Chapter X: Part 10

_Sites and Discoveries_.--The sites on which Greek vases have been
found cover the whole area of the Mediterranean and beyond, from the
Crimea to Spain, and from Marseilles to Egypt. By far the great
majority, at all events of the finer specimens, have been extracted
from the tombs of Vulci and other sites in Etruria; those of the later
period or decadence have been found in large numbers on various sites
in southern Italy, such as Capua, Curnae and Nola in Campania, Anzi in
Lucania, and Ruvo in Apulia. In the western Mediterranean, Sicily has
also been a fruitful field for this pottery, early varieties being
found at Syracuse, later ones at Gela, Girgenti and elsewhere. Painted
vases have also come to light in Sardinia and in North Africa,
especially in the Cyrenaica, where the finds mostly belong to the 4th
century B.C. In Greece proper the most prolific site has been Athens,
where the finds extend from the Dipylon vases of the 8th century B.C.
down to the decadent productions of the 4th century; one group, that
of the white funeral _lekythoi_, is almost peculiar to Athens. Next to
this city, Corinth has been most productive, especially in pottery of
the archaic period and of local manufacture. Large quantities of
pottery of all periods have been yielded by Thebes, Tanagra and other
sites in Boeotia, and remains of the "Mycenaean" period at Mycenae,
Argos and elsewhere. But on the whole painted pottery is rare in other
parts of the mainland. Among the western islands of the archipelago,
Aegina and Euboea have proved fruitful in vases of all periods; Thera,
Melos and others of the Cyclades are remarkable for pottery of the
prehistoric period with rudely painted designs; and above all Crete is
now famous for the wondrous series of painted and ornamented pottery
of pre-Mycenacan date, which can be traced back even to the Neolithic
period, and the discovery of which has entirely revolutionized the
preconceived theories on the appearance of painted pottery in Greece.
This has been found in the recent excavations at Cnossus, Palaeokastro
and elsewhere. In Asia Minor there have been some important finds on
the mainland, but only along the coast; some of the islands, more
especially Samos and Rhodes, have been more fruitful in this respect.
At Kertch and elsewhere in the Crimea, large numbers of fine but
somewhat florid vases of the 5th and 4th centuries B.C. have come to
light. Cyprus has long been known as a rich field for pottery of all
periods, from the Mycenaean onwards, the later varieties being marked
by strong local quasi-oriental characteristics, with little
development from the more primitive types (figs. 12 and 13). The
principal sites are Salamis, Amathus, Marion (Poli) and Curium.
Lastly, in the Egyptian delta two sites, Naucratis and Daphnae, have
yielded results of considerable importance for the history of early
Greek vase-painting.

The great majority of these vases have been found in tombs; but some
important discoveries have been made on the sites of temples and
sanctuaries, as on the Acropolis of Athens, or at Naucratis. In such
cases the vases are seldom complete, having been broken up and cast
away into rubbish-heaps, where the fragments have remained
undisturbed. The tombs vary greatly in form, those of Greece being
usually small rock-graves or shafts, those of Italy often fine and
elaborate chambers with architectural details, and the manner in which
the vases are found in these tombs varies greatly. Plain unornamented
pottery is almost universal, and may be considered to have formed the
"tomb-furniture" proper--the painted vases being as in daily life
merely ornamental adjuncts.

_Shapes and Uses of Greek Vases_.--The enormous number of painted
vases now collected in museums is in itself sufficient evidence of the
important part they must have played in the daily life, of the Greeks,
and the care which was bestowed on their decoration shows the high
estimation in which they were held. It is, however, remarkable that,
with the exception of general allusions to pottery and its use in
daily life, there are singularly few passages in classical literature
which throw light on the purposes for which these vases were used.
Where any are described at full length there is always evidence that
metal vases are intended. Athenaeus and the lexicographers have indeed
put on record a long list of names of shapes, but it is only in a few
cases that we can be certain what forms they describe, or whether any
of the typical forms of existing vases can be identified with the
literary descriptions.

We have then two questions to consider in this section: firstly, the
uses to which painted vases were put by the Greeks; secondly, the
classical names of the various forms of plain and painted pottery
which have come down to us.

As we have seen, the majority of painted vases have been discovered in
tombs, which at first sight seems to suggest that they were made
principally for sepulchral purposes; but that they also had their uses
in daily life as much as plain pottery or earthenware cannot be
doubted. They stand, in fact, in the same relation to the commoner
wares of their day as china or porcelain does with us, being largely
ornamental only, but used by wealthy people or on special occasions
for the purposes of daily life, as for instance at banquets or in
religious ceremonies.

Vases were used as measures, as in the case of a small one-handled cup
in the British Museum (see fig. 15), found at Cerigo (_Cythera_) and
inscribed with the word [Greek: hêmikotylion] or "half-kotyle,"
equivalent to about one-fourth of a pint. Another vase found at Athens
is supposed to represent the official [Greek: choinix] or quart,
having a capacity of 0.96 litre; it is inscribed [Greek: dêmosion] or
"official measure," and bears the official stamp of the state.
Conversely many names of vases, such as the _amphora_ or the _kotyle_,
were adopted to indicate measures of capacity for liquid or dry
commodities. Earthenware vessels were used for storing both liquids
and food, for the preparation of foods and liquids, and for the
various uses of the table and the toilet. That the painted ware was
used at banquets or on great occasions we learn from scenes depicted
on the vases themselves, in which vases painted with subjects appear
in use. In connexion with athletics, they were given as prizes, as in
the case of the Panathenaic _amphorae_, a class of vases given for
victories in the games held at Athens at the Panathenaic festivals,
where, however, they do not represent prizes so much as marks of
honour corresponding to modern racing cups. Vases were also used as
toys for children, as is proved by the discovery of many diminutive
specimens, chiefly jugs, in the tombs of children at Athens, on which
are depicted children playing at various games. They also served a
purely decorative use as domestic ornaments, being placed on columns
or shelves; or, in the case of flat cups and plaques, suspended on the
wall. Many of the later Greek and Italian painted vases are very
carelessly decorated on the one side, which was obviously not intended
to be seen.

We come now to the use of vases for religious purposes, dedicatory,
sacrificial or funerary. Of all these uses, especially the last, there
is ample evidence. That vases were often placed in temples or shrines
as votive offerings is clear from the frequent mention in literature
of the dedication of metal vases, and it can hardly be doubted that
painted pottery served the same purpose for those who could only
afford the humbler material. Of late years much light has been thrown
upon this subject by excavations, notably on the Acropolis of Athens,
at Corinth, and at Naucratis in the Egyptian delta, where numerous
fragments have been found bearing inscriptions which attest their use
for such purposes. It was a well-known Greek custom to clear out the
temples from time to time and form rubbish-heaps (_favissae_) of the
disused vases and statuettes, which were broken in pieces as useless,
but it is to this very fact that we owe their preservation. At
Naucratis many of the fragments bear incised inscriptions, such as
[Greek: Apollônos eimi], "I am Apollo's" (possibly a memorandum of the
priest's, to mark consecrated property), or [Greek: ho deina anethêke
tê Aphroditê], "So-and-so dedicated me to Aphrodite." Fig. 14 gives
another example with a dedication to Apollo. At Penteskouphia, near
Corinth, a large series of painted tablets ([Greek: pinakes]), dating
from 600 to 550 B.C., with representations of Poseidon and dedicatory
inscriptions to that deity, were found in 1879. Votive offerings in
this latter form were common at all periods, and tablets painted with
figures and hung on trees or walls are often depicted on the vases,
usually in connexion with scenes representing sacrifices or offerings.

There is no doubt that vases (though not necessarily painted ones)
must have played a considerable part in the religious ceremonies of
the Greeks. We read of them in connexion with the Athenian festival of
the Anthesteria, and that of the gardens of Adonis. They were also
used in sacrifices, as shown on an early black-figured cup in the
British Museum and on a vase at Naples with a sacrifice to Dionysus.
In scenes of libation the use of the jug and bowl (_phiale_) is
invariable.

But their most important use, and that to which their preservation is
mainly due, was in connexion with funeral ceremonies. They were not
only employed at the burial, but were placed both outside the tombs
to receive offerings, and inside them either to hold the ashes of the
dead or as "tomb-furniture," in accordance with Greek religious
beliefs in regard to the future life. Several classes of vases are
marked out by their subjects as exclusively devoted to this purpose,
such as the large jars found in the Dipylon cemetery at Athens, which
were placed outside the tombs, the white Athenian _lekythoi_ of the
5th and 4th centuries B.C., and the large _krateres_ and other vases
of the 4th century B.C. found in the tombs of Apulia and other parts
of southern Italy. Their use as cinerary urns was perhaps more
restricted, at all events as regards the painted vases, though the
custom is well known and is referred to in literature from Homer
downwards. In "Mycenaean" times coffers ([Greek: larnakes]) of clay
were used for this purpose, especially in Crete, where fine painted
examples have been found; but of Greek pottery of the best periods
there are but isolated instances.

The diagrams in fig. 15 show the principal shapes characteristic of
Greek pottery in all but the earliest periods, when the variety of
form was as yet too great to permit of more than the vaguest
nomenclature; each form has its conventional name appended. These
shapes may be classified under the following heads: (1) Vases in which
food or liquids were preserved; (2) vases in which liquids were mixed
or food cooked; (3) those by means of which liquids were poured out or
food distributed; (4) drinking-cups; (5) other vases for the use of
the table or toilet. Thus we have the _pithos_ and _amphora_ for
storing wine, the _krater_ for mixing it, the _psykter_ for cooling
it, the _kyathos_ for ladling it out, and the _oinochoe_ or _prochoos_
for pouring it out; the _hydria_ was used for fetching water from the
well. The names and forms of drinking-cups are innumerable, the
principal being the _kylix_, _kotyle_, _kantharos_, _rhyton_
(drinking-horn) and _phiale_ (libation bowl). The _pyxis_ was used by
women at their toilet, and the _lekythos_, _alabastron_ and _askos_
for oil and unguents.

_Technical Processes_.--Though the Greeks succeeded in making pottery
of a very high order from the point of view of form and decoration,
the technical processes remained throughout of the most
elementary--for glaze was not used at all, the colour was of the
simplest, and the temperature at which the ware was fired was not high
enough to introduce any serious difficulties. As we should expect, it
is possible to trace a gradual improvement in the technical processes
in the direction of greater precision and refinement, for no
vase-painter of the best period could have achieved his decorative
triumphs on wares so coarse in substance and so rough in finish as
those that satisfied his predecessors. As in every other case
technical and artistic refinement went hand in hand. In the earliest
times the clay was used with very little preparation; at all events
before the introduction of the potter's wheel the finish is not to be
compared with that of the early races in Egypt. As the practice
developed no doubt, specially good clays were found in certain
districts, and these became centres of manufacture or the clays were
carried to other established centres. The primitive wares usually
exhibit the natural buff, yellow, grey or brownish colours of other
elementary pottery, and the surface is somewhat rough and possesses no
gloss. Thenceforward it becomes appreciably warmer in tone as it
becomes finer in texture, until it reaches its perfection in the
glowing orange, inclining to red, of the best Attic vases of the 5th
century B.C. In the vases of the later Italian centres the colour
again reverts to a paler hue.

The clay for the potter was doubtless prepared by a system of
sedimentation, so as to get rid of all coarse particles. It was mixed
with water and decanted into a series of vats so that ultimately fine
clay of two or three grades was obtained. Both red and whitish clays
were used, and the best potters gradually discovered that mixtures of
different clays gave the best results. The clay for the Athenian vases
was obtained from Cape Kolias in Attica; and as it did not burn to a
very warm tone, ruddle or red ochre (_rubrica_) was added to it to
produce the lovely deep orange glow that distinguishes the best vases.
Corinth, Cnidus, Samos and other places were also famous for their
clays, and at the first named tablets have been found bearing
representations of the digging of clay for pottery.

[FIG. 15.--Shapes of Greek Vases.]

The improved manipulation of the clays, and the increasing knowledge
that the colour of a clay could be modified by admixture of other
substances such as ruddle and ochre, really paved the way for what is
known as the glaze of the Greek painted vases. This delicate gloss, so
thin as to defy analysis, has been commonly called glaze, but it
cannot be a glaze in the sense of a separate coating of finely-ground
glass superimposed upon the clay. In all probability, as the Greek
potter used finer and finer clays and so was enabled to perfect his
shapes, he found that after a vase had been "thrown" he could get a
closer texture on it by dipping it in a slip of still finer clay
material and then smoothing it down and polishing it on the wheel when
sufficiently dry. But the mixtures he would use for such a purpose--of
very siliceous clay and ochre--would, when they were burnt in the
Greek kiln, not only fire to a beautifully bright colour, but also to
a glossy surface, especially where the flames had freely played about
them; and it is more in accordance with our knowledge to believe that
the exquisitely thin gloss of the finest Greek red vases was produced
in this way, for it seems impossible that it can have been a coating
of any special glaze.

In any case we may state broadly that the body of Greek vases is
always fine in grain, fired hard enough to give forth a dull metallic
sound when it is struck, but seldom fired above a temperature of about
900° C., which a modern potter would consider very low. When broken
the inside is generally found to be duller in colour, and is often
yellow or grey, even where the external surface is red. The material
is exceedingly porous, and allows water to ooze through it (another
proof that it was not glazed). Numerous analyses of the material of
Greek vases have been published, but they tell us nothing of the
secrets of the Greek potter. The results of a great number of these
analyses may be summed up as follows: silica, 52-60 parts; alumina,
13-19 parts; lime, 5-10 parts; magnesia, 1-3 parts; oxide of iron,
12-19 parts. Analyses of a thousand ordinary simple red burning clays
would give a similar result. It is to the glory of the Greek potter
that with such ordinary materials, by the exercise of selection,
patience and skill, he achieved the fine artistic results we see. He
did as much as can be done with natural clay materials, but the glory
of painted colour and glaze, like the later Persian or Chinese, was
not for him.

_Manufacture of Vases_.--The earliest Greek pottery is, like all
primitive pottery, hand-made. The introduction of the potter's wheel
into Greece was the subject of various ancient traditions, but we now
know that it can be easily traced by a study of the primitive pottery
of Crete, Cyprus or Troy. In Cyprus, for instance, the Bronze age
tombs of 2500-1500 B.C. contain only hand-made pottery, but in the
next period (1500-1000 B.C.) we find hand-made and coarse vases side
by side with a more developed kind of painted pottery--the
"Mycenaean"--obviously made on the wheel. It seems probable,
therefore, that the wheel was introduced into Greece about 1500 B.C.;
it was certainly known to Homer, as a familiar allusion shows (_Il._
xviii. 600). It was still a low circular table turned with the hand,
not the foot; representations of its use are seen on several vases of
the archaic period (fig. 16), and they further prove that the vase was
replaced on the wheel for the subsequent processes of painting,
polishing and adding separately modelled parts, as well as for the
original shaping or "throwing."

The method of shaping the vase on the wheel, which is the same as that
still in use, need not be described in detail; the feet, necks, mouths
and handles were modelled separately or shaped in moulds, and attached
while the clay was moist, as is also indicated on a vase. Large and
coarse vases, such as wine casks ([Greek: pithoi]), were always
modelled by hand on a kind of hooped mould ([Greek: kannabos]).

Parts of vases were modelled by hand at all periods by way of
decoration. Even in the geometrical period we find horses modelled in
the round on the covers of vases and later on handles enriched with
moulded figures of serpents twining round them. Such embellishments
are frequently, if not always, deliberate imitations of metal forms,
but the plastic principle is one which obtained in Greek pottery from
the very first, as for instance in the primitive pottery of Troy, in
which the vases are often modelled in human or animal forms; and the
same principle is involved in the common practice of speaking of the
"neck," "shoulder" or "foot" of a vessel. In the best period the
practice of adding moulded ornaments or of modelling vases in natural
forms took a subsidiary place, but examples occur from time to time,
as in the beautiful _rhyta_ or drinking-horns of the red-figure period
(Plate II., fig. 58), or in smaller details such as are seen in
handles enriched with heads in relief, a favourite practice of the
potter Nicosthenes. In the 4th-century vases of southern Italy the
handles are often much ornamented in this fashion, as in the large
_krateres_, where they are adorned with masks in relief.

The system of moulding whole vases or ornamenting them with designs in
relief taken from moulds really belongs to the decadence of the art,
when imitations of metal were superseding the painted pottery. Even
then it is rare to find whole vases produced from a mould, except in
the case of those in the form of human figures or animals (Plate II.,
figs. 57 and 58), which almost come under the heading of terra-cotta
figures, except for the fact that they are usually painted in the
manner of the vases. But in southern Italy the tendency to imitate
metal led to the popularity of ornaments made separately from moulds
and attached or let in to vases otherwise plain. Vases of this period,
with reeded bodies, must also have been made from moulds, as were a
series of _phialae_ or libation-bowls associated with Cales in
Campania (Plate II., fig. 56), which are known to be direct imitations
of metal.

All or nearly all of these vases are covered with a plain black glaze
or varnish, and painted decoration is rare except in the case of those
moulded in special forms or of a certain class made in Apulia with
opaque colouring laid on the varnish. Some of these plain black vases
of the 4th century are ornamented with _stamped_ patterns made with a
metal punch impressed in the moist clay. This decoration is confined
to simple patterns.

After the vases had been made on the wheel they were dried in the sun
and lightly baked, after which they were ready for varnishing and
painting; it is also probable that the gloss was brought out by a
process of polishing, the surface of the clay being smoothed with a
piece of wood or hard leather. On a vase in Berlin a boy is seen
applying a tool of some kind to an unfinished cup, probably for this
purpose; the cup, being shown in red on the vase, has evidently not
been varnished. Many vases are varnished black all over the exterior
(whether decorated with designs or not) with the exception of the foot
and lip.

The process of baking was regarded as one of the most critical in the
potter's art. It was not indeed universal, as we read of sun-dried
vessels for utilitarian purposes, but all the vases that have come
down to us have been baked. The amount of heat required was regulated
by the character of the ware, but was not very high. Many examples
exist of discoloured vases which have been subjected to too much or
too little heat, the varnish having acquired a greenish or reddish
hue. Or again the red gloss is sometimes turned to an ashen-grey
colour, the black remaining unimpaired. Other accidents were liable to
occur in the baking, such as cracking under too great heat, or the
damaging of the shape by vases knocking against one another and so
being dented in or crushed. The form of the oven was of the simplest
(fig. 17). No furnaces have been found in Greece, and only one or two
in Italy, but we have a variety of evidence from vase-paintings. They
were fed by fires from beneath, and the vases were inserted with a
long shovel. They were heated with charcoal or wood fuel, and there
are representations of men poking or raking the fires with
long-handled implements. One vase-painting gives a bird's-eye view, in
horizontal section, of the interior of an oven full of jugs of various
forms. Others have more complete presentations of potteries, with men
engaged in the different processes of vase manufacture, modelling,
painting or supplying the kilns with newly-made wares.

_The Painting of Vases_.--We may distinguish three principal classes
of painted pottery, of Which two admit of subdivision.

1. Primitive Greek vases with simple painted ornaments, chiefly
linear and geometrical, laid directly on the clay with the brush.
The colour employed is usually a yellowish or brownish red passing
into black. The execution varies, but is often extremely coarse.

2. Greek vases painted with figures. These may be subdivided as
follows:--

(a) Vases with figures in shining black on a red glossy ground.

(b) Vases with figures left in the glossy red on a ground of shining
black.

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 following 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 (?) 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" _amphorae_ 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 pen and a
camel's-hair brush, or at any rate something analogous. Thus 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 polychromy, 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 Sèvres Museum gives
a very clear idea of the process just described, the figures being
completed, but the back ground not yet applied (fig. 18). 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.

FIG. 18.--Fragment of unfinished red-figured vase]

In the class of vases (3 (a)), with polychrome figures on a white
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-flasks 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 being applied
with a fine brush in monochrome--black, yellow or red--following the
lines of the sketch. For 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 light"
painting, till it was finally ousted by the latter at the height of
"Mycenaean" civilization in Crete. The colouring is 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 is 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
occasionally 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 ([Greek: miltos], _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.--[Greek:
metoikoi], 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 [Greek: chutroplathoi], [Greek:
lêkuthopoioi], 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--(1) [Greek: ho deina epoiêsen];
(2) [Greek: ho deina hegrapsen ]; (3) [Greek: ho deina hegrapse kahi
epoiêsen]; (4) A [Greek: hegrapse]. B [Greek: epoiêsen]. Where [Greek:
epoiêse] 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 [Greek: hegrapse] 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 [Greek: kalos]
names discussed below; all these are painted on the designs
themselves. There is also another class of _graffiti_ 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 in 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 forming
what is sometimes known as "frit" from its semi-vitreous consistency.
The surface is covered with a glaze, usually of a 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, 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 (8th-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, 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.[7]

HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF GREEK VASE-PAINTING.--It has been 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 Primitive Period_ from about 2500 or 2000 to 600
B.C., including 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-figured 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. _Red-figured 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 figures 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
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 of pottery in Greece as far back as the Neolithic period, owing chiefly to the light recently thrown on the subject by the excavations in Crete. These have yielded large quantities of painted pottery of high technical merit, usually with decoration in polychrome or white on a dark ground, in what is known as the Kamares ware, covering the period 2500-1500 B.C. (fig. 20). This was gradually superseded by painting in dark shining pigments on a light glossy ground during the later Minoan period (1500-1000 B.C.), forming what is known as the "Mycenaean" style. The subjects, though chiefly 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 pure Minoan or Mycenaean style.

FIG. 20.--Minoan or "Kamares" ware, from Crete.]

Outside Crete the earliest Greek pottery has been found in Cyprus and at Troy, with simple incised or painted patterns on a black polished ground, the vases being all hand-made, and often treated in a plastic fashion with rude modelling of human or animal forms (figs. 21, 22); these cover the period 2500-2000 B.C. Early painted pottery, parallel with the Kamares ware, has been found in Thera and in the important cemeteries of Phylakopi in Melos. But until the general spread of Mycenaean civilization and art in the latter half of the second millennium there is no site except Crete where a continuous and successful development can be studied.

About the time which is represented in Greek tradition by the Dorian invasion (1100 B.C.) the then decadent Mycenaean civilization was replaced by a new one much more backward in development, making pottery of a far simpler and more conventional type, the decoration being largely confined to geometrical patterns to the exclusion of motives derived from plant forms. This is usually known as the geometrical style, and the pottery covers the period from about 1000 to 700 B.C. It is found all over the mainland and islands of Greece, and exhibits a certain development towards a more advanced stage. The patterns include the chevron, the triangle, the key or maeander, and the circle, in various combinations, painted in dull black on a brown ground. In most places the art advanced no further, but in Boeotia, and still more at Athens, we can trace the gradual growth of decorative skill, first in the introduction of animals, and then in the appearance of the human figure. In the Athenian cemetery outside the Dipylon gate a series of colossal vases has come to light, on which are painted such subjects as sea-fights and funeral processions. The human figures are exceedingly rude and conventional, painted almost entirely in silhouette, but there is a distinct striving after artistic effect in the composition and arrangement. In Boeotia the vases do not advance beyond the animal stage, and many exhibit a tendency to decadence in their carelessness, as contrasted with the painstaking helplessness of the Athenian artists.

In Ionia and the islands of the Aegean such as Rhodes, the art of vase-painting from the first carried on the Mycenaean tradition, and was distinguished by its naturalism and originality, and by the bold and diverse effects produced by variety of colour or novelty of subject. The ornamentation is at first elementary, consisting of friezes of animals, especially lions, deer and goats (figs. 23 and 24). These figures stand out sharply in black against the creamy buff ground which is characteristic of nearly all Ionic pottery, and details are brought out by means of engraved lines, patches of purplish iron pigment, or by drawing parts of the figures, especially the heads, in outline on the clay ground. Another feature is the general use of small ornaments such as rosettes and crosses in great variety of form to cover the background and avoid the vacant spaces which the Greek artist abhorred. The system of decoration has been thought to owe much to Assyrian textile fabrics.

One of the best though most advanced examples of early Ionic pottery is a _pinax_ or plate from Rhodes in the British Museum, on which is represented the combat of Menelaus and Hector over the body of Euphorbus (fig. 25); their names are inscribed over the figures, and this is almost the earliest known instance of a mythological subject, the date of the painting being not later than 600 B.C. To a slightly later date belongs another remarkable group of cups with figures on a white ground, probably made at Cyrene in North Africa. Of these the most famous has a painting in the interior, of Arcesilaus II., king of Cyrene from 580 to 550 B.C., weighing goods for export in a ship. Others have mythological subjects, such as Zeus, Atlas and Prometheus, Cadmus and Pelops.

But these vases, though still retaining the older technique, really belong to the second class, that of black-figured vases, and they belong to a time when in all Ionian centres this method was being superseded by the new technique which Corinth had introduced and Athens perfected, to the consideration of which we must return.

For some 150 years Corinth almost monopolized the industry of pottery on the west of the Aegean. Large numbers of examples have been found in or near the city itself, many bearing inscriptions in the peculiar local alphabet. They show a continuous progress from the simplest ornamentation to fully-developed black-figured wares. In the earliest (Plate I. fig. 52) oriental influence is very marked, the surface being so covered with the figures and patterns that the background disappears and the designs are at times almost unintelligible. The general effect is thus that of a rich oriental tapestry, and the subjects are largely chosen from the fantastic and monstrous creations of Assyrian art, such as the sphinx and gryphon. The vases are mostly small, the ground varies from cream to yellow, and the figures are painted in black and purple.

Both in Ionia and at Corinth during the early part of the 6th century the same tendencies are seen to be at work, tending to a unification of styles under the growing influence of Athens. In Ionia (see above) figure subjects become more common, and the technique approaches gradually nearer to the black-figure method. Similarly at Corinth the ground ornaments diminish and disappear, the friezes of animals are restricted to the borders of the designs, and human figures are introduced, first singly, then in friezes or groups, and finally engaged in some definite action such as combats or hunting scenes. In the last stages Greek myths and legends are freely employed. A new development, traditionally associated with the painter Eumarus of Athens, was the distinguishing of female figures by the use of white for flesh tints. A somewhat similar development was in progress at Athens, though represented by comparatively few vases. Here the adoption of Corinthian and Ionian technical improvements evolved by the middle of the 6th century the fully developed black-figure style which by degrees supplanted or assimilated all other schools.

II. _Black-figured Vases_.--At the head of this new development stands the famous Francois vase at Florence, found at Chiusi in 1844 (Plate I. fig. 53). Its shape is that of a _krater_ or mixing-bowl, and it bears the signatures of its maker and decorator in the form "Ergotimos made me, Klitias painted me." It might be described as a Greek mythology in miniature, with its numerous subjects and groups of figures all from legendary sources such as the stories of Peleus, Theseus and Meleager, or the return of Hephaestus to heaven. All the figures have their names inscribed.

The general technique of the black-figured vases has already been described. It may be noted as a chronological guide that the use of purple for details is much commoner in the earlier vases, white in the later, but towards the end of the century when the new fashion of red figures was gaining ground, both colours were almost entirely dropped. The drawing of the figures is, as might be expected, somewhat stiff and conventional, though it advanced considerably in freedom before the style went out of fashion. Many vases, otherwise carefully and delicately executed, are marred by an excess of mannerism and affectation, as in the works of the artists Amasis and Exekias (Plate I. fig. 54). The treatment of drapery is a good indication of date, ranging from flat masses of colour to oblique flowing lines of angular falling folds.

The shapes most commonly employed by the Athenian potters of this period are the _amphora, hydria, kylix, oinochoe_ and _lekythos,_ the first-named being the most popular. A special class of _amphorae_ is formed by the Panathenaic vases, which were given as prizes in the Athenian games, and were adorned with a figure of the patron goddess Athena on one side and a representation of the contest in which they were won on the other (fig. 26). They usually bear the inscription [Greek: tôn Athênêthen athlôn eimiruv] "I am (a prize) from the games at Athens." Some of these can be dated by the names of Athenian archons which they bear, as late as the 4th century, the old method of painting in black figures with a stiff conventional pose for the goddess being retained for religious reasons.

FIG. 26.--Panathenaic amphora.

The chief interest of the black-figured vases is really derived from their subjects, which range over every conceivable field, the proportion of myth and legend to scenes from daily life being much greater than in the succeeding period. They include groups of Olympian and other deities, and the various scenes in which they take part, such as the battle of the gods and giants, or the birth of Athena (treated in a very conventional manner, as on a fine _amphora_ in the British Museum); Dionysus and his attendant satyrs and maenads, the labours and exploits of Heracles and other heroes, subjects taken from the tale of Troy and other less familiar legends; and scenes from daily life, battle scenes, athletics, the chase and so on. The same classification of course holds good for the later periods of vase-painting, with some exceptions. The proportion of genre-scenes subsequently becomes greater, and some myths disappear, others rise into prominence, new deities such as Eros (Love), and Nik[=e] (Victory) appear for the first time, and, generally speaking, the later subjects are characterized by a sentimentality or tendency to emotion which is entirely foreign to the conventional stereotyped compositions of the 6th century artist.

A remarkable feature of the subjects on black-figured vases is that a stereotyped form of composition is invariably adopted at least for the principal figures, but minor variations are generally to be found, as, for instance, in the number of bystanders; and it is almost an impossibility to find any two vase-paintings which are exact duplicates. The form of the composition, was partly determined by the field available for the design; when this took the form of a long frieze the space was filled up with a series of spectators or the repetition of typical groups, but when the design is on a framed panel or confined by ornamental borders the method of treatment is adapted from that of a sculptured metope, and the figures limited to two or three. In many cases it is difficult to decide, in the absence of inscriptions, whether or no a scene has mythological signification; the mythological types are over and over again adopted for scenes of ordinary life, even to the divine attributes or poses of certain figures.

Vase by Andocides. Red figures on reverse.

FIG. 27.]