History of Ancient Pottery 6

History of Ancient Pottery 6

To trace the history of the art of working in clay, from its rise

amongst the oldest nations of antiquity to the period of the decline of

the Roman Empire, is the object of the present work. The subject

resolves itself into two great divisions, which have engaged the

attention of two distinct classes of enquirers: namely, the technical

or practical part, comprising all the details of material,

manipulation, and processes; and, secondly, the historical portion,

which embraces not only the history of the art itself, and the

application of ancient literature to its elucidation, but also an

account of the light thrown by monuments in clay on the history of

mankind. Such an investigation is therefore neither trifling in

character nor deficient in valuable results.

 

It is impossible to determine when the manufacture of pottery was

invented. Clay is a material so generally diffused, and its plastic

nature is so easily discovered, that the art of working it does not

exceed the intelligence of the rudest savage. Even the most primitive

graves of Europe and Western Asia contain specimens of pottery, rude

and elementary indeed, but in sufficient quantities to show that it was

at all times reckoned among the indispensable adjuncts of daily life.

 

It is said that the very earliest specimens of pottery, hand-made and

almost shapeless, have been discovered in the cave-dwellings of

Palaeolithic Man, such as the Höhlefels cave near Ulm, and that of

Nabrigas, near Toulouse; and pottery has also been found in the

“kitchen-middens” of Denmark, which belong to this period. Such relics

are, however, so rude and fragmentary, and so much doubt has been cast

on the circumstances of their discovery, that it is better to be

content with the evidence afforded by the Neolithic Age, of which

perhaps the best authenticated is the predynastic pottery of Egypt.[1]

 

Abundant specimens of pottery have been found in long barrows in all

parts of Western Europe; these are supposed to be the burial-places of

the early dolichocephalic races, now represented by the Finns and

Lapps, which preceded the Aryan immigration. The chief characteristic

of this pottery is the almost entire absence of ornamentation.

Neolithic man appears to have been far less endowed with the artistic

instinct than his palaeolithic predecessor. Where ornament does occur,

it appears to have a quite fortuitous origin: for instance, a kind of

rope-pattern that appears on the earliest pottery of Britain and

Germany, and also in America, owes its origin to the practice of

moulding the clay in a kind of basket of bark or thread. It is also

possible that cords of some kind were used for carrying the pots; and

this reminds us of another characteristic of the earliest pottery,

which, indeed, lasts down to the Bronze Age—namely, the absence of

handles.

 

The baking of clay, so as to produce an indestructible and tenacious

substance, was probably also the result of accident rather than design.

This was pointed out as long ago as the middle of the eighteenth

century by M. Goguet. In most countries the condition of the atmosphere

precludes the survival of sun-dried clay for any length of time;

moreover, such a material was more suitable for architecture (as we

shall see later) than for vessels destined to hold liquids. Thus it is

that Egypt, Assyria, and Babylonia alone have transmitted to posterity

the early efforts of workers in sun-dried clay.

 

To return to the new invention. The savage conceivably found that the

calabash or gourd in which he boiled the water for his simple culinary

needs was liable to be damaged by the action of fire; and it required

no very advanced mental process to smear the exterior of the vessel

with some such substance as clay in order to protect it. As he found

that the surface of the clay was thereby rendered hard and impervious,

his next step would naturally be to dispense with the calabash and

mould the clay into a similar form. These two simple qualities of clay,

its plastic nature and its susceptibility to the action of fire, are

the two elements which form the basis of the whole development of the

potter’s art.

 

From the necessity for symmetrical buildings arose the invention of the

brick, which must have superseded the rude plastering of the hut with

clay, to protect it against the sun or storm. In the history of the

Semitic nations the brick appears among the earliest inventions, and

its use can be traced with various modifications, from the building of

the Tower of Babel to the present day. It is essential that bricks

should be symmetrical, and their form is generally rectangular. Their

geometrical shape affords us a clue to ancient units of measurement,

and the various inscriptions with which they have been stamped have

elevated them to the dignity of historical monuments. Thus the bricks

of Egypt not only afford testimony, by their composition of straw and

clay, that the writer of Exodus was acquainted with that country, but

also, by the hieroglyphs impressed upon them, transmit the names of a

series of kings, and testify to the existence of edifices, all

knowledge of which, except for these relics, would have utterly

perished. Those of Assyria and Babylon, in addition to the same

information, have, by their cuneiform inscriptions, which mention the

locality of the edifices for which they were made, afforded the means

of tracing the sites of ancient Mesopotamia and Assyria with an

accuracy unattainable by any other means. The Roman bricks have also

borne their testimony to history. A large number of them present a

series of the names of consuls of imperial Rome; while others show that

the proud nobility of the eternal city partly derived their revenues

from the kilns of their Campanian and Sabine estates.

 

From the next step in the progress of the manufacture—namely, that of

modelling in clay the forms of the physical world—arose the plastic

art. Delicate as is the touch of the finger, which the clay seems to

obey, almost as if comprehending the intention of the potter’s mind,

yet certain forms and ornaments which require a finer point than the

nail gave rise to the use of pieces of horn, wood, and metal, and thus

contributed to the invention of tools. But modelling in clay was soon

superseded by sculpture in stone and metal, and at length only answered

two subordinate ends: that of enabling the sculptor to elaborate his

first conceptions in a material which could be modified at will; and

that of readily producing works of a small and inexpensive form, for

some transitory purpose. The invention of the mould carried this last

application to perfection, and the terracottas of antiquity were as

numerous and as cheap as the plaster casts now sold by itinerants.

 

The materials used for writing have varied in different ages and

nations. Stone and bronze, linen and papyrus, wax and parchment, have

all been used. But the Assyrians and Babylonians employed for their

public archives, their astronomical computations, their religious

dedications, their historical annals, and even for title-deeds and

bills of exchange, tablets, cylinders, and hexagonal prisms of

terracotta. Some of these cylinders, still extant, contain the history

of the Assyrian monarchs Tiglath-pileser and Assurbanipal, and the

campaign of Sennacherib against the kingdom of Judah; and others,

excavated from the Birs Nimrud, give a detailed account of the

dedication of the great temple by Nebuchadnezzar to the seven planets.

To this indestructible material, and to the happy idea of employing it

in this manner, the present age is indebted for a detailed history of

the Assyrian monarchy; whilst the decades of Livy, the plays of

Menander, and the lays of Anakreon, confided to a more perishable

material, have either wholly or partly disappeared.

 

The application of clay to the making of vases was made effective by

the invention of the potter’s wheel. Before the introduction of the

wheel only vessels fashioned by the hand, and of rude unsymmetrical

shape, could have been made. But the application of a circular table or

lathe, laid horizontally and revolving on a central pivot, on which the

clay was placed, and to which it adhered, was in its day a truly

wonderful advance. As the wheel spun round, all combinations of oval,

spherical, and cylindrical forms could be produced, and the vases not

only became symmetrical in their proportions, but truthfully reproduced

the potter’s conception. The invention of the wheel has been ascribed

to all the great nations of antiquity. It is represented in full

activity in the Egyptian sculptures; it is mentioned in the scriptures,

and was certainly in use at an early period in Assyria. The Greeks and

Romans attributed it to a Scythian philosopher, and to the states of

Athens, Corinth, and Sikyon, the first two of which were great rivals

in the ceramic art. But, as will be explained hereafter, it was

introduced at a very early stage in the history of civilisation upon

Greek soil (see p. 206).

 

Although none of the very ancient kilns have survived the destructive

influence of time, yet among all the great nations baked earthenware is

of the highest antiquity. In Egypt, in the tombs of the first

dynasties, vases and other remains of baked earthenware are abundantly

found; and in Assyria and Babylon even the oldest bricks and tablets

have passed through the furnace. The oldest remains of Hellenic pottery

in all cases owe their preservation to their having been subjected to

the action of fire. To this process, as to the consummation of the art,

the other processes of preparing, levigating, kneading, drying, and

moulding the clay were necessarily ancillary.

 

The desire of rendering terracotta less porous, and of producing vases

capable of retaining liquids, gave rise to the covering of it with a

vitreous enamel or glaze. The invention of glass was attributed by the

ancients to the Phoenicians; but opaque glass or enamels, as old as the

Eighteenth Dynasty, and enamelled objects as early as the Fourth, have

been found in Egypt. The employment of copper to produce a brilliant

blue-coloured enamel was very early both in Babylonia and Assyria; but

the use of tin for a white enamel, as discovered in the enamelled

bricks and vases of Babylonia and Assyria, anticipated by many

centuries the rediscovery of that process in Europe in the fifteenth

century, and shows the early application of metallic oxides. This

invention apparently remained for many centuries a secret among the

Eastern nations only, enamelled terracotta and glass forming articles

of commercial export from Egypt and Phoenicia to every part of the

Mediterranean. Among the Egyptians and Assyrians enamelling was used

more frequently than glazing; hence they used a kind of faience

consisting of a loose frit or body, to which an enamel adheres after

only a slight fusion. After the fall of the Roman Empire, the art of

enamelling terracotta disappeared except amongst the Arab and Moorish

races, who had retained a traditionary knowledge of the process. The

application of a transparent vitreous coating, or glaze, to the entire

surface, like the varnish of a picture, is also to be referred to a

high antiquity. Originally intended to improve the utility of the vase,

it was used by Greeks and Romans with a keen sense of the decorative

effects that could be derived from its use.

 

In Greece, although nearly all traces of the Stone Age are wanting, and

little pottery has been found which can be referred to that period,[2]

yet the earliest existing remains of civilisation are, as we shall see

later, in the form of pottery; and Greece is no exception to the

general rule. But the important difference between the pottery of Asia

and Egypt and that of Greece is that only in the latter was there any

development due to artistic feeling. Of the Greek it may be said, as of

the medieval craftsman, _nihil tetigit quod non ornavit_. In the

commonest vessel or implement in every-day use we see almost from the

first the workings of this artistic instinct, tending to exalt any and

every object above the mere level of utilitarianism, and to make it, in

addition to its primary purpose of usefulness, “a thing of beauty and a

joy for ever.” Feeble and rude it may be at first, and hampered by

imperfect knowledge of technique or capacity for __EXPRESSION__—but still

the instinct is there.

 

There is indeed at first but little in Greek pottery to differentiate

it from that of other nations possessing any decorative instincts. As

M. Pottier[3] has pointed out, there is a universal law which manifests

itself in nascent art all over the world: “More than once men have

remarked the extraordinary resemblance which the linear decoration of

Peruvian, Mexican, and Kabyle vases bears to the ornamentation of the

most ancient Greek pottery. There is no possibility of contact between

these different peoples, separated by enormous distances of time and

space. If they have this common resemblance at the outset of their

artistic evolution, it is because all must pass through a certain

phase, resulting in some measure from the structure of the human brain.

Even so at the present day there are savages in Polynesia who, by means

of a point applied to the soft clay, produce patterns exactly similar

to those found on Greek or Cypriote pottery of fifteen or twenty

centuries before our era.” Or to take a later stage of development, the

compositions of vase-paintings of the sixth century B.C. are governed

by the same immutable laws of convention and principles of symmetry as

the carvings of the Middle Ages. Instances might be multiplied _ad

infinitum_; but the principle is universal.

 

* * * * *

 

A question that may be well asked by any visitor to a great museum is,

What is the use of the study of Greek vases? The answer is, that no

remains of Greek art have come down to us in such large quantities,

except perhaps coins, and certainly none cover so long a period.

Portraying as they do both the objective and subjective side of Greek

life, they form perhaps the best introduction to the study of Greek

archaeology in general. In no other class of monuments are the daily

life and religious beliefs of the Greeks so vividly presented as in the

painted vases. Their value to the modern student may be treated under

four separate heads: (1) Ethnological; (2) Historical; (3)

Mythological; (4) Artistic.

 

(1) =Ethnological.=—On this subject we have already touched in this

chapter, pointing out that pottery has an exceptional importance, not

only as one of the most universal and instructive illustrations of the

early developments of a single nation, but for purposes of comparison

of one nation with another. Sculpture, painting, architecture, and

other arts have a more limited range, and tell us nothing of domestic

life or social progress; but the common utensils of daily life, like

flint implements or bronze weapons, are of incalculable value for the

light that they throw on the subject, and the evidence which, in the

absence of historical data, they afford. We have also called attention

to the prevalence of universal laws acting on the development of the

early art of all nations.

 

Thus in dealing with the early history of Greece, before historical

records are available, we are enabled by the pottery-finds to trace the

extent of the Mycenaean civilisation, from Egypt to the Western

Mediterranean; we may see Homeric customs reflected in the vases of the

Geometrical period from Athens; and in the decorative patterns of the

succeeding period we may see signs of close intercourse with Assyria

and a knowledge of Oriental textile fabrics. The finds in Rhodes,

Cyprus, and the islands off Asia Minor also testify to a continued and

extensive intercourse between the mainland of Greece and the Eastern

Aegean.

 

(2) =Historical.=—The historical value of Greek vases rests partly on

the external, partly on the internal evidence that they afford. In the

former aspect those of historic times, like those of the primitive age,

confirm, if they do not actually supplement, literary records of Greek

history. Thus the numerous importations of vases from Corinth to Sicily

and Italy in the seventh century B.C. show the maritime importance of

that city and the extent of her commercial relations; while in the

succeeding century the commercial rivalry between her and Athens is

indicated by the appearance of large numbers of Attic fabrics in the

tombs of Italy along with the Corinthian; the final supremacy of Athens

by the gradual disappearance of the Corinthian wares, and the

consequent monopoly enjoyed by the rival state. The fact that after the

middle of the fifth century the red-figured Attic vases are seldom

found in Sicilian or Italian tombs shows clearly the blow dealt at

Athenian commerce by the Peloponnesian War, and the enforced cessation

of exports to the west, owing to the hostility of Sicily and the

crippling of Athenian navies; and the gradual growth of local fabrics

shows that the colonists of Magna Graecia at that time began themselves

to supply local demands. Instances might be multiplied.

 

But the internal evidence of the vases is of even greater value, not

only for the political, but still more for the social history of

Greece. By the application of painting to vases the Greeks made them

something more than mere articles of commercial value or daily use.

Besides the light they throw on the Greek schools of painting, they

have become an inexhaustible source for illustrating the manners,

customs, and literature of Greece. A Greek vase-painting—to quote M.

Pottier— is not only a work of art, but also an historical document.

Even when all artistic qualities are lacking, and the vase at first

sight is liable to be regarded as a worthless and uninteresting

production, a closer inspection will often reveal some small point

which throws light on a question of mythology, or of costume or armour.

Or, again, an inscription painted or even scratched on a vase may be of

surpassing philological or palaeographical importance. For instance,

the earliest inscription known in the Attic alphabet is a _graffito_ on

a vase of the seventh century B.C. (see Chapter XVII.), which of itself

would command no consideration; but this inscription is valuable not

only as evidence for early forms of lettering, but from its

subject-matter. It is true that it need not necessarily be contemporary

with the vase itself, as it may have been scratched in after it was

made, but this cannot detract from its importance or affect its

chronological value.

 

Or, again, a fragment of a painted vase found at Athens bears the name

of Xanthippos rudely scratched upon it; on the foot of another is that

of Megakles (see below, p. 103). Both of these are undoubted instances

of ὄστρακα, which were used for the banishment of these historical

personages. They therefore provide a striking illustration of the

institution of Ostracism, and bear out what we have said as to the

importance of archaeological discoveries for the study of History.

Historical or quasi-historical subjects are sometimes actually depicted

on the vases, but this question must be reserved for fuller treatment

in Part III., which deals with the subjects on vases in detail. In that

section of the work we shall also deal with the relations of

vase-paintings to ancient literature; and in the list of subjects taken

from daily life (Chapter XV.) it will be seen what ample information is

afforded on such points as the vocations and pastimes of men, the life

of women, war and athletics, sport and education.

 

(3) =Mythological.=—On this head reference must again be made to the

chapters on Subjects, as affording ample evidence of the importance of

the vases not only for the elucidation of Greek mythology and legend,

but also for religious cults and beliefs. One other point, however, is

worth noting here. Our knowledge of Greek mythology, if only derived

from literary records, rests largely on the compilations of Roman or

late writers, such as Ovid, Hyginus, and Apollodoros. It has been aptly

pointed out by a recent writer[4] that in these authors we have

mythology in a crystallised form, modified and systematised, and

perhaps confused with Latin elements, and that our popular modern

notions are mainly derived from these sources as they have been

filtered down to us through the medium of Lemprière’s Dictionary and

similar works. But vase-paintings are more or less original and

contemporary documents. Granted that it is possible to run to the

opposite extreme and accept art traditions to the utter neglect of the

literary tradition as derived from Homer and the Tragedians, the fact

still remains that for _suggestions_, and for raising problems that

could never have arisen through a literary medium, the evidence of

vases is of inestimable value.

 

In regard to Greek religious beliefs, it should be borne in mind that

with the Greeks art was the language by which they expressed their

ideas of the gods. It was thus largely due to their religion that they

attained supremacy in the plastic art, and their absolute freedom of

treatment of their religious beliefs almost eliminated the hieratic and

conventional character of Oriental art from their own, with its

infinite variety of conceptions. The vase-paintings, almost more than

any other class of monuments, reveal the universal religious sentiment

which pervaded their life—the δεισιδαιμονία which prevailed even in

Romanised Athens. Thus the vases constitute a pictorial commentary on

all aspects of Greek life and thought.[5]

 

(4) =Artistic.=—(_a_) _Form._ In the grace of their artistic forms the

Greeks have excelled all nations, either past or present. The beauty

and simplicity of the shapes of their vases have caused them to be

taken as models; but as every civilised people has received from other

sources forms sanctioned by time, and as many of the Greek forms cannot

be adapted to the requirements of modern use, they have not been

extensively imitated. Yet to every eye familiar with works of art of the higher order their beauty is fully apparent.