History of Ancient Pottery 15

History of Ancient Pottery 15

CHAPTER III

_THE USES OF CLAY_

 

Technical terms—Sun-dried clay and unburnt bricks—Use of these in

Greece—Methods of manufacture—Roof-tiles and architectural

decorations in terracotta—Antefixal ornaments—Sicilian and

Italian systems—Inscribed tiles—Sarcophagi—Braziers—Moulds—Greek

lamps—Sculpture in terracotta—Origin of art—Large statues in

terracotta—Statuettes—Processes of

manufacture—Moulding—Colouring—Vases with plastic

decoration—Reliefs—Toys—Types and uses of statuettes—Porcelain

and enamelled wares—Hellenistic and Roman enamelled fabrics.

 

 

We now proceed to treat the subject of the fictile art among the Greeks

in its technical aspects, prefacing our study with a section dealing

with the uses of clay in general.

 

The term employed by the Greeks for pottery is κέραμος, or for the

material γῆ κεραμική. The word for clay in a general sense is πηλός,

while κέραμος has the more restricted sense of clay as material for

fictile objects; the latter word is supposed to be connected with

κεράννυμι, to mix. They likewise applied to pottery the term ὄστρακον,

meaning literally an oyster-shell, and ὀστράκινα τορεύματα[300] is also

an __EXPRESSION__ found for works in terracotta. Nor must we omit to

mention that πηλός too comes to bear a restricted sense, when it is

applied to the unburnt or sun-dried bricks freely employed in early

architecture. Keramos was regarded by the Greeks as a legendary hero,

from whom the name of the district in Athens known as the Kerameikos,

or potter’s quarter, was derived.[301] The word κέραμος soon became

generic, and as early as Homer’s time we find such an __EXPRESSION__ as

χάλκεος κέραμος for a bronze vessel[302]; similarly it came to be used

for tiles, even when they were of marble (see below, p. 100). The art

of working in clay may be considered among the Greeks, as among all

other nations, under three heads, according to the nature of the

processes employed: (1) Sun-dried clay (Gk. πηλινα or ὠμά, Lat.

_cruda_); (2) baked clay without a glaze, or terracotta (Gk. γῆ ὀπτή);

(3) baked clay with the addition of a glaze, corresponding to the

modern porcelain. It is then possible to treat of the uses of clay

under these three heads. The first, from its limited use, will occupy

our attention but very briefly; the second, the manufacture of building

materials and terracotta figures, only technically comes under the

heading of pottery, and will therefore also receive comparatively brief

mention. It remains, then, that in the succeeding chapters, as in the

preceding, it will be almost exclusively with the third heading that we

are concerned. Before, however, dealing with this third heading, or

pottery, we may review briefly the purposes for which clay was worked,

under the other two headings of brick and terracotta.

 

The uses of clay among the Greeks were very varied and extensive.

Sun-dried clay was used for building material, and we have already seen

what an important part was played by pottery in their domestic and

religious life. The uses of terracotta are almost more manifold than

those of pottery. It supplied the most important parts both of public

and private buildings, such as bricks, roof-tiles, drain-tiles, and

various architectural adornments; and was frequently used in the

construction and decoration of tombs and coffins. Among its adaptations

for religious purposes may be noted its use as a substitute for more

expensive materials in the statues of deities, as well as the countless

figurines or statuettes in this material, many of which have been found

on the sites of temples or in private shrines; and besides the

statuettes and other figures, of which such quantities have been found

in tombs, it was used for imitations of jewellery or metal vases made

solely for a sepulchral purpose. It also supplied many of the wants of

every-day life, in the form of spindle-whorls, theatre-tickets, lamps

and braziers, and culinary and domestic utensils of all kinds, taking

the place of the earthenware of modern times. It supplied the potter

with moulds for his figures and the sculptor with models for his work

in marble or bronze, and placed works of art within the reach of those

who found marble and the precious metals beyond their means.

 

One of the most elementary uses of clay is for the manufacture of

building material, for which it plays an important part, as we have

already seen, in the history of the Semitic races. Both burnt and

unburnt bricks were employed in Egypt and Mesopotamia, and their use

has already been referred to in the Introduction. Vitruvius[303] speaks

of the use of brick in the palace of Kroisos at Sardis, and we also

read of the walls of Babylon and Larissa (on the site of Nineveh) as

being of brick.[304] Generally speaking, sun-dried bricks belong to an

earlier period of development than baked bricks; at any rate, this is

the case in the buildings of Greece and Rome.

 

In Greece itself the antiquity of brick is implied by the words of

Pliny,[305] who tells us that Hyperbius and Euryalus of Athens “were

the first to” construct brick-kilns (_laterarias_) and houses; before

their time men lived in caves. He further goes on to say that Gellius

regarded one Toxius as the inventor of buildings of sun-dried clay,

inspired by the construction of swallows’ nests. The reference is

obviously to the employment by swallows of straw and twigs to make the

clay for their nests cohere; this may well have suggested, in the first

instance, the principle of mixing straw with sun-dried clay bricks, as

was done by the Israelites in their bondage in Egypt. The method is one

still practised in the East, where in such countries as Palestine and

Cyprus whole villages built in this fashion may be seen.

 

There is no doubt, however, that in Greece, with its stores of marble

and stone for building, brick never became general, though it was

probably more used in sun-dried form in earlier buildings before the

Greeks had begun to realise the possibilities of stone buildings.

Pausanias[306] speaks of temples of Demeter at Lepreon in Arcadia and

Stiris in Phokis, of a shrine of Asklepios at Panopeus in Phokis, and

of the Stoa of Kotys at Epidauros (restored by Antoninus Pius) as being

of unburnt brick (πηλός). Of the same material was the cella of a

temple at Patrae[307]; but the walls of various cities, such as

Mantinea, were of burnt brick.[308]

 

Nor was the use of sun-dried clay confined to building material. It

seems also to have been employed for modelling decorations of public

buildings. Thus Pausanias mentions “images of clay,” representing

Dionysos feasting in the house of Amphiktyon, adorning a chamber in the

temenos of that god in the Kerameikos,[309] and it seems highly

probable that these are to be identified with the _cruda opera_ of one

Chalcosthenes or Caicosthenes mentioned by Pliny,[310] where the word

_cruda_ can only be used in a technical sense (Greek ὠμά). He also

mentions at Tritaea in Achaia[311] statues of the Θεοὶ μέγιστοι in

clay, and at Megara an image of Zeus by Theokosmos,[312] of which the

face was gold and ivory, the rest clay and gypsum.

 

Our knowledge of the use of brick (both burnt and unburnt) and

terracotta in Greek architecture has been largely increased, not to say

revolutionised, by recent discoveries in all parts of the Greek world,

and going back to a very remote period.

 

Recent excavations have yielded walls of unburnt brick at Eleusis,

Mycenae, Olympia, Tegea, and Tiryns.[313] The Heraion at Olympia, which

dates from the tenth century B.C., is a peripteral temple with stone

stylobate, pillars and _antae_ of wood, and cella-wall of unburnt

brick. In this respect it resembles the temple of Zeus and Herakles at

Patrae (see above). It also possesses the oldest known example of a

terracotta roof (Fig. 9.). A recently discovered temple at Thermon in

Acarnania is constructed of wood and terracotta, with painted

terracotta slabs in wooden frames for metopes; the style of the

paintings appears to be Corinthian, and they form a valuable

contribution to the history of early Greek painting.[314]

 

[Illustration:

 

From _Durm’s Handbuch_.

 

FIG. 9. DIAGRAM OF ROOF-TILING, HERAION, OLYMPIA.

]

 

The stone stylobate at the Heraion was a necessity because of the

destructive effect of the moist earth on terracotta; it consisted of a

row of vertical slabs on which the bricks were placed in regular

courses. We may see in this method of construction the forerunner of

the system, universal since that time, of building walls on a plinth,

which survives even to the present day. In the same way door-jambs and

lintels, which were of necessity made of wood, not of brick, continued

to be constructed in that material even after the introduction of

stone.[315] It has been assumed by some authorities that the Doric

style of architecture is derived from a wooden prototype; this, however

true of the Ionic style, is not altogether true of Doric. The

proportions of the latter are too heavy. A more probable explanation is

that it is the combination of wood with sun-dried tiles or bricks which

we see in the Heraion that developed with the introduction of stone

into the Doric system.[316]

 

It is then clear that although in Greece bricks were by no means

indispensable for building temples, houses, and walls, and though stone

and marble undoubtedly had the preference, especially in later times,

yet their use is more general than was hitherto supposed. But when they

are mentioned by classical authors it is generally when speaking of

foreign or barbarian edifices, such as the palace of Kroisos at Sardis

or the monument of Hephaestion at Babylon,[317] and in a manner which

shows that they were not much employed in Greece at the time when they

wrote. The older temple of Apollo at Megara is described by

Pausanias[318] as having been of brick (πλίνθος), but we are left in

doubt as to whether this was baked or sun-dried; while the excavations

at Olympia have distinctly contradicted his statement[319] that the

Philippeion was of brick, as it is proved to have been built of stone

ashlar.[320] In 333–329 B.C. the Long Walls of Athens were constructed,

partly in brick, under Habron, son of Lykourgos, with Laconian tiles

for the roofs.[321] Other recorded buildings are all of late date and

under Roman influence, and we must leave an account of Roman

brick-building to be dealt with in a later chapter (XIX.).

 

There is an interesting passage in the _Birds_ of Aristophanes, in

which he is describing the building of the city of Nephelokokkygia, the

walls of which are apparently conceived as being of sun-dried brick. He

there speaks of “Egyptian brick-bearers,”[322] implying that the use of

brick was a characteristic distinction of that nation. The passage

(1133–51) is worth quoting in full, as showing the process employed in

the making of sun-dried bricks.

 

_Mess._ Birds and none else; no bricklayer of Egypt,

No stone-hewer was there, no carpenter:

With their own hands they did it, to my marvel.

There came from Libya thirty thousand cranes,

All having swallowed down foundation-stones,

Which with their beaks the rails still aptly shaped:

Another party of ten thousand storks

Were brick-makers: and water from below

The plovers and the other wading birds

Were raising up into the higher air.

_Peisth._ And who conveyed the mortar[323] for them?

_Mess._ Herons,

In hods (λεκάναισιν).

_Peisth._ And how did they get in the mortar?

_Mess._ That was the cleverest device of all, sir.

The geese with their webbed feet, as though with spades

(ἄμαις),

Dipp’d down, and laid it neatly on the hods.

_Peisth._ What feat indeed may not be wrought with feet?

_Mess._ Aye, and the ducks, by Jove, all tightly girt,

Kept carrying bricks, and other birds were flying,

With trowel on their head, to lay the bricks;

And then, like children sucking lollipops,

The swallows minced the mortar in their mouths.

 

(Kennedy’s Trans.)

 

Sun-dried bricks were known as πλίνθοι ὠμαί (_lateres crudi_); baked

bricks as πλίνθοι ὠπταί (_lateres cocti_ or _coctiles_). The Romans

also used the word _testa_ for baked brick, corresponding to the Greek

κέραμος. Vitruvius[324] distinguishes three varieties of unburnt

bricks, as used by the Greeks. One, known as “Lydian,” was also used by

the Romans, who named the bricks from their length _sesquipedales_;

their size was 1½ by 1 ft. The other two, exclusively Greek, were known

as πεντάδωρον and τετράδωρον, the word δῶρον signifying a “palm” or

three inches; in other words, they were respectively fifteen inches and

one foot square. The former was used for public buildings, the latter

for private houses, and they were arranged in the walls in courses of

alternate whole and half bricks, as is frequently done at the present

day. Vitruvius also speaks of bricks made at Pitane in Mysia, and in

Spain, which were so light that they would float in water.[325] He

advises that bricks should not be made of sandy or pebbly clay, which

makes them heavy and prevents the straw from cohering, so that they

fall to pieces after wet. Many other directions are given by him,[326]

but are too lengthy to quote here. Bricks were made in a mould called

πλαίσιον, a rectangular framework of boards[327]; and the sun-dried

bricks were, as we learn from the passage quoted above, made by

collecting the clay with shovels (ἄμαι) into troughs (λεκάναι) and

working it with the feet.[328] It is probable that we have some

allusion to the use of moulds in certain passages from the Latin

writers.[329] The final proceeding was the drying in the sun.

 

An important branch of the subject is the use of terracotta for

roof-tiles and other architectural decorations of temples and other

buildings. On this point our knowledge has during the last

five-and-twenty years been marvellously increased, the extent of its

use in architecture having been hitherto but little suspected.[330] The

generic term for a roof-tile is in Greek κέραμος; they are generally

divided into flat tiles (στεγαστῆρες or σωλῆες, _tegulae_) and

covering-tiles (καλυπῆρες, _imbrices_). Besides the ordinary roof-tiles

there must also be taken into consideration four varieties of

ornamental tiles which found their place on a classical building. They

are: (1) the covering-slabs arranged in a row along the γεῖσον, or

raking cornice of the pediment; (2) the κυμάτιον or cornice above the

γεῖσον; (3) the cornice along the sides of the building, with spouts in

the form of lions' heads, to carry off rain-water; (4) the row of

antefixal ornaments or ἀκρωτήρια surmounting the side-tiles.[331]

 

The flat roof-tiles or σωλῆες, as in the Heraion of Olympia and other

early buildings, are square and slightly concave, so that the raised

edges placed side by side may catch under the semi-cylindrical

καλυπῆρες, and so be held in their place. The latter are of plain

semi-cylindrical form, except the row at the lower edge of the roof,

which have attached to them the vertical semi-elliptical slabs known as

“antefixae,” of which more later.

 

The κυμάτια were painted with elaborate patterns of

lotos-and-honeysuckle, or maeanders, in red, blue, brown, and yellow,

the principle being preserved (as always in Greek architectural

decoration) of employing curvilinear patterns only on curved surfaces,

rectilinear only on flat surfaces.[332] At the back was the gutter for

collecting rain-water, which ran off through the holes pierced at

intervals in the cornice, passing through the mouths of lions’ heads,

moulded in very salient relief. These correspond to the gurgoyles of

Gothic architecture. Many specimens have been found at Olympia,

Elateia, and elsewhere in Greece; one of the finest, from a temple of

Apollo at Metapontum, is now in the Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris. It

is very finely modelled, and the whole, with the background, richly

coloured in red, yellow, and black.[333] Spouts were sometimes modelled

in other forms, such as a Satyric mask, or the fore-part of a lion; of

the latter there are some examples in the British Museum.[334] In the

accounts for the erection of the arsenal at the Peiraeus there is an

interesting entry relating to these lions’ head spouts, in which they

are described as κεραμίδες ἡγέμονες λεοντοκεφάλαι, “principal tiles

with lions' heads.”[335]

 

The invention of antefixae is attributed by Pliny[336] to Butades of

Sikyon, who is also credited with the invention of modelling in clay,

in a well-known story; “he was,” says Pliny, “the first to place masks

on the extremities of the roof-tiles, which were at first called

bas-reliefs (_protypa_), but afterwards alto-reliefs (_ectypa_).”[337]

It is possible that the ἀγάλματα ὀπτῆς γῆς seen by Pausanias in the

Stoa Basileios at Athens[338] were ἀκρωτήρια or antefixal ornaments at

the angles of the cornice, but they are more likely to have been

modelled free and in the round than in relief on a background.[339]

Such sculptured groups were not uncommon in Greek architecture; thus

the cornice of the pediment of the temple of Zeus at Olympia was

adorned with a series of figures of Victory. The groups above mentioned

represented Theseus slaying Skiron and Eos carrying off Kephalos; and

it is interesting to note that a terracotta group with the latter

subject found at Cervetri[340] also undoubtedly came from the cornice

of a building.

 

------------------------------------------------------

 

PLATE II

 

[Illustration:

 

ARCHAIC ANTEFIXAE OF GRAECO-ITALIAN STYLE (BRITISH MUSEUM).

1. SATYR AND MAENAD, FROM CIVITA LAVINIA; 2. FEMALE HEAD, FROM CAPUA.

]

 

------------------------------------

 

The manner in which the antefixae were treated by the Greeks and

Etruscans for purposes of decoration is well illustrated in the British

Museum collection. In Cases 64–71 of the Terracotta Room may be seen a

series from Capua of archaic style, the front part being

semi-elliptical in form, having within an ornamental border a female