. Some, such as Andocides, made vases in which the two methods are combined. The best known is Nicosthenes, whose signature occurs eighty times. The ordinary forms of signature are four-(I) b Bei:/a 3-/roi1;rrev; (2) 6 5e'i1/a. Eypalkev; (3) 6 6eZ'va 37/palke Kal é7'|'0l('|1GE1/j (4) A Evpaibe. B éiroimrev. Where éf/rolqae alone occurs (as in a signature of Euxitheus), it probably refers to the master of the pottery who designed the vase and superintended its production; in other cases the share of the actual artist is clearly indicated. Some artists, such as Duris and Makron, sign éypaxl/e alone; in all cases, the form of signature affords us a useful guide to their style. Space forbids the discussion of other inscriptions found on vases, which include those descriptive of subjects or persons, ejaculations uttered by the figures, convivial exclamations, or the xakés names discussed below; all these are painted on the designs themselves. There is also another class of grajiti inscriptions, which includes those incised by the owners with their names and memoranda scratched under the foot, probably made by the potter or his workmen relating to the number of vases in a batch or “ set " and their price. Vitreous and Lead-glazed Wares.-In Greek tombs a class of pottery is often found which approximates more i11 appearance to porcelain, but, though often spoken of by that name, it is not porcelain at all, but is analogous to the Egyptian glazed faience, of which it is in point of fact an imitation. It is distinguished by the white gritty material of which it is made, largely composed of sand, and orming what is sometimes known as “ frit " from its semi-vitreous consistency. The surface is covered with a glaze, usually of n pale blue or cream colour, but other colours such as a manganese-purple or brown are sometimes found. Some of the earliest examples of this ware have been found in Mycenaean tombs at Enkomi in Cyprus, MICS 7 1 5

in the form of vases moulded in the shape of human or animal heads. These exhibit a remarkably advanced skill in modelling, and are more like Greek work of the 6th century B.C. Apart from the technique they have nothing in common with the Egyptian importations so often found in Mycenaean tombs.

In a subsequent period (Sth-7th century B.C.) Egyptian objects in faience became a common import into Greek cities, such as those of Rhodes, and to a less degree in Sardinia and southern Italy, through the commercial medium of the Phoenicians. Flasks 'of faience occur in the Polledrara tomb at Vulci (610-600 B.C.) and similar vases with a pale green glaze at Tharros in Sardinia in tombs of the same date. In Rhodes, small flasks and jars are found ornamented with friezes of men and animals in relief, or imitating in colour and design the glass vessels of the Phoenicians. It also seems probable that the Greeks of Rhodes and

other centres attempted the imitation of

this ware (see fig. 19), for we find faience aryballi or globular oil-flasks modelled in the form of helmeted heads or animals,

which are purely Greek in style.

In the Hellenistic period the fashion was

revived at Alexandria; and under the

Ptolemies large jugs of blue-enamelled

faience with figures in relief and bearing the names of reigning sovereigns were

made and exported to the Cyrenaica and

to southern Italy. Two of these are in the British ~Museum (Egyptian department).

The same collection includes a very beautiful glazed vase in the form of Eros riding

on a duck, found in a tomb at Tanagra,

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FIG. 19.-Enamelled

pottery from tombs in

Rhodes, made under

Egyptian influence.

but undoubtedly of Alexandrine make, and a head of a Ptolemaic queen, with a surface of bright blue glaze. Subsequently in the 1st century B.C., this so-called porcelain ware was replaced by a variety of ware characterized by a brilliantly coloured glaze coating, in which the presence of lead is often indicated. This ware was principally made at three centres; at Tarsus in Asia Minor, at Alexandria and at Lezoux in central Gaul. But it was probably also made in western Asia Minor and in Italy. It is not confined to vases, being also employed for lamps and small figures; the vases are usually of small size, in shapes imitated from metal (Plate II., fig. 59). The colour of the glaze varies from a deep green to bright yellow, and the inside of a vessel is often of a different tint from the exterior. Many of these vases are decorated -with figures or designs in relief, others are quite plain. The colours of these glazes are of course due to the addition of oxide of copper and oxide of iron to a lead glaze, and they are strictly analogous to the green and yellow glazes of medieval Europe? HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF GREEK VASE-1>A1NT1NG.-It hasibeen indicated in the section dealing With technical processes that Greek vases may be classified under four headings according to the character of the decoration, and this classification may with a slight modification be adopted as a chronological one, the history of the art falling under four main heads, under which it will be convenient to describe its development from the earliest specimens of painted pottery down to the period when it was finally replaced by other methods of decoration.

These four classes and their main characteristics may be summarized as follows:-

I. Vases of the Primilive Period from about 2500 or 2000 to 600 B.C., includin both the Cretan-Mycenaean epoch and the early ages of historical Greece. In the former the pottery is either decorated in polychrome on a shining black ground or conversely in shining black on a buff ground; in the latter, the decoration is in brown or black (usually dull, not shiny) on an unglazed ground varying from white to pale red. In the former again the decoration is marked by its naturalistic treatment of plant and animal forms; in the latter the ornaments are chiefly linear, floral or figures of animals; human figures and mythological scenes being very rare. II. Black-jigured Vases from about 600-500 B.C.; figures painted in shining black on a glossy ground varying from cream colour to bright orange red, with engraved lines and white and purple for details; subjects mainly from mythology and legend. III. Redgigured Vases, from 520 to 400 B.C.; figures drawn in outline on red clay and the background wholly filled in with shining black, inner details indicated by painted lines or dashes of purple and white, scenes from daily life or mythology. With these are included the vases with polychrome hgures on white ground. In these, which are exclusively made at Athens, the perfection of vase-painting is reached .between 480 and 450 B.C. IV. Vases of the Decadence, from 400 to 200 B.C.; mostly from southern Italy, technique as in Class III., but the drawing is free 1 On this subject see in particular Mazard, De la con-m11'ssance pa; les anciens des glagures plombzferes, a scientific and valuable mono. graph (1879); also Rayet and Collignon, Hist. de la céramique grecquc, p. 305 (or B.llI. Cal. of Raman Pottery. Introduction).

716

716 CERAMICS [GREEK

and often careless, and the general effect gaudy; subjects funereal, theatrical .and fanciful. At the end of this period vases are largely replaced by plain shining black pottery modelled in various forms, or with decorations in relief, all these being imitations of the metal vases which began to take the place of painted wares in the estimation of the Hellenistic world.

I. Vases of the Primitive Period.-It has been noted in the introductory section that it is possible to trace the development J, ;a a.. 2 of pottery in Greece as far /Q' /-. a.~, ¢>. ~ - ~ -fa.

~ gg '»~~§ back as the Neohthic period owing chiefly to the light

sf; e§ ;?;, ' recently thrown on the sub"

°°”"{ ject by the .excavations in

Crete. These have yielded

-f ,

~ Q, large quantities of painted

pottery of high technical

merit, usually with decoration

f s. . in polychrome or white on a dark ground, In What is known

as the Kamares ware, Cover-

ing the period 2500~1500 B.c.

(fig. zo). This was gradually

9 . * .» superseded by painting in dark " iv, shining pigments on a light 711 '-" ' glossy ground during the later Minoan period (1500-1000

— L.; B.c.), forming what is known From Annual of:he British Schonl in as the “ M ycenaean ” style. A”“'”~ The subjects, though chiefly FIG. 20.-Minoan or “ Kamares ”

ware, from Crete.

confined to floral ornaments or

aquatic plants and creatures,

are marvellously naturalistic yet decorative in their treatment, often rivalling in this respect the pottery of the Far East. In the latter part of this period this class of pottery was spread all over the Mediterranean, and large quantities have been found in Greece, especially at Mycenae, in Rhodes and other Greek islands, and in Cyprus, where a series of vases

with animals, monsters, and even

human figures shows what is probably the latest development of the

9 pure Minoan or Mycenaean style. 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 handmade, 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 FIG. 21.-Primitive black

pottery from the Troad.

FIG. 22.-Primitive red pottery from the Troad. 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. About the time which is represented in Greek tradition by the Dorian invasion (IIOO 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.

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 FIG. 23.-Vase with bands

of animals, Oriental in style.

(British Museum.)

FIG. 24.—Ionic amphora, with contest between Heracles and Hera, and bands of birds and animals; black, with incised lines. 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

717

GREEK] g CERAMICS 717

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. 2 5); 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 5 5o 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 g.. . ...- —n .~ 2.1 . . .. . . . .. —...-9 FIG. 25.-Early inscribed pinax 'from Rhodes, with contest of Menelaus and Hector over the body of Euphorbus. introduced and Athens perfected, to the consideration of which we must return.

For some 1 5o 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 inally 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-jigured 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, oinochae 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 werewon

on the other (fig. 26). They

usually bear the inscription 1'cT.W

A671V7”j0€V ii0)w1/ ei, u.f, “ 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.

The chief interest of the black figured vases is really derived

from their subjects, which range 5

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 7

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718

718 CERAMICS [GREEK

into prominence, new deities such as Eros (Love), and Niké (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 ind 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. Among the artists of the period who have left their names on the vases, besides those already mentioned, the most conspicuous is Nicosthenes, a potter of some originality, from whose hand green!

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the artist Andocides, who not only produced vases in each method, but also several in which the two are combined (fig. 27). In two or three cases the subject is actually the same on each side, almost every detail being repeated, except that the colouring is reversed.

The date at which the change took place was formerly placed well on in the 5th century, on account of the great advance in drawing which most of the red-figured vases show, as compared with the black. They were thus regarded as contemporary with the painter Polygnotus, if not with Pheidias. But the excavations on the Acropolis of Athens yielded so many fragments in the advanced red-figured style which must be earlier than 480 B.C., that it has become necessary to find an earlier date for its appearance. This is now usually placed at about 520 B.C., overlapping with the preceding period. The red-figure period is usually subdivided into four, marking the chief stages of development, and known respectively as the “ severe, ” “ strong, ” “f1ne, ” and “late fine ” periods. Their principal characteristics and representative painters may be briefly enumerated.

In the severe period there is no marked advance on the black-Iigured Vases as regards style. The figures are still more or less stiff and conventional, andsome vases even show signs of an analogous decadence. The real development is partly technical,

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Vase by Andocides., Black figures on obverse. FIG. 27. Vase byfAndocides. Red figures on reverse. we have over seventy examples, a few being in the red-figure method. He is supposed to have introduced at Athens a. revival of the Ionic fashion of painting on a cream-coloured ground instead of on red, of which some very effective examples have been preserved. He was always a potter rather than a painter, and most of his vases are remarkable for their forms-~introducing plastic imitations of metal vases-rather than for their painted decoration. Most of the artists of this period, as in the succeeding one, have left their signatures on cups (kylikes), but this form did not receive so much attention from the painter as at a later period, and many of these examples bear only inscriptions and no painted decoration. III. Red-figured Vases.-T he sudden reversal of technical method involved in the change from black figures on a red ground to red figures on black is not at first sight easy of explanation. Some artists, like Nicosthenes and Andocides, used both methods, sometimes on the same vase, and there is no doubt that the two went on for some years concurrently. As, however, no intermediate stage is possible, there is no question of development or transition. The new style was in fact a bold and ingenious innovation. It may possibly have been suggested by a small class of vases in which the hgures are painted in the black-figure method, but have the converse appearance, that is to say they are painted in a thick red pigment on a ground of shining black. It may therefore have occurred to the artist that he could obtain the same effect merely by leaving the figures unpainted on the red clay and surrounding them with the black. The change, must, however, be closely associated with the career of partly in the introduction of new subjects. Although the change of style probably had its actual origin in the amphora, as treated by Andocides, the new developments are best seen in the kylix, a form of vase which now sprang into popularity and called forth the chief efforts of the principal artists. Its curved surface gave ample scope for skilful effects of drawing and decorative arrangement, and the earlier painters devoted all their attention to perfecting it as a work of decorative art. For other shapes, such as the hydria and lekythos, the old method was for a time preferred.

The most typical artist of the period was Epictetus, and other famous cup-painters were Pamphaeus, Cachrylion and Phintias. The earliest cups are decorated in a quite simple fashion like those of the black-figure period, often with a single figure each side between two large “ symbolical ” eyes, and a single figure in a circle in the interior. To the latter the artist at first devoted his chief efforts, though even here his scope was at first limited. But although he had not yet attained to skill in composition, he did discover that the circular space was well adapted for exhibiting his newly-acquired abilities as a draughtsman and for disposing figures in ingeniously conceived attitudes. In all cases the object was to fill the space as far as possible, a characteristic of all the best Greek art. By degrees more attention was paid to the designs on the exterior, and the single figures were replaced by groups, but regular compositions in the form of friezes telling some story were not introduced until quite the end of this period. Epictetus was throughout his career a. thoroughly “ archaic ” artist, but a considerable advance was

719

GREEK] CERAMICS 719 made by Cachrylion, who stands on the verge of the succeeding In the late jine style, which begins about 440 B.C., the pictorial stage. effect is preserved, but with perfected skill in drawing the com-The strong period centres round the name of Euphronius, the positions deteriorate greatly in merit, and become at once over author of a really great artistic movement. His capacity for reined and careless. The figures are crowded together without inventing new subjects or new poses-or otherwise overcoming technical and artistic difficulties -marks a great advance on all previous achievements, and he seems to represent the stage of development traditionally associ-Cleonae, the in- ventor of foreshortening and other novelties. Thus figures were no longer represented exclusively in profile, as in the blackflgured vases which had made no advance beyond the conventions of Egyptian art. Ten vases signed by him are in existence (though it is not certain that all were actually painted by him), most of them having mythological subjects (fig. 28). Of his contemporaries, Duris, Hieron and Brygus take foremost rank, all three being, like Euphro /M-»f'°' -.au ii! f “nv W' Q £i'/ <1 meaningorinterest. The fashion also arose of enhancing the designs by means of accessory colours-almost unknown in the previous stages-such as white laid on in masses, blue and green, ls. f/ and even with gilding. Athletic place to scenes from 4 'v"§ i“éé ¢'W ¢. Qi* ' X dia il

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/W awe. Yalwf ni Mhlip, my yy, ' -any l7r/ J a- the life of women and children or meaningless groups of figures (ng. 30). A good example of this style is an amphora from Rhodes with the subject of Peleus wooing Thetis, in which polychrome olouring and gilding are introduced. There are also many imposing and elaborate specimens found (and perhaps made) in the colonies of the Crimea and the Cyrenaica; in particular one signed by Xenophantus with the Persian king hunting, and anf V ated with the painter Cimon of ° '> } and mythological subjects yield r ' - ' "4 f bs ek. P°" 1 1 ' "' ', r° ' e v Y f l ~ Q / Tfilli /, ” 1 r ° fb

A ., ,, As x A other representing the contest of nius, essentially cup-painters, FIG, 23 Cup by Euphr.-miuS Athena and Poseidon for the soil though they use other forms at “ of Attica, both from the'Crimea. times. For decorative effect and beauty of composition their Contemporary with the red-figure method is one in which the vases have never been surpassed. As an example we may quote figures are painted on a white slip or engobe resembling pipea kotyle or beaker in the British Museum signed by Hieron, with clay, with which the whole surface was covered; the figures are a group of Eleusinian deities. The larger vases of this period are more rarely signed, but many of them rival the cups in execution, though the subjects are characterized by greater simplicity and largeness of style. In the jim: style (460-440 B.C.) breadth of effect and dignity are aimed at, and although cup painting had passed its zenith, and signed specimens become rarer, yet, considering the red figured vases as a whole, this period exhibits the perfection of technique and drawing. In many of the larger vases the scenes are of a pictorial character, landscape being introduced, with figures ranged at different levels, and herein we may see a reflection of the style pf the painter Polygnotus.. One of the finest cups in this style is in the Berlin hluseum, it is signed by the artists Erginus and Aristophanes, and the subject is the battle of the gods and giants. To the end of the period belongs a beautiful hydria in the British Museum by the painter Meidias

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-sf <1-;- Z- se - ' . e- ..§ »-<~ ' , %/ A V 1% / FIG. 29.-Hydria by Meidias in the style of Polygnotus. drawn in outline in red or black, and partly filled in with washes of colour, chiefly red, purplish red, or brown, but sometimes also with blue or green. This style seems to have been popular about the middle of the 5th century B.C. and was employed for the funeral lekythoi which came into fashion at Athens about that time. These vases, which form a class by themselves, were made specially for funeral ceremonies and were painted with subjects relating to the tomb, such as the laying-out of the corpse on the bier, the ferrying of the dead over the Styx by Charon, or (most frequently) mourners bringing offerings to the tomb (fig. 31). They continued to be made well on into the 4th century, but the later examples are very degenerate and careless. Of other forms, especially the kylix and the pyxis (toilet-box), some exceedingly beautiful specimens have come down to us, which show a delicacy of drawing and firmness of touch never with subjects from Greek legend in two friezes (fig. 29). surpassed, although the lines were probably only drawn with a Generally speaking, there is a reaction in favour of mythological brush. The technique of these vases may reflect the methods of Svbifcts the painter Polygnotus and his contemporaries, who used a

720

720 CERAMICS [GREEK limited number of colours on a white ground. Among them no finer specimen exists than the cup in the British Museum with Aphrodite riding on a goose; the design is entirely in brown outlines, and the drawing, if slightly archaic, full of grace and refinement. In the subjects on red-igured vases we do not End the same I' A A C N L A 2232 °:;; lgllllllil |lKll§ !iI!|@j 4 2' 3 is if 1 ' T I 5  », év?, f 3 V ' “ ~ ay f LJ, ' | -1 iz? / 1 I rl flll

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FIG. 30.-Painting from a small toilet-box or pyxis, showing painted vases used to decorate a lady's room. On the- left is a gilt pyxis with a tall lid, and an oenochoe on a low table; on the right two tall vases (lebes) on a plinth. All except the pyxis are decorated with painted ngures, and contain flowers. variety of choice as on the black-figured, but on the other hand there is infinitely greater freedom of treatment. The stereotyped form of composition is almost entirely discarded, and each painter forms his own conception of his subject. The Eg I class of slim amphorae, known as “ Nolan ” from the place where they were mostly found, are distinguished by having the design limited to one or at most two figures on each side, often on a large scale; these vases are also famous for the marvellous brilliance of their shining black (fig. 32). H V Towards the middle of the gthpcentury the patriotism of the Athenian artist finds expression in the growing importance which he attaches to local legends, especially those of Theseus, the typical Attic hero. He seems to have been regarded as the typical Athenian athlete or ephebus, and his contests as analogous to episodes of the gymnasium. Hence the grouping on some vases of scenes from his labours are like so many groups of athletes (fig. 33), and hence, too, a general tendency of the red-figured vases, especially the cups, to become a sort of glorincation of the Attic ephebus, the representations of whom in all sorts of occupations are out of all proportion to other subjects. . We End evidence of this, too, in another form. Many vases, especially the cups of the “ severe ” and “ strong ” periods, bear names of persons inscribed on the designs with the word Kahés, “fair” or “ noble, ” attached; sometimes merely, “the boy is fair.” The exact meaning of this practice has been much discussed, but evidence seems to show that the persons celebrated must have been quite young at the time, and were probably youths famous for their beauty or athletic prowess. Some of the names are those of historical characters, such as Hipparchus, Miltiades or Alcibiades, and, though they cannot always be identified with these celebrated personages, enough evidence has been obtained to be of great value for the chronology of the vases. A19 J@f@Ef@|'(31E.l|'Ejl@. P Q uuwmh

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FIG. 31.-e uneral lekythos showing vases placed inside tomb. Further, the practice of the vase-painter of adopting his own particular favourite name or set of names has enabled us to increase our knowledge of the characteristics of individual artists by identifying unsigned vases with the work of particular schools. IV. Vases of the Decadence.—F or all practical purposes the red-figure style at Athens came to an end with the fall of the city in 404 B.C. Painted vases did not then altogether cease to be made, as the Panathenaic prize vases and the funeral le/eyllzui testify, but at the same time a rapid decadence set in. The whole tendency of the 4th century:B.C. in Greece was one of decentralization, and the art of vase-painting was no exception, for we find that there must have been a general migration of craftsmen from Athens, not only to the Crimea and to North Africa, but also to southern Italy, which now becomes the chief centre of vase production. Here there were many rich and flourishing Greek colonies or Grecianized towns, such as Tarentum, Paestum and Capua, ready to welcome the new art as an addition to their many luxuries. In the character of the vases of this period we see their tendencies reflected, especially in their o¢~¢-§ 5 § '?

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<'r>< o "Q" fx -1, 'Z', . (DUI splendid or showy § aspect; the only I aim being size and gaudy colouring. j T h e g e n e r a 1 method of paint- g ing remains that } of the Athenian 1 red-ngure vases, if but with entire " loss of simplicity g or refinement, g either in the orna- 3 men tat ion, th e choice of colours, I or the drawing of g the figures. Large; masses of white are invariably em- I ployed, especially g for the flesh of women or of Eros, 4| the universally present god of L o v e, and f o r architectural details. Yellow is introduced for details of hair or features, and in attempts at shading, nor is a dull iron purple uncommon. The reverses of the vases, when they have subjects, are devoid of all accessory colouring, and the figures are drawn with the greatest carelessness, as if not intended to be seen. There is throughout a lavish use of ornamental patterns such as palmettos, wreaths of leaves, or ornaments strewn over the field (a reversion to an old practice). The drawing, having now become entirely free, errs in the opposite extreme; the forms are soft and the male figures often effeminate. The fanciful and richly-embroidered draperies of the figures" and the frequent architectural settings seem to indicate that theatrical representations exercised much influence on the vase-painters. The great painters of the 4th century may also have contributed their share of inspiration, but rather perhaps in the subjects chosen than in regard to style; though the effect of many scenes on the larger vases is decidedly pictorial, they are chiefly remarkable for their emotional and dramatic themes. The influence of the stage is twofold, for tragedy as well as comedy plays its part. Many subjects are taken directly, others indirectly, from the plays of Euripides, such as the Medea, H ecuba (Plate II. fig. 60), or Hercules Furens, and the arrange- ment of the scenes is essentially theatrical. The influence of

721

ETRUSCAN1 CERAMICS 1721

comedy is seen in subjects derived from the phlyakes, a kind of farce or burlesque popular in southern Italy, and here again the setting is adapted from the stage, some vases having parodies of myths, others comic scenes of daily life.

Many vases of this period, especially those of large size, were expressly designed for funeral purposes. Some of these bear representations of the underworld, with groups of figures undergoing punishment. On others shrines or tombs are depicted sometimes containing effigies of the deceased, at which the relatives make offerings-as on the Athenian lekythoi. But by far the greater portion of the subjects are taken from daily life, many of these being of a purely fanciful and meaningless character like the designs on Sevres or Meissen china; the commonest type is that of a young man and a woman exchanging presents, the presence of Eros implying that they are scenes of courtship. The vases of this period are usually grouped in three or four different types, corresponding to the ancient districts of Lucania, l

Boston Museum has raised America to a level with Europe in this respect; and the Metropolitan Museum at New York contains a vast collection of Cypriote pottery. .

LITERATURE.-Important original articles are to be found in various archaeological journals such as American Journal 0fA1chfzealogy (1885, &c); Annual of the British School at Athens (1894, &c.); Athenische Mitteilungen (1876, &c.); Bulletin de correspondence hellénigue (1877, &c.); Comptes rendus de la commission impériale archéologigue (St Petersburg, 1859-1888); Gazette archéologique (Paris, 1875-1889); Jahrbuch des kaiser lichen deutschen archaologischen Instituts, Berlin (1886, &c.); Journal of Hellenic Studies (1880, &c.); Monumenti antichi (Milan, 1890, &c.); Monuments géecs (Paris, 1872-1898); Monuments Piot (Paris, 1894, &c.); eoue archéologigue (Paris, 1844, &c.). The older works have been recently superseded by important publications embodying the latest views such as Hartwig, Die griechischen Meistersclialen des strengen foyigurigen Stils (1893); Louvre, Catalogue des vases antiques de terre cuite, by E.Pottier (1896, &c.); S. Reinach, Répertoire des vases peints (Paris, 1899-1 oo); H. B. Walters, Historiy of Ancient Pottery (Greek, Etruscan anc?Roman), 1905, with an exce lent bibliographical list; also art. “ Hischylos” in J.H.S. xxix. (1909) p. 105.-Campania and Apulia, each

ETRUSCAN POTTERY.with

its special features of, ° t Parallel with thedevelopmentof technique, drawing and sub- A, ' the art of pottery in Greece runs jects. In Lucanian vases the 1 " I - the course of the art in. Etruria, drawing is bold and restrained,  » E though with far inferior results; 1110f€ akin to that of the AifiC I . A if" in its later stages it is actually vases; in Campania a fondness ,) '/ U . no more thana feeble imitation for polychrome is combined . = ' =~ of the Greek. The period of with careless exe- § l'» (k , F W, 9 timewhichwernust cution. In Apulia ' V '<~ > 1 qu., .¢g, ;' , . Q, consider extends a tendency to mag- A W . as ~ from the Bronze nilicence exempli- ' ' § ; ===!5' age (1000 B.C. or fied in the great lg . ' /35. / earlier) down to funeral and the- e.  » , f the 3rd century atrical vases is fol- C § Q, , V jj B.C., when Burnslowed by a period Ur tr; ' i ., , » l-: 1+, t;;{ . can civilization of decadence char- . Ti* lj-' 'ffl . was merged into acterized by small /K, "" ' l' ' it 4/ W Roman. vases of fantastic '»~ ' Im, <;;~"1. >, ...=l I ' I, The earliest civil form with purely 5" ' X V ' ization traced in

decorative sub- ' ";, /"LLQ'@]L§§ lf!="; >'., . i Italyisnot, strictly jects. Besides these we have >~ . "Trai 4 Speaking, Etfuscalb but may the school of Paestum, repre- " ' 7 , f perhaps be more accurately sented by two artists who ' " '/ ' P .- » styled “ Umbrian.” It is have left their names on their .r 3 , :, ., ,, Q usually referred to as the vases, Assteas and Python. ' 1 ' '- gg/ <:' ', " W, cf/ “ Terramare ', > period from the A well-known example of the, @, ~ ' '- » remains discovered in that diswork of the former is a krater in 1 . ' ' Q trict in the basin of the Madrid with Heracles destroy- ' i "" " Po. These people were lakeing his children, a theatrical

and quasi-grotesque composi-FIG.

33.—Cup with exploits of Theseus.

dwellers, barely removed from

the Neolithic stage of culture,

tion, and there is a line example of Python's work in a krater in the British Museum, with Alkmena, the mother of Heracles, placed on the funeral pyre by her husband Amphitryon, and rain-nymphs quenching the flames (Plate I. fig. 5 5). About the end of the 3rd century B.C. the manufacture of painted vases would seem to have been rapidly dying out in Italy, as had long been the case elsewhere, and their place is taken by unpainted vases modelled in the form of animals and human figures, or ornamented with stamped and moulded reliefs. These in their turn gave way to the Arretine and so-called “ Samian ” red wares of the Roman period. In all these wares we see a tendency to the imitation of metal vases, which, with the growth of luxury in the Hellenistic age, had entirely replaced painted pottery both for use and ornament; the pottery of the period is reduced to a subordinate and utilitarian position, merely supplying the demands of those in the humbler spheres of life. Collections.-The majority of the painted vases now in existence are to be found in the various public museums and collections 0f Europe, of which the largest and most important are the British Museum, the Louvre and the Berlin Museum. Next to these come the collections at Athens, Naples, Munich, Vienna, Rome and St Petersburg; isolated specimens of importance are to be found in other museums, as at Florence, Madrid or the Bibliotheque Nationale at Paris. Most of the great private collections of the two preceding centuries have now been dispersed. In recent years the and their pottery was of the rudest kind, hand-made and roughly baked. Cups and pots have been found sometimes with simple decoration in the form of knobs or bosses, and many have a crescent-shaped handle serving as a support for the thumb.

The next period, the earliest which” can be spoken of as “ Etruscan, ” is known as the “ Villanova ” period, from a site of that name near Bologna, or as the period of pit-tombs (a pozzo), from the form of the graves in which the pottery has been found (see VILLANOVA). It begins with the oth century B.c. and lasts for about two hundred years. The pit-tombs usually contain large cinerary urns or ossuaria (containing the ashes of the dead), fashioned by hand from a badly-levitated volcanic clay known as impasto I talico. These vessels were irregularly baked in an open tire, and the colour of the surface varies from red-brown to greyish black. They appear to have been covered with a polished slip, intended to give the vases a metallic appearance. The shapeof the urns is peculiar, but uniform; they have a small handle at the widest part and a cover in the form of an inverted bowl with handle (Plate III. fig. 6 3) . Their ornamentation consists of incised or stamped geometrical ornaments formed in the moist clay in bands round the neck and body; more rarely patterns painted in white are found. Common pottery is also found showing little advance on that of the Terramare

722

722 CERAMICS [ETRUSCAN

period except in variety of decoration. The technique and ornament are the same as in the case of the urns. They correspond in development, though not in date, to the early pottery of Troy and Cyprus, as well as to the primitive pottery of other races, but one marked ditferencetis the general fondness of the Italian potter for vases with handles.

Sometimes the cinerary urns take the form of huts (tuguria), though these are more often found in the neighbourhood of Rome. One of the best examples is in the British »Museum; it still contains ashes which were inserted through a little door secured by a cord passing through rings. The ornamentation suggests the rude carpentry of a primitive hut, the cover or roof being vaulted with raised ridges to represent the beams. The surface is polished, and other specimens are occasionally painted with patterns in white.

In the next stage a change is seen in the form of the tombs, the pit being replaced by a trench; this is accordingly known as the “ trench-tomb ” or a fossa period, and extends from the 8th century B.C. to the beginning of the 6th. Importations of Greek pottery now first make their appearance. The character of the local pottery actually remains for some time the same as that of the preceding period, but it improves in technique. By degrees an improvement in the forms is also noted, and new varieties of ornamentation are introduced; there is, however, no evidence that the wheel was used.

Two entirely new classes of pottery are found at Cervetri (Caere) belonging to the 7th century. One consists of large jars (1r£904.) of red ware, the lower part being moulded in ribs, while the upper has bands of design stamped round it in groups or friezes. These designs were either produced from single stamps or rolled out from cylinders like those used in Babylonia. The subjects are usually quasi-oriental in character, and it is not certain that this ware was made in Etruria, especially as similar vases have been found in Rhodes and Sicily; either it was imported, or it was a local imitation of Greek models. The other class is similar as regards the shapes and the nature of the clay, but is distinguished by having painted subjects in white outlines on a red glossy ground. The clay, a kind of impasto I talico, was first hardened by baking, and then a mixture of wax, resin and iron oxide was applied and polished; on this the pigments, a mixture of chalk and earth, were laid. The subjects are from Greek mythology or are at least Greek in character, but the technique is purely Etruscan, and the drawing is crude and un-Greek in the extreme.

The fourth period shows a close continuity with the third; but the difference is defined firstly by the appearance of a new type of tomb in the form of a chamber (a camera), secondly, by the all-pervading influence of oriental art, and to a less extent of that of the Greeks. The period extends from about 650 to 550 B.c., and is further marked by the general introduction of the wheel into Etruria and by the appearance of inscriptions in an alphabet derived from western Greece. In the earlier tombs the typical local pottery is of hand-made impasto Italico resembling that of the previous periods; in the later we find what is known'as bucchero ware-the national pottery of Etruria—which is made on the wheel and baked inafurnace, and shows a marked tendency to imitate metal.

To this period also belongs the famous Polledrara tomb or Grotto d'Iside at Vulci, the contents of which are now in the British Museum and include some remarkable specimens of pottery. It dates from about 620-610 B.c. The most remarkable of the vases is a hydria, of reddish-brown clay covered with a lustrous black slip on which have been painted designs in red, blue and a yellowish white. The colours have unfortunately now almost disappeared, and it is doubtful if they had been fired. The principal subject is from the story of Theseus and Ariadne. This tomb also contained a large wheel-made pithos of red impaslo ware with designs painted in polychrome. In the Regulini-Galassi tomb at Cervetri (about650B.C.) large cauldrons of red glossy ware were found, with gryphons' heads projecting all round, to which chains were attached. A similar cauldron from Falerii on a high open-work stand is now in the British Museum. We now come to the bucchero ware, which is characteristic of the later portion of this period, though the earliest examples go back to the end of the 7th century. Its main feature is the black paste of which it is composed, covered with a more or less shining black slip. Modern experiments seem to indicate that the clay was smoked or fumigated in a closed chamber after baking, becoming thereby blackened throughout, and the surface was then polished with wax and resin. Analyses of the ware have proved that it contains carbon and that it had been lightly fired. The oldest bucchero vases are small and hand-made, sometimes with incised geometrical patterns engraved with a sharp tool like metal-work. Oriental influence then appears in a series of chalice-shaped cups found at Cervetri with friezes of animals. From about 560 B.C. onwards the vases are all wheel-made, with ornaments in relief either stamped from a cylinder or composed of separate medallions attached to the vase. The subjects range from animals or monsters to winged deities or suppliants making offerings (fig. 34), in other cases we ind meaningless groups of figures or plant forms. These types are found chiefly in southern Etruria, but at Chiusi (Clusium)

a more elaborate variety found

favour from about 500 to 300

B.C. The shapes are very varied

and the ornament covers the

vase from top to bottom, the

covers of the vases being also

frequently modelled in various

forms. The figures are stamped

from moulds, incised designs

being added to fill up the spaces.

The range of subjects is much

widened, including scenes from

Greek mythology and oriental

types combining Egyptian and

Assyrian motives, which must

have been introduced by the

Phoenicians.

Thus the technique of the

bmchero wares is purely native,

but the decoration is entirely

dependent on foreign types

whether Greek or oriental, and

throughout the whole series the

tendency to imitate metal-work

is to be observed in every detail,

both in the forms and in the

methods of decoration. Some are mere counterparts of existing work in bronze.

The last variety of peculiarly Etruscan pottery which calls for notice is the Canopic jar, so called from its resemblance to the /aivcmrot in which the Egyptians placed the bowels of their mummies. ' They are rude representations of the human figure, the head forming the cover, and in the tombs were placed on round chairs of wood, bronze or terra-cotta. An example of such a jar on a bronze-plated chair may be seen in the Etruscan Room of the British Museum (Plate III. fig. 65). Their origin has been traced to the funeral masks found in the earliest Etruscan tombs. From these a gradual transition may be observed from the mask (1) placed on the corpse, (2) -on the cinerary urn, (3) the head modelled in the round and combined with the vase, and (4) at last the complete human figure. The earliest of these jars are found in the “ pit-tombs ” of the 8th century B.C., and the latest and most developed types belong to the 5th century B.C. The skill shown by the Etruscans in metal-work and gem engraving never extended to their pottery, which is always purely imitative, especially when they attempted painted vases after the Greek fashion. The kinds already described are all more or less plastic in character and imitative of metal, except in the case of the Cervetri and Polledrara finds, which have little in common with anything Greek, and exhibit a quite undeveloped art. But towards the end of the 6th century B.C., when Greek vases were coming into the country in large numbers, attempts were made to FIG. 34.-Etruscan oinochoe, of

black bucchero ware, with figures

in relief. (British Museum.)

723 Roman

ROMAN] CERAMICS 723

imitate the black-figure style, especially of a particular class of Ionian vases. Imitations of these are to be found in most museums and may be readily recognized as Etruscan from peculiarities of style, drawing and subject, as well as their inferior technique (fig. 35).

F IG. 35.-Etruscan Amphora imitating Greek style; parting scene of Alcestis and Admetus, with Etruscan inscriptions. At a later date (4th-3rd century B.C.) they began to copy red figured vases with similarly unsuccessful results. With the exception of a small class of a somewhat ambitious character made at Falerii (Civita Castellana), of which there is a good example in the British Museum with the subject of the infant Heracles strangling the serpents, they are all marked by their inferior material and finish and their bizarre decoration. The style is often repulsive and disagreeable, as well as ineffective, and the grim Etruscan deities, such as Charun, are generally introduced. Some of these vases have painted inscriptions in the Etruscan alphabet. The latest specimens positively degenerate into barbarism.

Painted vases of native manufacture are also found in the extreme south of Italy and have been attributed to the indigenous races of the Peucetians and Messapians; their decoration is partly geometrical, partly in conventional plant forms, and is the result of natural development rather than of imitation of Greek types. Some of the shapes are characteristic, especially a large four-handled kraler. They cover the period 600-450 B.c., after which they were ousted by the Graeco-Italian productions we have already described.

ROMAN Porranv.-Roman vases are far inferior to Greek; the shapes are less artistic, and the decoration, though sometimes not without merits of its own, owes most of its success to the imitation or adaptation of motives learnt from earlier Grecian, Egyptian or Syrian potters. They required only the skill of the potter for their completion, and, being made by processes largely mechanical, they are altogether on a lower scale of artistic production.

It has been noted that during a certain period-namely, the 3rd and 2nd centuries B.C.-ceramic art had reached the same stage of evolution all round the Mediterranean, painted pottery had been ousted by metal-work, and such vases as continued to be made were practically imitations of metal both in Greece and Italy. These latter we must regard as representing ordinary household pottery, or as supplying to those who could not afford to adorn their houses and temples with costly works in metal, a humble but fairly efficient substitute. There is a terra-cotta bowl of the 2nd century B.C. in the British Museum which is an exact replica of a chased silver bowl with reliefs in the same collection, and may serve as an illustration of this condition of things (Plate II. fig. 56).

These imitations of metal were largely made in southern Italy, a district which enjoyed close artistic relations with Etruria, and we have already seen that the same principle had long been in vogue among the Etruscans. Hence it is not surprising that an important centre of pottery manufacture should have sprung up in Etruria, in the 2nd century B.C., which for many years set the fashion to the whole Roman world. But before discussing such products it may be as well to say something on the technical character, shapes and uses of Roman pottery in general. Technical Processes.-Roman pottery regarded in its purely technical aspect is in some ways better known to us than the Greek, chiefly owing to extensive discoveries of kilns and potters' apparatus in western Europe. It may be classified under two heads, of which only the second will concern us for the most part as yielding by far the greater amount of material and interest: (I) the plain, dui earthenware used for domestic purposes, and (2) the fine, red shining wares, usually known to archaeologists as terra sigfllata, clay suited to receive stamps (sfgflla) or impressions. For both classes all kinds of clay were used, varying somewhat in different regions, and ranging in colour when fired from black to grey, drab, yellow, brown and red. The clays varied greatly in quality; most of the pottery made in southern Gaul was fashioned from the ferruginous red clay of the Allier district, but at St-Remy-en-Rollat and in that neighbourhood a white clay was used. In Italy we find a carefully levitated red clay in use, great: care being devoted to its preparation and admixture. But apart from decoration and style there is a great similarity in the general appearance of the Italian and provincial pottery made under Roman influence, and it is often very difficult to decide whether the vases were manufactured where they had been found or were imported from some famous centre of manufacture. The secret of the glossy red surface seems to have been common property and found its way from Italy to Gaul, Spain and Germany, and perhaps even to Britain.

The manner in which this glossy red surface was produced has been a much-disputed question, some, as for instance Artis, the excavator of the Castor potteries in Northamptonshire, claiming that it was a natural result obtained in the baking, after polishing of the surface, by means of specially contrived kilns. But it is now generally agreed that it was artificial. It is true that the Roman lamps and many of the commoner wares have a gloss produced by polishing only, varying in colour and brightness with the proportion of iron oxide in the clay and the degree of heat at which the pieces were fired. But the surface hnish of the finer or terra sfgillata wares is something quite distinct, and reaches a high and wonderfully uniform perfection.

It is possible that the technical secret of the potters of the Roman world was only a development from the practice of the Greeks, but it does seem as if the finer Roman wares were coated with a brilliant glossy coating so thin as to defy analysis, yet so persistent as to leave no doubt of its existence as a dehnite glossy coat. Repeated attempts have been made to determine its nature by analysis, but chemists ought to have known better, for the coating is so thin that it is impossible to remove it without detaching much more body than glaze. Examination shows it to be much more than a surface polish or than the gloss of the finest Greek Vases, and we shall have to wait for a final determination of its nature until some one who is at once a chemist and a potter can reconstruct it synthetically. Nhatever its nature and method of production, it is certain that the glaze itself was a transparent film which heightened the natural red colour of the clay, until in the finest specimens it has something of the quality of red coral.

In the manufacture of vases the Romans used the same processes as the Greeks. They were all made on the wheel, except those of abnormal size, such as the large casks (dolia), which were built up on a frame. Specimens of potters' wheels have been found at Arezzo and Nancy, made of terra-cotta, with a pierced centre for the pivot, and bearing small cylinders of lead round the circumference to give a purchase for the hand and to aid the momentum of the wheel. For the ornamental vases with reliefs an additional process was necessary, and the decoration was in nearly all cases produced from moulds. The process in this case was a threefold one: first the stamps had to be made bearing the designs; these were then pressed upon the inside of a clay mould which had been previously made on the wheel to the size and shape required; finally, the clay was impressed in the mould and the vase was thus produced, decoration and all. Handles being of rare occurrence in Roman pottery, the vases were thus practically complete. requiring only the addition of rim and foot. The stamps were made in various materials, and had a handle at the back (Plate Ill. fig. 64). The moulds were of lighter clay than the vases, and were lightly fired when completed, so as to absorb the moisture from the pressed-in clay. Large numbers of these moulds are in existence (Plate Ill. fig. 61), and the British Museum possesses a fine series from Arezzo. Those discovered in various parts of Gaul have afforded valuable evidence as to the sites of the various pottery centres, as their presence obviously denoted a place of manufacture, and the value of this evidence is increased when they bear potters' names. Remains of kilns for baking Roman pottery* are very numerous in western Europe, especially in Gaul, where the best examples are at Lezoux near Clermont, at Chatelet in Haute-Marne, and near Agen in Lot-et-Garonne. 111 Germany good remains have come to light at Heiligenberg in Baden, at Heddernheirn near Frankfort, Rheinzabern near Carlsruhe, and Nesterndorf in Bavaria. In England the best kilns are those discovered by Artis in 182 I~1827 at Castor in Northamptonshire (see fig. 4).

Shapes.*~As is the case with Greek vases, a long list of names of For a full description and lists of such kilns see Vi/alters, Ancient Pottery, ii. 443-454.

724

724 CERAMICS [ROMAN

shapes may be collected from Latin literature, and the same difficulties as to identification arise in the majority of cases. They may, however, be classified in the same manner; as vases for storing liquids, for mixing or pouring wine, for use at the table, and so on. In addition Varro and other writers have preserved a number of archaic and obscure names chiefly applied to the vases used in sacrifices.

The principal vases for storin liquid or solid food were:-The dolfum, a large cask or barrel 0? earthenware; the amphora, a jar holding about six gallons; and the cadus, a jar about half as large as the amphora. The dolium had no foot, and was usually buried in the earth; it was also used for purposes of burial. The amphora corresponds to the Greek wine-jar of that name, and had, like its prototype, a pointed base. Many examples were found at Pompeii stamped with the names of consuls (cf. Hor. Od. iii. 21. I), or with painted inscriptions relating to their contents. The cadus is mentioned by Horace and Martial.

Of smaller vases for holding liquids, such as jugs, bottles and flasks, the principal were the urceus, answering to the Greek oivoxén, the ampulla, a kind of fiask with lobular body, and the lagena, a narrow-necked fiask or bottle. of drinking-cups the Romans had almost as large a variety as the Greeks, and the great majority of the ornamented vases preserved to the present day were devoted to this purpose. The generic name for a cup was poculnm, but the Romans borrowed many of the Greek names, such as canthafus and scyphus. The calix appears to have answered in popularity, though not in form, to the Greek kylix, and is probably the name by which the ornamented bowls were usually known. The names for a dish are lanx, patina and catinum. Another common form is the alla (Greek Xfrrpa), which served many purposes, being used fora cooking-pot, for a jar in which money was kept, or for a cinerary urn. The form 'of vase identified with this name has a spherical orelllptical body with short neck and wide mouth. Of sacrificial vases the principal was the patem or libation-bowl, corresponding to the Greek 4>ui.}.

Arretine Ware.-The Latin writers, and in particular Pliny, mention numerous places in Italy, Asia Minor and elsewhere, which were famous for the production of pottery in Roman times. Pliny mentions with special commendation the “ Samian Ware, ” the reputation of which, he says, was maintained by Arretium (Arezzo). Samian pottery is also alluded to by other writers, and hence the term was adopted in modern times as descriptive of the typical Roman red wares with reliefs, whether found in Italy, Germany, Gaul or Britain. But it was only accepted with diffidence as a convenient name, and as early as 1840 discoveries at Arezzo made it possible to distinguish the vases found there as a local product, now known as “ Arretine ” ware. The name “ Samian ” has, however, adhered to the provincial wares and at the present day is often used even by archaeologists. But recent researches have shown that nearly all the provincial wares can be traced to Gaulish or German potteries, and, since it is implied by Pliny that “ Samian ” pottery is older than “ Arretine, ” the name may now be fairly rejected altogether, as we have rejected the name “ Etruscan ” for Greek pottery. The Romans probably used it as a generic term, just as we speak of “ china, ” and the real Samian ware is to be seen in the later Greek pottery, with reliefs, of the 3rd century B.c. There were, as Pliny and other writers imply, many pottery centres in Italy, at Rhegium, Cumae, Mutina and elsewhere, as well as at Saguntum in Spain, but all were surpassed in excellence by Arretium. In more modern times its pottery came under notice even in the middle ages, and discoveries were made in the time of Leo X. (about 1500) and again in the 18th century. The Arretine ware may be regarded as the Roman pottery par excellence, and its popularity extended from about I 50 B.c. down to the end of the 1st century of the Empire, reaching its height in the 1st century B.C., after which it rapidly degenerated, and its place was taken by the wares of the provinces. Its general characteristics may be summed up as follows:-(1) The fine local red clay, carefully levitated and baked very hard to a rich coral red or a colour like sealing-wax; (2) the fine red glaze, which has already been discussed; (3) the great variety of forms employed, showing the marked influence of metal-work; (4) the almost invariable presence of stamps with potters' names. The majority of the specimens have been found at Arezzo itself, but there was a branch of the industry at Puteoli, producing pottery almost equal in merit, and it was also exported to central and eastern Europe and Spain.

The earliest examples are of black glossy ware, but the red appears to have been introduced by ioo B.c., when the first potters' stamps appear. These are usually quadrangular in form, though other shapes are found, and are impressed in the midst of the design on the ornamented vases, or on plain wares on the bottom of the interior. The number of potters' names is very large, though some appear to have been more proline than others, and to have employed a large number of slaves, whose names appear with their masters' on the stamps. The best known is Marcus Perennius, whose wares take highest rank for their artistic merit, the designs being copied from good Greek models. He employed seventeen slaves, of whom the best known is Tigranes, the stamps usually appearing as M-PEREN and TI GRAN. The slave-name of Bargates is found on one of his finest vases, in the Boston Museum, the subject being the fall of Phaethon. We may suppose that the stamps for the figures were designed by the masters, but that the vases were actually moulded by the slaves. Other important artists are Calidius Strigo, who had twenty slaves; P. Cornelius, who had no less than forty; Aulus Titius, who signs himself A-TITI-FIGVL-ARRET; the Annii and the Tetii; and L. Rasinius Pisanus, a degenerate potter of the F lavian period, who imitated Gaulish wares. I

The forms of the vases are all, without exception, borrowed from metal shapes and are of marked simplicity (see fig. 37, Nos. I, 8, 9, 11). They are mostly of small size and devoid of handles, but a notable exception is a bell-shaped /erater or mixing bowl, of which there is a very fine example in the British Museum, found at Capua and decorated with the four seasons (Plate III. fig. 62). For the decoration and subjects the potters undoubtedly drew their inspiration from the “ new-Attic ” reliefs of the Hellenistic period, of which the krater just cited is an example. So, too, are such subjects as the dancing maenads or priestesses with wicker head-dresses, or the Dionysiac scenes which are found, for instance, on the vases of Perennius. Others again are distinguished by a free use of conventional ornament, figures when they occur being merely decorative. There is throughout a remarkable variety both in the ornamentation and in the methods of composition.

Provincial Wares.-The Arretine ware, as has been noted, steadily degenerated during the 1st century of the Empire, and the manufacture of ornamental pottery appears to have entirely died out in Italy by the time of Trajan. Its place was taken by the pottery of the provinces, especially by that of Gaul, where the transference of artistic traditions led to the rise of new industrial centres in the country bordering on the Rhone and the Rhine. As to the general characteristics of the provincial wares, that is, of the ornamented wares or terra sigillala, the clay is ine and close-grained, harder than the Arretine, and when broken shows a light red fracture; the surface is smooth and lustrous, of a brighter yet darker red colour (le. less like coral) than that of Arretine ware, but the tone varies with the degree of heat used. The most important feature is the fine glaze with which it is coated, similar in composition to that of the Arretine; it is exceedingly thin and transparent, and laid equally over the whole surface, only slightly brightening the color of the clay. The ornament is invariably coarser than that of Arretine ware, by which, however, it is indirectly inspired.

The vases are usually of small dimensions, consisting of various types of bowls, cups and dishes, of which two or three forms are preferred almost to the exclusion of the rest, and they frequently bear the stamp of the potter impressed on the inside or outside. Although this ware is found all over the Roman world, by far the greater portion comes from Gaul, Germany or Britain, and evidence points to two-and only two-districts as the principal centres of manufacture: the valleys of the Loire and the Rhine and their immediate neighbourhood. In the 1st century An. Gaulish pottery was largely exported into Italy, and isolated finds of it occur in Spain and other parts.

The recent researches of Dr Dragendorff and M. Déchelette have shown that a chronological sequence of the pottery may be clearly traced, both in the shapes employed and in the method of

725

ROMAN] CERAMICS 725

decoration, and, further, that it is possible-at least as regards Gaul-to associate certain potters' names and certain types of figures, though found in many places, with two centres in particular, Graufesenque near Rodez (department of Aveyron) in the district occupied by the Ruteni, and Lezoux near Clermont (department of Puy-de-Dome) in the country of the Arverni. The periods during

which these potteries

flourished are consecutive,

or rather

overlapping, but not

contemporaneous,

the former being

practically coincident

with the 1st

century A.D., the

latter with the 2nd

and 3rd down to

about A.D. 260, when

the manufacture of terra sigillata practically came to an end in Gaul. ~

There were also certain smaller potteries, some of which mark a transition between the Italian and provincial wares, in the north of Italy and on the Rhine and upper Loire, e.g. St Remy-en-Rollat, and others of later date, as at Banassac and Montans in the latter district, but none of these produced pottery of special 4—'-'f -~——-~~—';?.]é:.:. """"""""' ° °"°' T '°" 5 3ll|llllllwlllvlllls frimmruiwunrrlmlwiull nf i. ¢llllil5itlEllli|p|'. llmllllllllmmlmrlllllllli///SW

ii ni i “§§ } , ,, . 1 - I "mi-. .. .... 1- I" fu n - ijglu. T/ . 2 A N Q l 1

I

FIG. 36.-Bowl of Gaulish ware, with moulded patterns in slight relief. I 39

ll

30

9 - im

- -'-

I! — .

Y

! 7

L -4;

18 65

24

FIG. 37.—Shapes used in Roman Pottery. merit or importance. The early Rhenish wares are, strictly speaking, of a semi-Celtic or Teutonic character, while the later German terra sigillata, for which the principal centres were Rheinzabern near Carlsruhe and Westerndorf in Bavaria, are of similar character but inferior to the znd-century pottery of Lezoux. A mould from Rheinzabern is illustrated, Plate IV. fig. 66.

The ornamented vases produced in these potteries are, as we have said, almost conlined to two or three varieties, which follow one another chronologically. A shape favoured at first is the krater, which has been mentioned as one of the characteristic Arretine forms; but this enjoyed but a short term of popularity. Early in the 1st century We find a typical form of bowl in use, which, following the numeration of Dr Dragendorfl's treatise, is usually spoken of as No. 29. This is characterized by its moulded rim engraved with finely incised hatching's, and by the division of the body by a moulding into two separate friezes for the designs (fig. 36). Its ornament is at first purely decorative, consisting of scrolls and wreaths, then small animals and birds are introduced, and finally hgure subjects arranged in rectangular panels or circular medallions. About the middle of the century a second variety of bowl (known as No. 30; see rig. 37) was introduced; this is cylindrical in form, and, being found both at Graufesenque and Lezoux, may be regarded as transitional in character. In the latter half of this century a new form arises (No. 37; fig. 37), a more or less hemispherical bowl which holds the field exclusively on all sites down to the termination of the potteries. In this form and in No. 30 a new system of decoration is introduced, the upper edge being left quite plain. The panels and medallions at first prevail, but are then succeeded by arcading or inverted semicircles enclosing figures, and finally after the end of the rst century (and on form 37 only) we find the whole surface covered with a single composition of figures unconfined by borders or frames of any kind, but in a continuous frieze; this is known as the “ free ” style (Plate IV. fig. 69). As regards the figure subjects, it may be generally laid down that the conceptions are good, but the execution poor. Many are obvious imitations of well-known types or works of art, and the absence of Gaulish subjects is remarkable. They include representations of gods and heroes, warriors and gladiators, hunters 72 44

45

Y Q 27 -l...

52

Il

31

sf

32 32

54

35

i.

HI, Arretine; I8-65, Gaulish and German. and animals, the two latter classes being pre-eminently popular. f

The potters' names at Graufesenque are nearly all of a common Roman type, such as Bassus, Primus, Vitalis; those at Lezoux are Gaulish in form, such as Advocisus, Butrio, Illixo or Laxtrucisa. This seems to imply that Roman innuence was still strong in the earlier centre which drew its inspiration more directly from Arretium. But even the purely Roman names are sometimes converted into Gaulish forms, as M asclus for Masculus, or Tornos for Turnus. The stamps are quadrangular in form, depressed in the surface of the vase with the letters in relief.; on the plain wares they are usually in the centre of the interior, bwt on the ornamented vases are impressed on the exterior among the figures. The usual formula is OF (for Qpzicina) or M (for mann)

726

726 . CERAMICS j [SYRIAN

with the name in the genitive, or F, FE or FEC for fecit with the nominative.

Besides the ordinary terra sigillata with figures produced in moulds we find other methods of decoration employed. In the south of France, about Arles and Orange, vases were made with medallions separately moulded and attached round the body; these have a great variety of subjects, both mythological and gladiatorial or theatrical, or even portraits of emperors. There is a remarkable specimen in the British Museum with a scene from the tragedy of the Cycnus, on which Heracles and Ares are represented, with seated deities in the background (Plate IV. fig. 67). The date of these reliefs is the 3rd century after Christ. Of the same date is a somewhat similar ware made at Lezoux. Here each figure is attached separately to the vase, and the background is Iilled in with foliage produced by the method known as en barbotine (slip-painting), of which we shall speak presently. The effect of these vases, which are mostly large jars or ollae (Plate IV. fig. 7Q), is often very decorative, and there is a fine specimen in the British Museum from F elixstowe, on which the modelling is really admirable. Other-good examples have been found in various parts of Britain.

I' he “ slip-decoration ” process is practically unknown in Italy, but it is found early in the 1st century of our era in Germany, and appears to have originated in the Rhine district. It is not confined to the red ware, but in the early German examples is applied on a- dull grey or black background. On the continent its use is

5 ' i almost limited to sim le decorative ~~ era 5 p . .

° ° § patterns of scrolls or foliage, but In g Aj i Britain it was largely adopted, as In Q 32; °' the well-known Castor ware made r' Q, . .

§ °° . 4 ° ., j 'E on the site of that name (Durobrwae) " ° l in Northamptonshire. Many of the

I V vases found or made here have

4 gladiatorial combats, hunting-scenes,

-"' ' or chariots executed by this method (fig. 38). The decoration was applied

in the, form of a thick viscous slip,

usually of the same colour as the

clay, but reduced to this consistency

with water, and was laid on by

means of a narrow tube or run from the edge of a spatula. The Castor ware appears to date from the 3rd and 4th centuries A.D. Painted wares are at all times rare, but were occasionally produced in Gaul, Germany and Britain. A notable class of such ware seems to have been produced in the Rhine district, represented by small jars covered with a glossy black coating, on which are painted in thick white slip inscriptions of a convivial character, such as BIBE, REPLE, DA VINUM, or VIVAS (Plate IV. fig. 68). A very effective ware, obviously imitating cut glass, by means of sharply incised patterns, was made at Lezoux in both the red and black varieties.

LITERATURE.-Dragendorff in Bonner Jahrbucher, xcvi. 37 ff.; Déchelette, Vases céramiques de la Gaule romaine (1904); Walters, Ancient Pottery, ii. chaps. xxi.-xxiii.; British .Museum Catalogue of Roman Pottery (1908). (H. B. /VA.)

FIG. 38.- lar of Castor

ware, with reliefs of a stag

pursued by a hound, executed

in semi-fluid slip.

6 in. high.

PERSIAN, SYRIAN, EGYPTIAN AND TURKISH POTTERY1 Formerly, in all general accounts of the potter's art, it was the custom to pass over the period between the fall of the Roman empire and the appearance of the beautiful Persian and Syrian pottery of the early middle ages, as if the intervening centuries had produced nothing worthy of note. Even yet the successive steps by which this beautiful art arose are largely matters of inference and deduction, but it must be borne in mind that while the Greeks and Romans made singularly little use of glaze and painted colour, the Egyptians and the inhabitants of Syria and Mesopotamia had long been noted for their skill in this direction. In discussing the pottery of these peoples we have already fpinted out at what a very early period they had developed the production of rich and beautiful coloured glazes-the Egyptians 1 See examples in colour on Plate V.

as a jewel-like decoration of small pieces made in a very sandy paste, or actually carved from stone, and the Assyrians, on a bolder scale, in their glazed and coloured brickwork. Though the Egyptian and Syrian empires were overthrown, the peoples of these countries remained; and, as we are now aware, carried on their traditional craft, though in a less splendid way. There is abundant evidence that pottery was made in the Egypt of Roman times and later with rich turquoise blue and yellow glazes, though the potters had learned to produce this glaze on a material containing more clay and less sand than that used in earlier days. We know also that they had learned that the addition of lead oxide to a glaze enabled such glaze to be applied on vessels formed from clay which was sufficiently plastic to be shaped on the wheel. This knowledge was not confined to Egypt, but appears to have been spread over Syria and parts of Asia Minor; and throughout the Byzantine empire many forms of pottery were made which were clearly the starting-points of much of the fine pottery produced in Europe in later times. We find, for instance, side by side, a manufacture of bowls, dishes and vases of very simple shape, yet made of two distinct materials: (I) a whitish sandy body on which turquoise blue, green or even white glaze, consisting mainly of silicates of soda and lime, was used either without ornament or with simple painted patterns in black or cobalt blue under the glaze; (2) similar vessels made of a lightish red clay, also rather sandy and porous, coated with a white slip (pipeclay or impure kaolin) covered with a yellowish lead glaze. These vessels were decorated in a variety of ways: (1) Grajiati; patterns cut or scratched through the coating of white slip while it was still soft, down to the red ground, so that when the vessel was glazed it displayed a pattern in dark upon a light ground. (2) Yellow and red ochre and copper scales were rudely “ dabbed ” over the white slip surface, so that when the vessel was glazed it presented a marbled or mottled appearance with touches of red, yellow, brown or green, on a yellowish-white ground. (See the section on Egyptian pottery above.) (3) Oxides of copper or iron were added to the lead glaze, and the resulting green or yellow glazes were applied to plain vases or to vessels decorated with moulded reliefs. In all these methods we see the continuation of old tradition in simpler forms, but we shall also see that these, in their turn, became the starting-point of much of the medieval pottery of Europe, particularly of Italy and the other southern countries.

In the same way, a little farther east, the Persians of Sassanian times seem to have preserved some of the traditions of the potters of Assyria, just as they inherited their skill; and the Assyrian device of raising strong brown outlines round a design to control the How of coloured glazes, which is exemplified in the Frieze of Archers in the Louvre, was carried on by them, for it appears unchanged in the tiles of the Mosque of Mahommed I. built at Brusa in the I 5th century. The intercourse between the Persian and Byzantine empires at this time must have led to a general diffusion of technical knowledge among the pottery centres of the various countries round the eastern end of the Mediterranean, though our knowledge is too fragmentary to furnish sufficient data for any definite placing of the progress made. Our information is mainly derived from the examination of the rubbish mounds at Fostat, or Old Cairo, in Egypt, by Dr Fouquet, and by eager inquirers like Henry Wallis. F ostat was built in A.D. 640 by Amr and destroyed in the 12th century; partially rebuilt, it was given over to pillage in 1252 by a Mameluke sultan, and all that remains is the Old Cairo of to-day, the rest of the site being covered with accumulated rubbish heaps. In the same way Rhagae or Rai, one of the ancient capitals of Persia, the site of which lies a few miles east of Teheran, was destroyed about I 220 by Tenghiz Khan. Like F ostat it was partially rebuilt, but was destroyed again in the following century, sothat its existence practically ceased in the 14th century. Rhagae was once an important centre of the ceramic industry, but this was transferred to the neighbouring town of Veramin, in the 13th century. Excavations have also been made on the site of Rakka, near Aleppo, in Syria, and from all these sources, and a few others of

727

PERSIAN] CERA

minor importance, much interesting light has been thrown on the development of the potter's art in these countries during the period between the 4th and 1 2th centuries. Yet, until systematic excavations have been made in Persia, Anatolia, Syria and the Delta, on the same scale as those which have proved so valuable in Greece, Crete, Cyprus and the valley of the Nile, we cannot hope to possess sound chronological data of the developments of the arts in these countries. Meantime the exact share which should be allotted to each district for its discoveries will remain ground of contention for scholars of conflicting schools, though there can be little doubt that Egypt and the southern part of Syria played a more important part than has generally been supposed in the development of the potter's art at this period. Persian Poltery.-The most important pottery of the nearer East, whether considered on its own merits or from the influence it has exercised on the pottery of later times, is that so highly valued by collectors under the distinctive name of Persian; though much that passes under that name may not have been made in Persia. From the 10th to the 16th centuries the craftsmen of Persia were perfect masters of decorative design and colour; and, as potters, they possessed a sense of the forms proper to clay, such as none of the great races of antiquity ever exhibited. The shapes of Greek pottery speak more strongly of metal than of clay, but the best Persian work exhibits a feeling for the material that has rarely been equalled. The shapes are not only true clay-shapes but they are designed so as best to exhibit the qualities of the glaze and colour with which they were to be decorated. Certainly from the 12th to the 16th centuries the pottery of the Persians must rank among the greatest achievements of the potter's art. The warewas shaped from various mixtures such as we have already spoken of-but whether its body was a mixture of white clay with a large proportion of sand, or some inferior clay that burnt to a yellowish or red tint, and was surfaced with a fine white coating of siliceous slip, or with a mixture of soda-glass, clay and oxide of tin, which made it whiter still-the one aim was to produce a white pottery. On this white ground-with a coarsish absorbent surface-beautiful patterns, in conventional floral or animal forms, wer! deftly painted in cobalt-blues, manganese-purples, copper-greens and turquoise, with mixtures for intermediate tints; while a strong brownish-black outline colour was compounded by mixing the oxides of iron and manganese, to be turned into a fine, still black by the addition of a trace of cobalt and later of oxide of chromium. Over this freely painted colour, often used in broad flat masses, a singularly limpid alkaline glaze, generally of considerable thickness, was fired until it just fused; and the resultant effect is of the most rich and brilliant colour relieved on a ground of slightly toned white. Judging from fragments which have been found at Rai, and which can scarcely therefore be later than the 13th century, we find the characteristic Persian style of ornament already developed; dumpy little figures kneeling, standing or riding on grass between cypress trees, or animals and birds similarly disposed, with conventional borders and bands of Cufic inscriptions. Another well-known type of pattern consists of highly conventionalized floral ornament which often runs to a beautiful tracery of “ arabesque ” lines. The drawing is generally finely outlined with brown or black (a survival of the ancient Assyrian practice), and in the earliest pieces the flat washes of colour are laid in only in cobalthlue, turquoise or green from copper, and shades of purple and brown from manganese. From the r6th century onwards Chinese influence is strongly felt both in the designs and in the colour schemes, particularly in the wares painted with patterns in blue only (fig. 39), which sometimes carry the imitation of Chinese porcelain so far as to bear forged Chinese marks. Finally, Shah Abbas I. (1587-1629) is said to have brought a number of Chinese artincers, among them many potters, to Ispahan, and we find that Chinese porcelain was largely painted at Kingté-Chén, with blue decorations in the Persian taste, so that we cannot be surprised at the growth of a hybrid Perso-Chinese style of decoration. From this period, however, Persian pottery deteriorated both in its technical and artistic aspects. Crudely Mics 7 27

moulded figures in fairly high relief, coloured with an opaque yellow and green as well as with transparent blue and turquoise, began to make their appearance, especially on the famous Persian tiles; and in the 18th century the brown and black outlines of the drawing (a most valuable decorative resource) vanish, and we get brighter and more glittering, yet poorer colours, including a rose-red enamel fired over the glaze, evidently imitated from the Chinese famille-rose porcelains of the 18th century.

The finest work appears to have been produced from the 11th to the 14th centuries; yet so imperfect is our knowledge of what is truly Persian, Syrian or Egyptian, that we are forced to accept many conventional names that have perhaps little but custom to recommend them. There is, for instance, an important class of pottery known, until recently, only from a few remarkably handsome vases, and once called “ Siculo-Arab ” because these few examples had been mostly found in Sicily. This ware is characterized by its fine quality and its distinguished ornament -leaf-shaped panels with arabesques; interfacing patterns; striped and dotted bands; friezes of animals or birds amidst FIG. 39.-Persian Plate painted in blues only. (Victoria and V Albert Museum.)

flowers and foliage, inscriptions, &c.; all strongly and firmly drawn in black or brown outlines and washed in with a very pure cobalt-blue or with turquoise. In spite of the resemblance of these pieces to the oldest Persian wares, we know that bowls, dishes, vases and spoilt pieces of the same kind have been dug up on the site of Rakka near Aleppo; similar ware has been found at Fostat, together with evidences of local manufacture, and occasional pieces have been brought from Persia; so that probably this distinguished ware was made at Rakka in Syria between the 9th and the 15th centuries, and was afterwards made by Syrian potters both in Persia and Egypt. Other Persian Wares.-We have already spoken of the prevalent use of coloured glazes in all the countries of the nearer East-from Egypt to Persia-from remote times, either as the sole colour decoration or in conjunction with modelled or painted ornament. The fragments from Rai and Fostat include rich turquoise glazes (derived from the ancient Egyptian), deep and light-green glazes containing lead and copper, imitations of ancient Chinese céladon-green, a brownish-purple glaze, a coffee brown glaze and a deep cobalt-blue glaze! All these may be A peculiarity of the Persian and allied blue glazes, of many shades, is that they appear to have been produced not by dissolving the colouring matter in the glaze, but by coating the white ground of the ware with a thin wash of some cobaltiferous substance probably an earth containing varying proportions of cobalt, manganese and iron-and then melting a thick alkaline glaze over it.

728

728 CERAMICS [PERSIAN

found either on plain vases, or on vessels with modelled ornament; or covering delicate iioral or arabesque patterns painted in white slip or incised in the paste. Sometimes, even at this early period, there are traces of applied gold-leaf attached, but not fired, to the glaze.

At a Very early period, too, we find those beautiful bowls, dishes and vases decorated with geometrical or arabesque patterns in a singularly still under glaze black, and covered with the blue turquoise or green copper glazes. This characteristic and beautiful ware is common to Persia, Syria and Egypt in Saracen times, and it was soon prized in Europe, as is shown by the famous fragment found by the late Mr Drury Fortnum built into the outer walls of S. Cecilia in Pisa, where it was apparently placed in the 12th century.1

At a later date' a shining black glaze made its appearance, and in the 13th century pale and lapis-lazuli blues, while there is a comparatively modern sage-green glaze found only on pieces bearing patterns modelled in low relief.

Persian Porcelain.-This beautiful and somewhat mysterious ware-often called “ Gombroon ” ware-apparently made its appearance in the 13th century, though the bulk of the known examples are not earlier than the 17th or 18th century. The ware is quite translucent and is of soft and delicate texture. Unlike Chinese porcelain, it was made from a mixture of pipe-clay and glass, and was glazed with a soft lead glaze; so that a fragment of' it would melt to an opaque glass in an ordinary porcelain oven. It is principally met with in the form of dishes, bowls (often mounted on feet) and saucers. The 'pieces are generally very thin and are either perfectly plain or bear flutings or simple wavy patterns incised in the paste. Most characteristic and beautiful is the decoration by means of delicate perforations either straight or lozenge-shaped. In the finest pieces the perforations are filled with glaze, and then they form a decoration analogous to the well-known “ rice-grain ” decoration of the Chinese. Occasional pieces are found decorated with colour, either a. delicate green, producing an effect like pale bright céladon, or the well-known Persian blue ground; and this is sometimes decorated with lustre patterns. Nowhere can this rare and delicately beautiful ware be so well studied as in the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Lustred Ware.-The decoration of pottery with iridescent metallic films is one of the most astonishing and beautiful inventions ever made by the potter. Hitherto we have seen only coloured clays, coloured glazes, or colours fired under the glaze, but we are now brought face to face with a colour effect produced by refiring the finished glazed pieces, at a lower temperature, with pigments painted upon the glaze (fig. 40; see also Plate V. I3l'.l'l-C€I1tl1I°y Persian lustre). How such a practice originated is probably an idle speculation, but it may have come through repeated attempts to decorate pottery with gold. If gold was painted under the glazes of these ancient vases, it would probably vanish and leave no trace; but gold, alloyed with much silver, applied over the nnished glaze and refired, in the attempt to make it adhere, may have given the first films of iridescent colour. We know certainly that before the 13th century the elements of the process had been mastered, and that the potters of the nearer East had learnt that by mixing some compound of silver (doubtless the sulphide) with clay, and painting the mixture on the finished vase, which was rehred in such a way that the pieces were only raised to a dull red heat and were then exposed to the vapours of the wood-fuel, glowing lustrous patterns were left on the ware that looked like metal-but metal shot over with all the hues of the rainbow, golden, rosy, purple and green. Numerous fragments of this lustred pottery had been disinterred from the site at Rhagae, and it was therefore assumed that the beautiful process was of Persian origin, particularly as most of the examples then known bore designs of distinctly Persian style. We are now inclined to think that the process really arose in Egypt or in Syria, and was carried eastward to Persia, just as it was afterwards carried westward to Spain. In support of this view there is the written record of the Persian traveller Nasiri 1 See Drury Fortnum, Archaeologia, vol. xlii.

Khosrau, who visited Old Cairo in the 1 rth century (1035-1042). He was apparently familiar with the pottery of his own country, and notes all the novel forms that he found in the bazaars of Old Cairo, which was both a great trading emporium for the traffic of East and West, and a pottery centre of note. He mentions, specially, certain translucent bowls of earthenware decorated with colours resembling a stuff called “ bougalemoun, ” “ the tints changing according to the position which one gives to the vase.” Such a description could only apply to “ lustred ” pottery, and it would seem as if this process must have been known in Egypt or Syria before it was practised 'in Persia (see Plate V., 13th-century Syro-Persian). In any case the secret was soon carried to Persia, for we have ample evidence that it was practised at Rhagae in the next century.

The earliest dated example of Persian lustred ware is a star shaped tile of the year A.D. 1217 (A.H. 614), decorated with spotted hares, heraldic ally confronted, in a ground of lustre relieved by dots and curls, and surrounded by an inscribed border. A vase in the Godman collection bears the date A.D. 12 31 (A.H. 629), and some of the well-known “ star and cross ” tiles from Veramin belong to the year A.D. 1262. The early Persian FIG. 10.-Persian Ewer, white ground, with pattern in brown copper ustre; the upper part has a blue ground. The mounting is gilt bronze, Italian 16th-century work. (British Museum.) lustre is chiefly known to us through the tiles with which the walls of mosques and public buildings were decorated; the more ephemeral vases, bowls and dishes have survived in smaller numbers and very rarely in perfect condition. Common motives of decoration were animals and birds (sometimes showing Chinese influence), the hare and the deer being favourites; roughly drawn sack-like figures of men and women, mounted or on foot (probably heroes of Persian legend), conventional foliage and arabesques. The designs are usually reserved in a lustred ground, which is relieved by small scrolls, curls and dots etched in the lustre (as though the glazed piece had been covered all over with the lustre mixture and the ornament scratched out of this when it was dry), and showing beneath the ivory-white tin-enamel with which the early wares are generally coated. The lustre itself when viewed directly may look like some golden or deep chocolate-brown colour, but as the piece is turned to catch a side-light this deep colour is seen to bear a thin iridescent film, which glows with golden, green, purple or ruby-red metallic rejiets. On the earliest examples the decoration is often entirely in lustre, but later, lustre is often used to eke out a pattern painted with masses of pale cobalt-blue or turquoise under the glaze. Similar tiles with rather more elaborate ornament bear 14th-century dates, and another variety has parts of the decoration, more particularly the large letters of the inscriptions, raised in low relief and heightened with blue. Yet another class, belonging to the 14th century, has a fine dark-blue alkaline glaze,

729

TURKISH] CERAMICS 729

with designs in low relief, picked out with scrolls and arabesques in white enamel or bold Horal sprays in leaf-gold. Lustre is frequently found applied to the rich cobalt-blue ground, and there are still existing a few magnificent vases which show the artistic possibilities of this scheme of decoration. It should be noted that when the pieces are in the round, the pattern is usually painted in lustre and not reserved in a lustre ground as on the fiat tiles. In the later examples the tin-enamel was replaced entirely by white slip, and the lustre decoration continued in use until the end of the reign of Shah Abbas I. (1587-1629). To the last period belong many charming bowls, narghilis, cups and dish'es in a brown lustre, with ruby rejlets, on a white or a deep blue ground; this ware is pure white in substance and generally translucent, and the pieces are occasionally signed (see Persian porcelain above). Damascus Ware.-This time-honoured name (for “ Damas Ware ” was often mentioned in medieval inventories, and appears to have included many varieties of oriental pottery which were highly prized in Italy, France and England in the middle ages)1 forms rather a puzzle nowadays for the archaeobeen included under this

title, some of which were

not made at Damascus.

Yet Damascus is one of

the oldest cities in the

world, and has seen

unnumbered dynasties

come and go around its

desert-fringed oasis. An

important centre of caravan

traffic, a nexus of

palpitating life from east

and west, north and

south, we cannot wonder

if it developed a special

pottery of its own, tinged

with something of a cosmopolitan

spirit. Formerly

the Damascus

wares were treated as a

variety of 'the Persian

pottery we have just described,

but the best examples

of the class now

known under this name

exhibit a mingling of

various influences such as

we might expect, and have well-marked affinities both with the Persian wares and those brilliant productions now commonly recognized as Syrian and Turkish, while even far-off echoes of Chinese decorative mannerisms are not wanting. The characteristic Damascus ware of the collector is marked by its quality; the ground is of very clear white, the colours are pure and brilliant, and the vessels, whether dishes or vases, are soundly made. The decoration, which is purely fioral or conventional, recalls the more formal Persian style, but the colours recall those of the Turkish pottery with one remarkable substitution. The piled-up red-cla y pigment of the latter is absent, but where it would inevitably occur in the design of a Turkish piece its place is taken by a purple made from manganese, which is often thin and rather washy in quality. Fine examples of this famous ware are to be seen in the British Museum and in the Louvre; its characteristic style of pattern is well shown in the 16th-century Damascus piece reproduced in Plate V. Another splendid example is the lamp from the Mosque of Omar at Jerusalem, also in the British Museum (fig. 4r); and this has generally been classed with the Damascus wares, though its colouring and its technique belong rather to Lower Syria or to Egypt. This magnificent piece bears a dated inscription, “ In the year 956 in the month Jemazi-l-oola. logist, for many diverse wares have FIG. 41.-Lamp from the Mosque of

Omar.

1 Specimens of Turkish and other Eastern wares exist with elaborate English sxlver mounts of the time of Elizabeth, and these were doubtless included under the name of “ Damas Wares." The painter is the poor and humble Mustafa.” This is reckoned as June A.D. r 549. It may be remarked that our difficulties of identification are increased by the fact that, under Arab rule, Syrian and Persian potters were at work in Damascus, in Old Cairo and elsewhere. Among the Fostat fragments classified by Dr Fouquet are many bearing the signatures of Syrian workmen. In the 15th and 16th centuries, too, imitations of Chinese blue-and-White porcelain became common throughout the nearer East, and quantities of fragments have been found at Fostat, Ephesus and elsewhere.

Turkish Pottery.-This beautiful and striking ware, formerly called Persian, and till lately Rhodian because Rhodes was a known centre of manufacture, seems to have been fabricated in all the countries overrun by the Ottoman Turks in the 13th Century, so that the name “ Turkish/ ' in spite of some opposition, is now generally applied to it. (See fig. 42; and the 16th-century Rhodian or Turkish pieces, Plate V.) It has a fine white body of the usual sandy texture, covered, as a rule, with a wash of pure white slip; it is painted in strong brilliant colours, chiefly blue, turquoise, green, and a peculiar red pigment which is heaped up in palpable relief-the whole of the ornament being outlined with black or dark green.

The ware was glazed

with an alkaline glaze of

great depth, so that the

colours soften and sometimes

run, producing one

of the most brilliant and

attractive of all the

oriental wares. In certain

districts the white

ground was not used,

but over it a slip of the

red colour (Armenian

bole), varying in strength

from bright red to pale

salmon, was laid over

the piece, reserving the

pattern only in the white

slip, which consequently

lies lower than the red

ground. Other examples

are known where the

ground has been covered

with lavender, blue,

sage, apple and turquoise

greens, chocolate or coffee-brown, and the sumptuous effect of the whole was often increased by the application of goldleaf over the fired glaze. The decorative motives are distinguished from those of the Persian wares by a breadth and boldness which are in keeping with the brilliant, and not always harmonious, colouring. They include, it is true, the Persian arabesque, the floral scroll with feathery leaf, the thistle bloom and the cypress tree, but the naturalistic treatment which permits immediate recognition of the favourite Turkish flowers such as the tulip, hyacinth, carnation, fritillary, cornflower and lily (some of which were imported into Europe by the Turks), is as original and distinctive as the arrangement of the different elements of the design is artistic and charming. Other styles of design include formal patterns and diapers, rarely human and animal figures, and occasionally armorial devices and ships. Tiles of this ware were extensively used for lining the walls of public buildings, replacing the carpets and textile hangings which their designs so freely imitated. Of domestic articles, dishes are the most numerous, though vases, ewers, sprinklers, jugs, tankard-shaped flower-holders, covered bowls and mosque lamps are also plentiful. The tiles are found in all parts of the Turkish empire, though they were probably made at certain centres, such as Nicaea (which gave its name to the ware in the 16th century and no doubt supplied many of the mosques in Constantinople), Kutaia, Demitoka, Lindus and other centres in Rhodes and Damascus. Individual wares cannot be FIG. 42.~Rhodian ]ug.

730

730 CERAMICS [HISPANO-MORESQUE

distinguished, except in some measure those of Damascus and Kutaial A small jug in the Godman Collection has an Armenian inscription stating that it was made by “ Abraham of Kutaia ” in the Iétll century. A few rine bowls and vases, painted in a beautiful blue with Persian arabesques and rosette scrolls, recalling Chinese porcelains of the Ming dynasty, but of very characteristic appearance, are also attributed to this place; and later, in the 18th and up to the end 'of the 19th century, ar. inferior ware was largely manufactured here. This late ware usually takes the form of small objects-plates, cups, jugs, egg-shaped ornaments, &c.-with a thin, Well-potted, white body and slight patterns of radiating leaves, scale diapers, &c., in blue, black and yellow. Turkish pottery was at its best in the 16th and the early part of the 17th century, and though good tile work of later date exists, the general pottery deteriorated before the 18th century. An inferior ware of poor colour is still produced in Turkey, Persia and Syria, and some attempt has been made of late to revive the old lustre decoration, but the results are not likely to be mistaken for those of old times.

Collections.-The Victoria and Albert Museum contains the finest collection of the medieval pottery of the nearer East-the lilritish collection, though much smaller, has some magnificent Museum

examples. The Cluny Museum in Paris has a never-to-be-forgotten collection

museums

of Turkish pottery, especially plates and dishes. The of the Louvre and of Sevres have also many beautiful examples. Berlin, Frankfort and other German towns have collections, but much smaller in extent. Private collectors in England and France own many fine specimens, and mention may be made particularly of those owned by Mr Ducane Godman and Mr George Saltin .

L1T§ 1<ATURE.—Fortnum, Majolica (1896) (also in South Kensington Museum Handbook); Falke, Majoliea (Berlin, 1896); Fouquet, Contributions a l'étude de la eéramique orient ale (Cairo, 1900); Karabacek, “ Zur muslimischen Keramik, " in Illonatsschriftfur den Orient (1834); Lane-Roole, Art of the Saracens in Egypt (1886); Migeon, lllanuel de l'art rnusulman, vol. ii. (1907); Sarre, Persische Keramik; and Jahrbuoh der konigliehen preussiehen Kunstsarnrnlung (1905), part ii.; H. Wallis, The Godrnan Collection (1) Lustred Vases (London, 1891); (2) The Tenth Century Lustred Wall-tiles (1894); Notesion some Early Persian Lustre Vases (1885); Egyptian Ceramic Art (1898). (R. L. H.; W. B.*)

H1s1>ANo-MORESQUE POTTERY

With the doings of the Moslem potters of the countries round the eastern Mediterranean fresh in our minds, it is interesting to follow the westward trend of the Moslem conquests, and see how in their wake there also sprung up in Spain a ware of high distinction and beauty. The Iberian peninsula had been the scene of pottery-making from prehistoric times~~—a red unglazed ware was made before the dawn of civilization as finely finished as that found in the Nile valley by Flinders Petrie (see EGYPT: Art and Archaeology), and the Romans had one of their great provincial pottery centres at Saguntum; but it was only when a great part of Spain lay under Mussulman rule that artistic and distinctive pottery was produced. What is by no means clear is how it came to pass that when the traditional methods, learnt by the Arabs in Egypt and Syria, were carried westward they should have undergone such a radical change. Oxide of tin, the pacifying and whitening material in glazes par excellence, was certainly known and used in the East from at least the 6th century B.c.; the ancient wares are coated with a covering of white tin-enamel to hide the buff or reddish-coloured clay, and it was similarly used elsewhere; but its use was sporadic and not general in those countries, where we find instead a consistent development of the pottery made with a white slip-coating and a clear alkaline glaze. Perhaps it was that at this period tin was almost as costly as gold, and it was only when potters with an oriental training brought their skill to Spain, where tin abounded, that the relative cheapness of the material led them to employ it, so far as is known, exclusively. (There is a wide distinction between the tin-enamelled and the slip-faced wares, glazed with an alkaline glaze. In the latter, the more oriental type, the slip-coating is of fine white clay and sand, and this is finished with a transparent alkaline glaze containing little or no lead 1 in the former there is no need of a coating of slip, for the addition of oxide of tin to a glaze rich in lead gives a dense coating of white enamel, opaque enough to disguise the color of the clay beneath.) Such colours as were used for painted patterns were painted over this enamel coating before it was fired, so that they became perfectly incorporated with it, and then this ground furnished a splendid medium for the development of those thin iridescent metallic films that we call “ lustres.” The knowledge of this lustre process had been brought from the East also, where it was used on another ground, and with the growing use of lustre pigments containing copper as well as silver-until the red, strongly metallic copper lustre almost ousted the quieter silver lustres-we get the simple technique of one of the most distinctive kinds of pottery known.

Briefly, the wares were “ thrown ” upon the wheel or “ pressed ” on modelled forms-~handles, ribs and dots of clay, or strongly incised patterns were often added by hand-and they were then hred a first time. A coating of the tin-enamel (rich in lead as well as tin) was applied, and on this coating designs were painted in cobalt and manganese; sometimes these colours were' only used as masses to break up the background. Then the second firing took place and the piece came from the tiring all shining and white, except where the blue or brownish purple FIG. 43.—Hispano-Moorish Plate, painted in blue and copper lustre. had been painted (see ng. 43). The lustre pigments, a mixture of sulphide of copper or sulphide of silver, or both with red ochre or other earth, was then painted over the glazed surface with vinegar as a medium. The repainted piece was fired a third time to a dull red heat, and smoked with the smoke from the Wood used in firing, and when cold the loosely adherent ochre and metallic ash left were washed off, leaving the iridescent films in all their beauty.

The technical practices of the Spanish potters and the composition of the lustre pigments are given in Cocks's account of the processes followed at Muel (Aragon) in 1 58 5. The Manises receipt of 1785 giveszfcopper 3 oz., red ochre 12 oz.-, silver 1 peseta piece, sulphur 3 oz., vinegar 1 qt. and the ashes scraped off the pots after lustring 36 oz.1 Interesting documents have recently been published concerning the works executed by the “ Saracen, ” John of Valencia, at Poitiers in 1384, and it is certain, from the list of materials supplied to him, that he made there tiles that were enamelled and lustred.

The earliest record of lustred pottery in Spain is the geographer Edrisi's mention of the manufacture of “golden ware ” then carried on at Calatayud in Aragon in 1 154. Ibn Sa'id (1 214-1 286) See Riano, Spanish Arts, Victoria and Albert Museum Handbook, pp. 149~151; and Sobre la nianera de fabricar la antigua loza dorada dc Manises (1878).-

731

ITALIAN] CERAMICS 731

speaks of the glass and the golden pottery made at Murcia (city), Almeria and Malaga. From the 14th century the notices which have come down to us divide themselves into two main groups relating to the industry (a) at Malaga; (b) at various localities, but especially Manises in Valencia. M alaga.-Malaga was situated within the Moorish kingdom of Granada, which formed, from 12 35 until the late 1 5th century, the last remnant of Moorish dominion in Spain. Here under the art-loving Nasride dynasty, Mussulman arts and learning flourished to an unprecedented degree. In 1337 Ahmed ben-Yahya al-Omari enumerates, among the craft productions of Malaga, its golden pottery, the like of which he declares is not to be met with elsewhere. The Moroccan traveller Ibn Batuta mentions (13 50) the Malagan golden pottery, as does Ibn al-Hatib (1313-1374) of Granada, in his description of Malaga. The principal monument of the period is the royal palace of Granada, begun in 1273, and finished during the 14th century, from which period most of its ornamentation dates. Two vases were discovered there, of which the existing one, known as the “ Alhambra vase, ” is admittedly the most imposing product of Hispano-Moresque ceramic art extant. Its amphora-shaped body (4 ft. 5 in. high) is encircled by a band of Arabic inscription, above which are depicted gazelles reserved in cream and golden lustre upon a blue field; the rest of the body and the prominent handles are covered with compartments of arabesques and inscriptions in the same colours; and panels on the neck, divided by mouldings and decorated with strap-work and arabesques. Vases similar in shape and technique, with ornament of Cufic characters and arabesques in horizontal rows, are to be found in the museums at St Petersburg, Palermo and Stockholm. As to the exact date of these, experts are not agreed. Though presenting all the characteristics of the 14th-century Hispano-Moresque ornament, it seems probable that they were produced at the same period as the large lustred wall-tile formerly in the Fortuny (now in the Osma) collection, an inscription upon which is by some held to refer to Yusuf III. of Granada (1409-1418), not to Yusuf I. (1333-1354). Another remarkable example is a dish (Sarre collection, Berlin), which, it is claimed, bears upon its back, in Arabic, the Word Malaga; it is ornamented with eight segmental compartments filled alternately with strap-work designs and arabesques in lustre. Malaga was reconquered by Ferdinand and Isabella in 1487, and after this its industry probably decayed, as it is not mentioned by Lucio Marineo in 1539 among the localities where ceramics then flourished. Valencia:-The emirate of Valencia was reconquered by Aragon in 12 38. The history of' its lustred ware is known from 1383, when Eximenes (whose evidence has been erroneously held to date from 1499) mentions the golden ware (Obra dorada) of Manises. Valencian pottery of this kind was an offshoot of the Malagan industry, as in documents lately published (ranging from 1405 to 1 517) it is repeatedly designated Malaga ware (Obra de M alaga). Its decorative qualities became famous throughout the whole of Europe and North Africa. The ware was chiefly manufactured at Manises by the Moorish retainers of the Buyl or Boil family, lords of Manises, who levied dues upon the output of the kilns, and occasionally arranged for its sale. It is distinguished as regards its ornamentation from the pottery of Malaga by the adoption of a more natural rendering of plant form motives and by the use of armory. The ware consists of drug pots, deep dishes, large and small plates, aquamaniles, vases, &c. Some dozen varieties of ornament were employed during the 1 5th and early 16th centuries, including mock arabic inscriptions, various flower or foliage patterns taken from the vine, bryony, &c., and gadroons. The centres of dishes frequently bear the arms of a king or queen of Aragon, of the Buyls of Manises, or other Valencian or Italian families for whom they were made. Great dexterity is shown in the execution of minute and complicated schemes of ornament and in the richness of the colour schemes; golden lustre of various hues, with blue and manganese, form the simple combinations, but the ruby, violet or opalescent lustre combine to produce with the colours a wonderful decorative effect. From 1500 the use of blue and manganese was gradually discontinued and the ornament quickly became nondescript, but the brilliancy of the lustre pigment nevertheless obtained a wide popularity for the ware, as is attested by Marineo (1539), Viciana (1564) and Escolano (1610). After the expulsion of the Moriscoes (1609) the industry was carried on by those who had escaped deportation or by Spaniards who had learnt the craft; generally speaking their productions can be summed up in the word “ decadence.” In the course of the 1 5th century the manufacture of lustred pottery was carried on at various other small towns near Valencia; in 1484 it was produced at Mislata, Paterna and Gesarte. It is known to have flourished at Calatayud in 1507, and at Muel, also in Aragon, in 1 589. In the Valencia district much pottery for ordinary use, ornamented with blue on white, was also produced.

M ajofca.-Scaliger, in 1557, states that Chinese porcelain was imitated in the Balearic Isles, and that the Italians called these imitations “majolica, ” changing the letter in the name of the islands (then called Majorica) where they originated. The truth would appear to be that Valencian wares, being exported in Balearic vessels that called at Majorca on the voyage to Italy, acquired a reputed Mallorcan origin. There is extant a potter's petition praying for permission to establish himself in Majorca (1560), in which he states that “ Manises ware, ” &c., had to be imported, as it was not made there.

Collections.-In England, the Victoria and Albert and the British Museums have line collections of this ware. At Paris the Cluny Museum collection, and the Louvre; the museum at Sevres contains many line typical pieces. Another good collection is that of the archaeological museum at Madrid. The Berlin and the Hamburg museums, the Metropolitan Art Museum at New York and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts also contain ood specimens. The private collections of England, France and Ftaly are rich in these wares, among the finest being those of Mr F. D. Godman (Horsham), and of Don G. ]. de Osma (Madrid).

LITERATURE.-A. Van de Put, Hispano-Moresgue Ware of the 15th Century (1904); F. Sarre, “Die spanisch-maurischen Lusterfayencen des Mittelalters, " &c. (in Jahrbuch der kgl. preuss. Kunstsammlungen, xxiv. (1903); G. ]. de Osma, “ Apuntes sobre ceramica morisca: textos y documents valencianos, " No. 1, 1906, and “ Los Letreros ornament ales en la ceramica morisca del siglo xv.” (in the review Cultura Espaiola, No. ii, 1906; J. Font y Guma, Rajolas valencianas y catalanas (1905); ]. Tramoyeres Blasco, “ Ceramica valenciana del siglo xvii." (in the Almanaque, pam 1908, del periodic Las Provincias de Valencia; J. Gestoso y Pérez, Historia de los barros trldriados sevillanos (1904); also ]. C. Davillier, Histoire des faiences hispano-moresgues ti rejlels métalliques (1861). (A. V. DE P.) MEDIEVAL AND LATER ITALIAN POTTERY1

Little is known of the potter's art in Italy after the fall of the Roman empire till the 13th century. The traditions of the Roman potters appear to have been gradually lost, leaving behind only sufficient skill to make rude crocks for domestic use and to coat them, if required, with a crude yellowish lead glaze sometimes stained to a vivid green with copper oxide. Applied ornament of roughly modelled clay and scratched designs were the chief embellishments of such wares, which were of the same Class as the medieval pottery of Great Britain and the north of Europe. In the 12th and 13th centuries, however, contact with Asia Minor, Syria, Egypt- and Spain, where ceramic skill had been highly developed in fresh directions, as we have seen, introduced into Italy as well as the rest of Europe those superior Wares characterized by a white surface decorated with bright colours under a brilliant transparent glaze, and glorified by metallic lustres. The Italian potters did not long remain unaffected by these influences, but though Persian, Syrian and Egyptian pottery must have been fairly plentiful in the households of the Wealthy, it was the distinctively Hispano-Moresque wares from which the potters of Italy drew the inspiration for a new ware of their own. The technique of a siliceous slip coating with colour painted on that and covered with a transparent alkaline glaze, was only sparingly used, and then not very successfully; it is only the introduction of the tin-enamel that was turned to fruitful account and led to the production of the magnificent Italian majolica of the 15th and 16th centuries. 1 See examples in colour, Plate VI.

732

732 CERA

In the same way the practice of lustre decoration might have been learnt from the Orient, but its late appearance on Italian wares (16th century) and its evident relationship to the lustres of Spain, rather than to the earlier lustres of Egypt, Syria and Persia, are further evidence that though oriental decorative motives gave the Italians certain early types of design, it is the Hispano-Moresque potters from whom the Italians learnt the art they were afterwards to develop so splendidly in a new direction! All the Italian pottery above the level of common crocks may be conveniently grouped into four classes. 1. The native wares, made of coarse and often dark-red clay, coated with a white clay slip (a kind of pipe-clay) and covered with a crude lead glaze, either yellow or green. The idea of rendering this ware ornamental, and fitting it for more than vulgar use, led to a great development of the grajiata process; where, while the vessel, with its white clay coating was firm yet soft enough, patterns were scratched or engraved through the white slip to the red body beneath. This decorative method has been already mentioned several times, for it was practised during the early middle ages in all the countries from India to Italy, and the Byzantine potters were adepts in its use. Nor has its practice ever ceased in Italy, for through all the times K

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FIG. 44.-Italian Graffiato Plate, 16th century. (South Kensington Museum.)

when painted majolica was the ware of the wealthy, this earlier and humbler pottery was used by those who could not afford the former; and the gaily-coloured later wares of this kind have a line decorative quality of their own. From the depth beneath the present soil at which fragments of this ware have been disinterred, it is obvious that the method was widely practised in early times, and no simpler glazed wares are known except those covered all over with green, yellow or brown glazes. Early examples have been found all over northern Italy-in Faenza, Florence, Pisa, &c., and particularly in Padua, where it seems to have been extensively made. Pavia was another centre of its manufacture, even to the end of the 17th century, and Citta di Castello must have been noted for it in the 16th century, for Piccolpasso describes this ware as “ alla Castellana ” (see fig. 44). Apparently in the latter half of the 15th century a sudden advance takes place in the colouring of this graliiato ware. Instead of the simple glazes, of uniform colour, of the earlier productions, under glaze colours-green, purple, blue and a brown of the tint of burnt sienna which passes into a glossy black where it is thick-were applied in bold splashes under the straw coloured glaze, producing a rich' and decorative effect by very 1 There is ampie documentary evidence to prove how largely the lustred pottery of Spain was imported into Italy from the 12th century onwards; and it is important to note in this connexion that almost all the Hne examples of Hispano-Moresque in our modern collections have been obtained from the palaces of ancient Italian families.

MICS A [ITALIAN

simple means. As fine examples of this kind we may mention the dish with the mandolin players, and one with cupids disporting themselves in a tree, in the Victoria and Albert Museum; the tazza, supported by three modelled lions, in the Louvre; and the dish, with figures of the Virgin and two saints, in the museum at Padua. The ware has often been called, quite erroneously, mezza-majolica. It had nothing to do with majolica, being the natural development of a much older process; and its manufacture was carried on all through the period of majolica manufacture and has never ceased.

2. M ezza-M ajolica.-This name is accurately applied to certain Italian wares that made their appearance in the 12th century or even earlier, when rude patterns-a clumsy star, a rude crossing of strokes or some equally elementary work-are found painted on a thin white ground covering a drab body. The pieces, generally pitchers of ungainly forms, are uncouth in the extreme; the body has been shaped in local clay and then thinly coated by dipping it into a, white slip, which seems at first to have been of white clay only, though oxide of tin and lead were added to it even in the 12th century. The colours used for the rude painting were oxide of copper and oxide of manganese, and the final glaze, which is generally thin and often imperfectly fused, seems to have been based on the alkaline glazes of the nearer East. The specimens so assiduously recovered by Professor Aragnani, some of which, or similar wares, are to be found in the Louvre, the British and the Victoria and Albert museums, are typical of the rude work out of which, by a fuller knowledge of Spanish methods, the painted majolica grew. 3. M ajalica.-For the last three centuries the word majolica has been used to signify an Italian ware with a hne but comparatively soft buff body, coated with an opaque tin-enamel of varying degrees of whiteness and purity, on which a painted decoration was laid and fired. In the later pictorial wares, a fine coating of transparent alkaline glaze was Bred over the painting to soften the colours-really to varnish them. The word itself appears to have been derived from the name of the island Majorca, and was originally applied by the Italians to the lustred wares of Spain which were largely imported into Italy, probably arriving in ships that called at or hailed from Majorca, as we do not believe that the ware was actually made in that island. That the secret of the tin-glaze, which is the essential feature of Italian majolica, was known in Italy in the 13th century is practically proved; and there is both literary and archaeological proof of its use there in the 14th. Mention of it is made in the M argarila Preciosa published at Pola by Pierre Le Bon in 1336, and the well-known jug, bearing the arms of Astorgio I., discovered under the Manfredi palace at Faenza, must have been made shortly after I 393. Its development marched side by side with that of the mezza-majolica, until it practically superseded the latter for painted wares in the 15th century; but the earliest examples have little morethan an archaeological interest, and it was only after the last decade of the quattrocenlo or the first of the cinquecento that it blossomed into an artistic creation. In its prime the production of majolica was confined to a very small part of Italy. Bologna on the north, Perugia to the south, Siena on the west, and the Adriatic to the east, roughly enclose the district in which lie Faenza, Forli, Rimini, Pesaro, Cafaggiolo, Urbino, Castel Durante, Gubbio, Perugia and Siena. Towards the middle of the 16th century Venice on the one hand, and in the I7th and 18th centuries the Ligurian factories at Genoa, Albissola and Savona, made majolica of the later decadent styles, while, at the end of the 17th and in the early part of the 18th centuries, the southern town of Castelli, near Naples, produced a ware which closes the period of artistic majolica. 4. Lustred M ajolicar-This brilliant species of Italian pottery (to which alone Piccolpasso applied the name majolica) seems to have been mainly produced at Deruta and Gubbio, though experiments were made at Cafaggiolo and probably at Faenza and Siena. Considering how much the Italian majolist owed to the Spanish-Moorish potter, it is remarkable that this beautiful method of decoration should have made so tardy an appearance, for the earliest specimens do not appear to be much earlier than

733

CERAMICS PLATE I. Fu., 52.-»CORIN'I'HlAN JAR. FIG. 53, -FRANÇOIS VASE. (From F urtwéngler and Reichhold, Griechische Vasenmalerei, by permission of F. Bruckmann.) Y. Fig. 54.-BLACK-FIGURED AMPHORA FIG. 55, -VASE FROM SOUTHERN ITAL Y. 732. BY EXEKI-'~ Signed by Python.

734

PM IL CERAMICS FIG. 56.*-BOWL MADE (ZZND CENT. B.C.) Fm. 58.— VASE OF (STH CENT. B.('., IX FORM OF HliLM1£'1'ED HEAD. FIG. 57.-»' ~SE OF STH CENT. B, C., MODELLED IN FORM OF HEAD. Fm. 59.-FLASK OF VITREOUS GLAZED WARE. (ROMAN PERIOD.) AT CALES IN IMITATION OF METAL. FIG. 60.-AMPHORA OF APULIAN STYLE, WITH SCENE FROM EURIPIDES' “HECUBA.”

735

CERAMICS PLATE III FIG- 6I~-MOULD FOR ARRETINE BOWL- Fig. 62 -JAR OF ARRETINE WARE FROM CAPUA Fm. e3.~mx<L' 1~;'rRUsC.»N JAR. <vxLLANovA PERIOD.) FIG. 64, -STAMP FOR ORNA-MENTING ARRETINE VASE FIG.65.-ETRUSCAN "CANOPIC" IAR PLACED IN BRONZE CHAIR

736

PLATE IV- CERAMICS FIG. 66.*-MOULD FOR BOWL OF GERMAN WARE. (2ND CENT. AFTER CHRIST.) FIG. 69.-BOVVL OF GAULISH (LEZOUX) WARE WITH FIGURES IN “FREE” STYLE. (2ND CENT. AFTER CHRIST.) FIG. 67. ~- MEDALLION FROM VASE MADE IN S. FRANCE, WITH SCENE FROM TRAGEDY. (SRD CENT. AFTER CHRIST.) FIG. 68.-JAR OF RHENISH WARE WITH INSCRIPTION. (3RD CENT. AFTER CHRIST.) FIG. 70.4- I/R OF LATER LEZOUX WARE. (ZSRD CENT. AFTER CHRIST)

733

Renaissance, while cable

ITALIAN] CERAAMICS 7 3 3

the end of the 15th century, and the process was apparently abandoned by the middle of the 16th. The lustre wares of Deruta, probably the earliest made in Italy, have strongly marked affinities with their Spanish prototypes; the earlier examples are hardly to be distinguished from Spanish Wares, and to the last the ware remained technically like the earlier ware, though with perfectly Italian decorative treatment. Yet the best examples of Deruta silver lustre have a quality of tone that has never been surpassed; a colour resembling a wash of very transparent umber bearing a delicate nacreous hlm of the most tender iridescence. The Gubbio lustre is best known to us through the works of Maestro Giorgio, whose- distinctive lustre is a magnificent ruby-red unlike any other. In all probability the lustre process was so quickly abandoned on the fine painted majolica, because the increasing efforts to make a “ picture ” were discounted by so uncertain a process. When one of the later majolica painters had spent Weeks on the decoration of some vase or dish, with an elaborate composition of carefully drawn figures, it was not likely that he would care to expose it to any risks that could be avoided. The risks of the lustre process were inordinately great—Piccolpasso says, “ Frequently only six pieces were good out of a hundred ”-so that its use was relegated only to inferior wares, and then the process was relinquished and forgotten until its rediscovery in the second half of the 19th century.

The history of the development of these noble wares is by no means clear, nor is it always certain what part was played by each town in the successive inventions of technical methods, decoration and colouring, so that it is better, in such a general sketch as this, to treat the subject in its broadest features only. In the earlier painted wares the only colours used were manganese-purple and a transparent copper-green as on the mezza-majolica but early in the I5tl'1 century cobalt-blue was added to the palette, and, later on, the strong yellow antimoniate of lead, mixed with iron. The decorations at this period were largely influenced by the wares imported from Persia, Syria, Egypt and Spain, specimens of which were so prized as to be used for the decoration of church fronts and the facades of public buildings. The lustre of the Saracenic wares was not yet understood, but its place was taken first by manganese and afterwards by yellow. The designs were chiefly conventional flower-patterns in the Persian or Moorish style, arabesques, and floral scrolls, the ground being filled at times with those tiny spirals, scrolls and dots to which the Eastern potters were so partial. Figures, human and animal, were introduced either among the formal ornament or only sundered from it by panels, of which the outlines often followed the contours of the central design (see the early 15th-century Faenza piece, Plate VL). The figures were, in fact, drawn to conform to the outline of the vessel, and not the vessel made to display the igure-subject as in the majolica of the succeeding century. The earliest dated example of this period is the pavement laid down in the Caracciolo chapel in the church of San Giovanni a Carbonara, in Naples, about 1440. Specimens of these tiles may be seen in the British Museum, and from their style it has been suggested that they were made by some Spanish potters brought over to Naples by Queen Joanna, who was of the royal house of Aragon. To this period also have been referred the large ovoid jars made to contain drugs or confections, and decorated with bold scrolls of formal oak leaves enclosing spirited figures of men or animals, or heraldic devices. These are characterized by a rich blue colour generally piled upin palpable relief and sometimes verging on black; the outlines are usually in manganese, and transparent green is used for details and occasionally even as a ground colour. This ware has been definitely assigned to Florence on what seem very inadequate grounds, and it is better to speak of it simply as Tuscan. Then, essentially Italian ornament began to -assert itself, and it redounds to the credit of the Italian majolist that he soon freed himself from repeating the styles of the wares from which he obtained his methods, and produced a distinctive type of ornament of his own. He revelled in patterns with bold floral scrolls, or those based on peacocks' feathers (see fig. 45), and then he advanced to concentric bands of painted ornament, borders, chequer and

scale patterns, bands of

stiff radiating leaves

festoons of fruit and

flowers, zigzags and

pyramidal scrolls occu

pied nearly the whole

surface or framed

armorial or emblematic

central subject. Figuresubjects

occur with increasing

frequency as

the century advanced;

Madonnas and other

sacred subjects, portraits,

and, occasionally, groups

of figures after the early

Italian masters, or scenes

borrowed from the first

illustrated editions of the

borrowed from classic art yet breathing the true spirit of the

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classics, gradually encroach on the conventional borders and occupy more and more of the surface of the piece. The provenance of these I5tl'l-C6I1tI°y pieces still remains uncertain-Faenza, Forli, Florence, Siena and other claims, -but there is no doubt that from BONSIOREJIO

places offering rival

the earliest times

Faenza was the

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Potter's mark. Potter's mark.

ture, and almost all

the motives of the

quattrocento wares

are found on fragments discovered there or on examples that can be traced to Faventine factories. It is customary to treat the enamelled terra-cottas of Luca della Robbia, the great Florentine sculptor (1399-1482), and his followers, Andrea and Giovanni della Robbia and other members of the family, as belonging rather to the domain of sculpture than of pottery, and this is right, for there is nothing certainly known of the work of this great sculptor which connects it with painted majolica. The old theory that Luca invented the tin-glaze is long since exploded; what he did was to use coloured glazes made with a basis of tin-enamel on his boldly modelled terracotta-a very different thing, -and it is by no means certain that he was the first to do even that. The Victoria and Albert Museum is extraordinarily rich in della Robbia ware of every kind; and one may see there these beautifully modelled figures in high relief covered with pure white tin-enamel, set in aback ground of slatey blue or rich manganese purple and framed in wreaths of flowers and fruit which are coloured with blue, green, purple and sometimes yellow. There are altar vases too, of classic shape with low relief ornament, covered with the same peculiar blue glaze; these are sometimes furnished with modelled fruit and flowers; and finally there is the rare set of roundels painted on the flat with figure-subjects typifying the months; but the attribution of these remains doubtful, and their method is not that of painted majolica.

A remarkable development took place at the beginning of the'16th century, and in the forty succeeding years the highest perfection of manipulative skill, both in potting and painting, was attained. Artistically regarded, the elaborate and detailed methods of painting then adopted are too much allied to fresco painting to be considered as fit treatment for enamelled clay; but this view was certainly not accepted at the time, nor is it subscribed to by many modern collectors; yet, regarded as decorated pottery, the IStl'1~C€I'1tl1I°y majolica, simpler and more conventional in design and treatment, is eminently preferable. The ruling families of northern Italy, who now took the industry under their personal patronage, clearly inclined to the opposite view and spared no expense to provide subjects for their

En adelante

712

712 CERAMICS [GREEK

Page7, Volume_05

Page7, Volume_05

Shapes and Uses of Greek Vases.—The enormous number of painted vases now collected in museums is in itself sufficient evidence of the importantjpart they must have played in the daily life of the Greeks, and the care which was bestowed on their decoration shows the hi h estimation in which they were held. It is, however, remarkable tfiat, with the exception of general allusions to pottery and its use in daily life, there are singularly few assages in classical literature which throw light on the purposes fldr 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 v e 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. I5), found at Cerigo (Cythera) and inscribed with the word ';)Ml.KOTfJAL01/ or “half-kotyle, " equivalent to about one-fourth of a pint. Another vase found at Athens is supposed to represent the official Xuivtg or quart, having a capacity of 0~96 litre; it is inscribed 51)}I.6ULOV or “ official measure, " and bears the official stamp of the state. Conversely many names of vases, such as the amphora, or the kolyle, were ado ted 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 table and the toilet.

and liquids, and for the various uses of the

That the painted ware was used at banquets or on great occasions we learn from scenes depicted on the vases

vases painted with subjects appear in use.

themselves, in which

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 'A1r6)?wx/és el/.u., “ I am Apollo's " (possibly a memorandum of the priest's, to mark consecrated property), or 6 éeivé. pe ¢ivé0-//Ke ri 'Ad>po6i-r1;, “ 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 (1riz/axes), 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 - > »

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FIG. 14.-Part of vase from Naucratis with dedication to Apollo. 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 (Mtpunxes) 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. The diagrams in fig. I 5 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: (I) 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 amphara for storing wine, the kmter for mixing it, the psykter for cooling it, the kyalhos for ladling it out, and the oinochoe or prochoos for pouring it out; the hydria was used for fetching water rom 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. henceforward 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 vises of the later Italian centres the colour again reverts to a pa er ue.

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 (fubrica) 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

Referencias

• Este artículo incorpora texto de la Encyclopædia Britannica de 1911 (dominio público).

• Wikisource contiene el original de o sobre 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Ceramics/Greek. En el cual se ha basado este artículo.