History of Ancient Pottery 26
After the vases had been made on the wheel they were duly dried in the
sun[773] and lightly baked, after which they were ready for varnishing
and painting; it is evident that they could not be painted while wet
and soft. Moreover the glaze ran best on a surface already baked. It is
also probable that the glaze was brought out by a process of polishing,
the surface of the clay being smoothed by means of a small piece of
wood or hard leather. At all events this seems the most satisfactory
interpretation of a vase-painting in Berlin (Fig. 67_a_),[774] where a
boy is seen applying a tool of some kind to the outer surface of a
completed vase (_kotyle_); that the vase is not yet varnished is shown
by its being left in a red colour, while two others, varnished black
all over, stand on the steps of an oven close by, probably to dry after
the application of the varnish.
[Illustration: FIG. 67. (_a_) CUP IN BERLIN WITH BOY POLISHING VASE;
(_b_) HYDRIA IN MUNICH: INTERIOR OF POTTERY.]
Many vases, whether decorated with designs or not, are varnished black
throughout the exterior, except the feet and lips, and we cannot be
certain whether or not any glaze had been previously applied to the
surface; but in respect of the red-figured vases, it is clear from the
method employed (see p. 221) that they were originally glazed
throughout.
This lustrous glaze is, like the black varnish, now quite a lost art.
Seen under a microscope it has evidently been fused by baking; it
yields neither to acids nor the blow-pipe. It is remarkably fine and
thin, insomuch that it can only be analysed with great difficulty. No
lead entered into its composition. It is however far inferior to modern
glazes, being permeable by water; but it is not decomposed by the same
chemical agents. On the later R.F. vases it is of decidedly inferior
quality, and often scales away, carrying the superimposed colours with
it.[775]
3. THE BAKING OF VASES
The process of baking (ὀπτᾶν, _coquere_) was regarded as one of the
most critical in the potter’s art. It was not indeed universal, as
Plato[776] distinguishes between vases which have or have not been
exposed to the action of fire (ἔμπυρα and ἄπυρα), and Pliny[777] speaks
of _fictile crudum_ (ὠμόν) used for medicinal purposes. But all the
vases that have come down to us have certainly been baked. The
necessary amount of heat required was regulated by the character of the
ware, and in the case of most Greek fabrics it appears to have been
high. Many examples exist of discoloured vases which have been
subjected to too much or too little heat, and in which the varnish has
acquired a greenish or reddish hue. On the other hand, in some of those
that have been subjected to subsequent burning, the red glaze has
turned to an ashen-grey colour,[778] the black remaining unimpaired;
but there are also instances of the varnish peeling off, the red colour
alone preserving the outline of the figures.
Other accidents were liable to befall them in the baking, such as the
cracking of the vase under too great heat; this produced an effect
expressed by the term πυρορραγής or φοξός, words which seem to have
some reference to the _sound_ of a cracked pot.[779] Or the shape of a
vase might be damaged while it was yet soft, one knocking against
another and denting its side, or crushing the lip through being
carelessly superimposed. On a R.F. amphora in the British Museum (E
295) a dent has been caused by the pressure of another vase, which has
left traces of a band of maeanders. This probably happened when the
vases were in the kiln for the second firing. The quality of the baking
was tested by tapping the walls of the vase.[780]
These misfortunes were attributed to the action of malicious demons,
whose influence had to be counteracted in various ways; thus, for
instance, a Satyric or grotesque head was placed in front of the
furnace and was supposed to have an apotropaeic effect against the evil
eye.[781] The pseudo-Homeric hymn addressed to the potters of Samos
invokes the protection of Athena for the vases in the furnace, and
mentions the evil spirits which are ready to injure them in the case of
bad faith on the potter’s part. Among the names given are: Ἄσβεστος,
“the Unquenchable”; Σμάραγος, “the Crasher”; Σύντριψ, “the Smasher”;
Ὠμόδαμος, “the Savage Conqueror.”
The form of the oven probably differed little from those in use at the
present day. No furnaces have been found in Greece, and our only
evidence is derived from the painted vases; but they have been found at
Ruvo[782] and elsewhere in Italy, and also in France, Germany, and
England. Those of Roman date are indeed by no means uncommon, but are
discussed in fuller detail in the corresponding section of the work
(Chapter XXI.).
As depicted on vases and elsewhere, the ancient furnaces seem to have
been of simple construction, tall conical ovens fed by fires from
beneath, into which the vases were placed with a long shovel resembling
a baker’s peel. The kilns were heated with charcoal or wood fuel, and
in some of the representations of them we see men holding long
instruments with which they are about to poke or rake the fires (Fig.
68). They had two doors, one for the insertion of the vases and one for
the potter to watch the progress of the baking. For vases of great
size, like the huge πίθοι, special ovens must have been necessary; and
we have a representation on a Corinthian pinax[783] of such an oven,
the roof of which resembles the upper part of a large _pithos_
surrounded by flames.
[Illustration: FIG. 68. SEILENOS AS POTTER.]
On the lamp from Pozzuoli in the British Museum, referred to on p. 209,
there is a curious subject in relief, representing a potter about to
place a vase in an oven with a tall chimney; and on a hydria at
Munich[784] (Fig. 67 _b_) a man is about to place an amphora in a kiln,
while other jars (painted white) stand ready to be baked. But for our
purposes the Corinthian pinakes are even more valuable for the
information they afford. There are several representing the exterior of
the conical furnace, with men standing by watching the fires and
tending them with rakes[785]; in another we have a bird’s-eye view in
horizontal section of the interior of an oven, filled with jugs of
various forms (Fig. 69). Flames are usually indicated rising from
underneath the ovens.[786]
[Illustration: FIG. 69. INTERIOR OF FURNACE (FROM CORINTHIAN PINAX)]
The Munich hydria (Fig. 67_b_) reproduces the interior of a potter’s
workshop with such detail that a full description of the scene may be
permissible.[787] On the left of the picture a seated man seems to be
examining an amphora, which has just been finished (it is painted
black) and is brought up for his approval. Next is seen an amphora on
the potter’s wheel, painted white to indicate its imperfect state; one
man places his arm inside to shape the interior, while another turns
the wheel for him. On their right another white amphora is being
carried out, just fresh from the wheel, but without handles or mouth,
to be dried in the open or at the furnace; next is another standing on
the ground to dry. On the right of the scene stands the foreman or
master of the pottery, before whom a nude man carries what has been
thought to be a sack of coals for the furnace, which is seen on the
extreme right.
Even more vivid and instructive, in spite of its careless execution, is
the painting on a kotyle found at Exarchos or Abae in Lokris, and now
in the Athens Museum (Fig. 70).[788] The style is that of the imitation
B.F. vases found in the temple of the Kabeiri at Thebes, late in the
fifth century. We see represented the interior of a potter’s workshop,
in which the master of the business sits holding up a kylix in one
hand, while with the other he threatens a slave, who runs off with
three kotylae ready for the furnace; three similar kotylae stand by the
master’s feet, and behind him are two more vases on a shelf. On the
right of the scene a workman sits at a table on which is a pot full of
paint, with a brush in it; he holds up a newly-painted kotyle, admiring
his workmanship. The picture is completed by a realistic representation
of an unfortunate slave suspended by cords to the ceiling as a
punishment for some offence, while another belabours him with a leather
thong.
[Illustration: FIG. 70. INTERIOR OF POTTERY.]
It would appear that the vases after the baking were often placed on
the exterior of the furnace, either to prevent the too rapid cooling of
the clay, or (as indicated on the Berlin cup) for the pigments to dry.
Jahn and others have published a gem[789] on which a small two-handled
vase is placed on the top of an oven, and a youth is applying two
sticks to it, perhaps in order to take it down without injury by the
contact of the hand. A companion gem,[790] on which an artist is
painting a similar jar, shows a jug and a kylix standing on a kiln.
When the vases were returned from the furnace, the potter appears to
have made good as far as possible the defects of those not absolutely
spoiled; and if naturally or by accident any parts remained too pale
after the baking, the defect was remedied by rubbing them over with a
deep red ochre, which supplied the necessary tone.
4. PAINTING
We may distinguish three principal classes of painted pottery, of which
one at least admits of several subdivisions:—
(1) Primitive Greek vases, with simple painted ornaments, chiefly
linear and geometrical, laid directly on the ground of 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 (and Italian imitations) painted with figures. These
may be subdivided as follows:—
(_a_) Vases with figures in black varnish on red glazed ground (see
Frontispiece, Vol. II.);
(_b_) Vases with figures left in the red glaze on a ground of black
varnish (see Frontispiece, Vol. I.).
(3) (_a_) Vases of various dates with outline or polychrome decoration
on white ground (see Plate XLIII.);
(_b_) Vases (also of various dates) with designs in opaque colour on
black ground.
Of these, the second group is by far the largest and most important,
and the complicated and technical processes which it involved will
demand by far the greater share of our attention in the following
account of the methods of painting. In both the classes (_a_) and (_b_)
the colouring is almost confined to a contrasting of the red glazed
ground of the clay with a black varnish-like pigment, a contrast which
perhaps more than anything else furnishes the great charm of a Greek
vase.
This black varnish is particularly lustrous and deep, but varies under
different circumstances. Great difference of opinion has always existed
as to its nature, and the method by which it was brought to such
perfection by the Greeks. The variations in its appearance are due
partly to differences of locality and fabric, partly to accidents of
production. It is seen in its greatest perfection in the so-called
Nolan amphorae of the severe red-figure period; and at its worst in the
Etruscan and Italiote imitations of Greek fabrics. On the vases found
at Vulci it shows a tendency to assume a greenish hue, as opposed to
the blue-black of the Nolan vases, while variations in the direction of
red, brown, and (on late South Italy fabrics) grey are of frequent
occurrence. It is probable that these gradations of quality are mainly
due to the action of fire, according as a higher or lower temperature
was employed. On the other hand, the ashen-grey hue which vases of all
periods sometimes assume[791] seems to be due to the direct action of
fire in contact with them, and this may perhaps be explained by
supposing that they had been burnt on a funeral pyre. This varnish also
varies in the thickness with which it was laid on, as can be easily
detected with the finger.
Although the chemical action of the earth sometimes causes the black
varnish to disappear entirely, leaving only the figures faintly
indicated on the red-clay ground, there has never yet been found any
acid which has any effect upon it.[792] Various opinions have been
promulgated, from Caylus downwards, as to the elements of which it is
composed.[793] Brongniart[794] has analysed it with the following
results:—
Silicic acid 46·30 50·00
Clay earth 11·90
Iron oxide 16·70 17·00
Chalk 5·70
Magnesia 2·30
Soda 17·10
Copper traces.
It is unnecessary here to enter in detail into the numerous other
theories of its composition, but so far it cannot be said that any
certainty has been attained.
Turning now to the methods by which the black varnish was applied, we
find it necessary to distinguish between the two classes of
black-figured and red-figured vases; some vases, of course, are
completely covered with it, having no painted design, but these do not
enter into the question.
In the black-figured vases the figures are painted in black silhouette
on the red ground of the vase, the outlines being first roughly
indicated by a pointed instrument making a faint line.[795] The surface
within these outlines was then filled in with the black pigment by
means of a brush, the details of anatomy, drapery, armour, etc., being
subsequently brought out in part by further incising of lines with a
pointed tool. In some of the finest vases, such as those of Amasis and
Exekias (p. 381), the delicacy and minuteness of these lines is brought
to an extraordinary pitch of perfection. After a second baking had
taken place, the designs were further enriched by the application of
opaque purple and white pigments, usually following certain
conventional principles, the flesh of women and devices on shields, for
instance, being always white, folds of drapery always purple. A third
baking at a much lower heat was necessary to fix these colours, and the
vase was then complete.
It should here be noted that there are really two subdivisions of these
black-figured vases, which may be termed for convenience “red-bodied”
and “black-bodied.”[796] In the former the whole vase stands out in the
natural red colour of the clay; whereas in the latter the treatment
approaches more nearly to the red-figure method which we shall
presently discuss. The whole body of the vase is in these examples
covered with the black varnish, with the exception of a framed panel of
red, on which the figures are painted. This distinction may be well
observed in the Second Vase Room of the British Museum, where most of
the vases on the east side of the room belong to the former or
“red-bodied” class, while all those on the west side are
“black-bodied,” with designs in panels.
In the red-figured vases the black varnish is used as the background,
and covers the whole vase, as in the “black-bodied” B.F. fabrics, the
figures not being actually painted, but _left red_ in the colour of the
clay. The process was as follows:—Before the varnish was applied the
outlines of the figures were indicated, not by incised lines but by
drawing a thick line of black with a brush round their contours. It is
probable that a fine brush was used at first, especially for more
delicate work, and then a broader brush producing a line about an
eighth of an inch in thickness. The process, be it noted, is more akin
to _drawing_ than painting; and it was as draughtsmen _par excellence_
that the red-figure artists excelled. The next stage was to mark the
inner details by means of very fine black lines (corresponding to the
incised lines of B.F. vases), or by masses of black for surfaces such
as the hair; white and purple were also employed, but far more
sparingly than on the earlier vases. In the late Athenian and South
Italian vases a tendency to polychromy sprang up, but the main process
always remained the same to the final decadence of the art. The figures
being completed and protected from accidents by their broad black
borders, the varnishing of the whole exterior surface was then
proceeded with. This was of course a purely mechanical business. A
fragment of a red-figured vase in the Sèvres Museum forms an excellent
illustration of the method employed, as, although the figures are
finished, the ground has never been filled in, and the original black
border is plainly visible (Fig. 71).
[Illustration: FIG. 71. FRAGMENT OF UNFINISHED RED-FIGURED VASE.]
The result of the second baking was to fix the varnish and cause it to
permeate the surface of the clay in such a way as to become practically
inseparable from it. The subsidiary colours, on the other hand, which
were laid on over the black, are always liable to disappear or fade.
A very interesting representation of painters at work on their vases is
to be seen on a hydria from Ruvo (Fig. 72).[797] Three painters are
seated at work with their brushes, of whom two are being crowned by
Victories, while the third is about to receive a wreath from Athena,
the protecting goddess of the industry. Their paint-pots are to be seen
by their side. At one end of the scene a woman is similarly occupied.
From _Blümner_.
[Illustration: FIG. 72. STUDIO OF VASE-PAINTER.]
In class 3 (_a_), or vases with figures on white ground, we have to
deal with the process of covering the naturally pale clay with a white
slip of more or less thick and creamy consistency, on which the designs
were painted. In the archaic period this process is fairly common,
especially in the earliest vases of Corinth and of Ionia, and at Kyrene
and Naukratis. It was revived at Athens about the end of the sixth
century (see pp. 385, 455). But when once the white slip was laid on,
the technical process differed little from that in use on ordinary
red-ground vases, except for the general avoidance of white as an
accessory; it merely results that instead of a contrast of black and
red, one of black and cream is obtained. The method was one also
largely practised in early painting, as we see in the Corinthian
pinakes and the sarcophagi of Clazomenae (pp. 316, 362).
But there is another class of white-ground vases to which we must
devote more special attention, namely, those on which the figures are
painted either in outline or with polychrome washes on the same white
slip. The earliest instance of such a method is in the series of
fragments found at Naukratis, dating from the beginning of the sixth
century (see p. 348), which technically and artistically are of
remarkably advanced character, and combine the two methods of painting
in outline and in washes of colour. In the fifth century the practice
was revived at Athens as a means of obtaining effective results with
small vases, and became especially characteristic of one class, the
funeral lekythi, which are elsewhere described (Chapter XI.). This,
however, must serve as the most convenient place for a few remarks on
their technique.
The vases, after they had left the wheel and were fitted with handle,
etc., were covered with a coating of white flaky pigment, in
consistency resembling liquid plaster of Paris, or, when dry, pipeclay.
They received this coat of white while still on the wheel, and then a
second coating, of the usual black varnish, was applied to such parts
as were not required for decoration. Usually the white covered the
cylindrical part of the body, and the shoulder up to the neck; black
was applied to the mouth, neck, handle, base of body, and stem. The
clay, it should be noted, is of the ordinary kind, but two varieties
have been distinguished, one of pale red, for light thin vases, the
other of a blackish-grey, for thicker and heavier ware. The natural
colour appears on the inside of the lip and foot. Before being removed
from the wheel the vases were finely polished, which gave to the white
coating a sort of lustrous sheen; they were then fired at a low
temperature.
The method of decoration[798] was usually as follows:—A preliminary
sketch was made with fine grey lines, ignoring draperies (hence the
lines of figures are usually visible _through_ the draperies), but not
always necessarily followed when the colours were laid on. This was
done as soon as the first lines were dry, the colour being applied with
a fine brush and in monochrome—black, yellow, or red—following the
lines of the sketch more or less closely. In the later examples red was
used exclusively, and at all periods at Athens; but in the vases
attributed to Locri and Sicily, a black turning to yellow is used. This
combination of black and yellow is also used on the best Attic vases
for various details, such as eyes and hair. The outlines also served to
indicate the folds of the draperies. For the surfaces of drapery and
other details, polychrome washes were employed, the colour being spread
uniformly by means of a large brush. All varieties of red from rose to
brown are found, also violet, light and brownish yellow, blue, black,
and green. Hair is sometimes treated in outline, sometimes by means of
washes. It is noteworthy that in the later examples the wash-colours
were often painted right over the red lines. On the bodies of the
figures these washes are rare, but in some cases shades of brown are
used for flesh colour, as on the figure of Hypnos on a lekythos in the
British Museum (D 58).
At Athens this polychrome decoration was not indeed limited to the
lekythi, but was extended to the kylix, the pyxis, and other forms, of
which some beautiful examples exist in the British Museum and at
Athens.[799] In these, as in the best of the lekythi, the drawing of
Greek artists seems almost to have reached perfection, and arouses our
wonder yet more when we reflect that everything was done merely by
freehand strokes of the brush. This technique is practically limited to
the period 480–350 B.C.
The subsidiary ornamentation of the lekythi was put on either after the
main design or before, this being immaterial. The lines above the
design can be seen to have been painted on the wheel, as they go all
round the vase; but the palmettes on the shoulder and maeander patterns
above the design do not extend beyond it. After the colouring the vases
appear to have been fired again, and in some cases the white slip was
probably varnished. The details of their manufacture show that the
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