Ancient Greek pottery, due to its relative
durability, comprises a large part of the
archaeological record of ancient Greece, and
since there is so much of it (over 100,000
painted vases are recorded in the Corpus vasorum
antiquorum), it has exerted a disproportionately
large influence on our understanding of Greek
society. The shards of pots discarded or buried
in the 1st millennium BC are still the best
guide available to understand the customary
life and mind of the ancient Greeks. There
were several vessels produced locally for
everyday and kitchen use, yet finer pottery
from regions such as Attica was imported by
other civilizations throughout the Mediterranean,
such as the Etruscans in Italy. There were
various specific regional varieties, such
as the South Italian ancient Greek pottery.
Throughout these places, various types and
shapes of vases were used. Not all were purely
utilitarian; large Geometric amphorae were
used as grave markers, kraters in Apulia served
as tomb offerings and Panathenaic Amphorae
seem to have been looked on partly as objets
d’art, as were later terracotta figurines.
Some were highly decorative and meant for
elite consumption and domestic beautification
as much as serving a storage or other function,
such as the krater with its usual use in diluting
wine.
Earlier Greek styles of pottery, called "Aegean"
rather than "Ancient Greek", include Minoan
pottery, very sophisticated by its final stages,
Cycladic pottery, Minyan ware and then Mycenaean
pottery in the Bronze Age, followed by the
cultural disruption of the Greek Dark Age.
As the culture recovered Sub-Mycenaean pottery
finally blended into the Protogeometric style,
which begins Ancient Greek pottery proper.
The rise of vase painting saw increasing decoration.
Geometric art in Greek pottery was contiguous
with the late Dark Age and early Archaic Greece,
which saw the rise of the Orientalizing period.
The pottery produced in Archaic and Classical
Greece included at first black-figure pottery,
yet other styles emerged such as red-figure
pottery and the white ground technique. Styles
such as West Slope Ware were characteristic
of the subsequent Hellenistic period, which
saw vase painting's decline.
== Rediscovery and scholarship ==
Interest in Greek art lagged behind the revival
of classical scholarship during the Renaissance
and revived in the academic circle round Nicholas
Poussin in Rome in the 1630s. Though modest
collections of vases recovered from ancient
tombs in Italy were made in the 15th and 16th
centuries these were regarded as Etruscan.
It is possible that Lorenzo de Medici bought
several Attic vases directly from Greece;
however the connection between them and the
examples excavated in central Italy was not
made until much later. Winckelmann's Geschichte
der Kunst des Alterthums of 1764 first refuted
the Etruscan origin of what we now know to
be Greek pottery yet Sir William Hamilton's
two collections, one lost at sea the other
now in the British Museum, were still published
as "Etruscan vases"; it would take until 1837
with Stackelberg's Gräber der Hellenen to
conclusively end the controversy.Much of the
early study of Greek vases took the form of
production of albums of the images they depict,
however neither D'Hancarville's nor Tischbein's
folios record the shapes or attempt to supply
a date and are therefore unreliable as an
archaeological record. Serious attempts at
scholary study made steady progress over the
19th century starting with the founding of
the Instituto di Corrispondenza in Rome in
1828 (later the German Archaeological Institute),
followed by Eduard Gerhard's pioneering study
Auserlesene Griechische Vasenbilder (1840
to 1858), the establishment of the journal
Archaeologische Zeitung in 1843 and the Ecole
d'Athens 1846. It was Gerhard who first outlined
the chronology we now use, namely: Orientalizing
(Geometric, Archaic), Black Figure, Red Figure,
Polychromatic (Hellenistic).
Finally it was Otto Jahn's 1854 catalogue
Vasensammlung of the Pinakothek, Munich, that
set the standard for the scientific description
of Greek pottery, recording the shapes and
inscriptions with a previously unseen fastidousness.
Jahn's study was the standard textbook on
the history and chronology of Greek pottery
for many years, yet in common with Gerhard
he dated the introduction of the red figure
technique to a century later than was in fact
the case. This error was corrected when the
Aρχαιολογικη 'Εταιρεια
undertook the excavation of the Acropolis
in 1885 and discovered the so-called "Persian
debris" of red figure pots destroyed by Persian
invaders in 480 BC. With a more soundly established
chronology it was possible for Adolf Furtwängler
and his students in the 1880s and 90s to date
the strata of his archaeological digs by the
nature of the pottery found within them, a
method of seriation Flinders Petrie was later
to apply to unpainted Egyptian pottery.
Where the 19th century was a period of discovery
and the laying out of first principles, the
20th century has been one of consolidation
and intellectual industry. Efforts to record
and publish the totality of public collections
of vases began with the creation of the Corpus
vasorum antiquorum under Edmond Pottier and
the Beazley archive of John Beazley.
Beazley and others following him have also
studied fragments of Greek pottery in institutional
collections, and have attributed many painted
pieces to individual artists. Scholars have
called these fragments disjecta membra (Latin
for "scattered parts") and in a number of
instances have been able to identify fragments
now in different collections that belong to
the same vase.
== Uses and types ==
The names we use for Greek vase shapes are
often a matter of convention rather than historical
fact, a few do illustrate their own use or
are labeled with their original names, others
are the result of early archaeologists attempt
to reconcile the physical object with a known
name from Greek literature – not always
successfully.
To understand the relationship between form
and function Greek pottery may be divided
in four broad categories, given here with
common types:
storage and transport vessels, including the
amphora, pithos, pelike, hydria, pyxis,
mixing vessels, mainly for symposia or male
drinking parties, including the krater, and
dinos,
jugs and cups, several types of kylix also
just called cups, kantharos, phiale, skyphos,
oinochoe and loutrophoros,
vases for oils, perfumes and cosmetics, including
the large lekythos, and the small aryballos
and alabastron.Some vase shapes were especially
associated with rituals, others with athletics
and the gymnasium. Within each category the
forms are roughly the same in scale and whether
open or closed, where there is uncertainty
we can make good proximate guesses of what
use a piece would have served. Some have a
purely ritual function, for example white
ground lekythoi contained the oil used as
funerary offerings and appear to have been
made solely with that object in mind. Many
examples have a concealed second cup inside
them to give the impression of being full
of oil, as such they would have served no
other useful gain. Some vessels were designed
as grave markers.
There was an international market for Greek
pottery since the 8th century BC, which Athens
and Corinth dominated down to the end of the
4th century BC. An idea of the extent of this
trade can be gleaned from plotting the find
maps of these vases outside of Greece, though
this could not account for gifts or immigration.
Only the existence of a second hand market
could account for the number of panathenaics
found in Etruscan tombs. South Italian wares
came to dominate the export trade in the Western
Mediterranean as Athens declined in political
importance during the Hellenistic period.
== Clay ==
The process of making a pot and firing it
is fairly simple. The first thing a potter
needs is clay. Attica's high-iron clay gave
its pots an orange color.
=== Manufacture ===
==== Levigation ====
When clay is first dug out of the ground it
is full of rocks and shells and other useless
items that need to be removed. To do this
the potter mixes the clay with water and lets
all the impurities sink to the bottom. This
is called levigation or elutriation. This
process can be done many times. The more times
this is done, the smoother clay becomes.
==== Wheel ====
The clay is then kneaded by the potter and
placed on a wheel. Once the clay is on the
wheel the potter can shape it into any of
the many shapes shown below, or anything else
he desires. Wheel made pottery dates back
to roughly 2500 BC where before the coil method
of building the walls of the pot was employed.
Most Greek vases were wheel-made, though as
with the Rhyton mould-made pieces (so-called
"plastic" pieces) are also found and decorative
elements either hand formed or by mould were
added to thrown pots. More complex pieces
were made in parts then assembled when it
was leather hard by means of joining with
a slip, where the potter returned to the wheel
for the final shaping, or turning. Sometimes,
a young man helped turn the wheel.
==== Slip ====
The pots were usually made in sections such
as the body and feet and spout. Even the body,
if it were larger than 20 centimeters, might
be made in separate sections and glued together
later with a thin watery clay called slip.
After the pot is made then the potter paints
it with a very pure black slip made from a
specially prepared clay using brushes made
from a single hair. It was thus slipped and
then incised ready for the kiln.
=== Firing ===
Previously it was believed that Greek pottery,
unlike today's pottery, was only fired once,
but that firing had three stages. New studies
instead provide material evidence that the
pottery was made with two or more separate
firings in which the pottery is subjected
to multiple firing stages. The most commonly
described sequence of firing stages is one
in which the pottery is stacked inside the
kiln the potter heats the kiln up to around
800 °C with all the vents on the sides open
to let air in. This turns the pottery and
the paint red all over. Once the kiln reaches
800 °C the vents are closed and the temperature
is raised to 950 °C and then allowed to drop
back to 900 °C. This turns the pottery and
the paint all black. The potter then starts
the third and final phase by opening the vents
and allowing the kiln to cool all the way
down. This last phase leaves the slip black
but turns the pottery back to red. This happens
because when the clay is given air it turns
red, but when the black slip is heated to
950 °C it no longer allows air in. Thus,
the slipped area stays black while the bare
areas stay red. While the description of a
single firing with three stages may seem economical
and efficient, it is equally possible that
each of these stages was confined to separate
firings.
The striking black slip with a metallic sheen,
so characteristic of Greek pottery, was a
fine suspension (colloidal fraction) of an
illitic clay with very low calcium oxide content
which was rich in iron oxides and hydroxides,
differentiating from that used for the body
of the vase in terms of the calcium content,
the exact mineral composition and the particle
size. This clay suspension was most probably
collected in situ from illitic clay beds and
was then processed through levigation. To
aid in the levigation step, it is likely that
the Attic black slip was treated with deflocculants
as indicated by trace levels of contaminants
to the clay, such as Zn associated with vitriol.
This clay suspension was thickened by concentration
to a paste and was used for the decoration
of the surface of the vase. The paint was
applied on the areas intended to become black
after firing.
The black color effect was achieved by means
of changing the amount of oxygen present during
firing. This was done in a process known as
three-phase firing and was likely accomplished
with multiple firings of the pottery. First,
the kiln was heated to around 920–950 °C,
with all vents open bringing oxygen into the
firing chamber and turning both pot and slip
a reddish-brown (oxidising conditions) due
to the formation of hematite (Fe2O3) in both
the paint and the clay body. Then the vent
was closed and green wood introduced, creating
carbon monoxide which turns the red hematite
to black magnetite (Fe3O4); at this stage
the temperature decreases due to incomplete
combustion. In a final reoxidizing phase (at
about 800–850 °C) the kiln was opened and
oxygen reintroduced causing the unslipped
reserved clay to go back to orange-red.
In the previous phase, chemical composition
of the slipped surface had been altered, so
it could no longer be oxidized and remained
black. The technique which is mostly known
as the "iron reduction technique" was decoded
with the contribution of scholars, ceramists
and scientists since the mid 18th century
onwards to the end of the 20th century, i.e.
Comte de Caylus (1752), Durand-Greville (1891),
Binns and Fraser (1925), Schumann (1942),
Winter (1959), Bimson (1956), Noble (1960,
1965), Hofmann (1962), Oberlies (1968), Pavicevic
(1974), Aloupi (1993), Walton (2009), Walton
(2014).
=== Vase painting ===
The most familiar aspect of ancient Greek
pottery is painted vessels of fine quality.
These were not the everyday pottery used by
most people but were sufficiently cheap to
be accessible to a wide range of the population.
Few examples of ancient Greek painting have
survived so modern scholars have to trace
the development of ancient Greek art partly
through ancient Greek vase-painting, which
survives in large quantities and is also,
with Ancient Greek literature, the best guide
we have to the customary life and mind of
the ancient Greeks.
==== Development of pottery painting ====
===== Bronze Age =====
Fine painting on Greek pottery goes back to
the Minoan pottery and Mycenaean pottery of
the Bronze Age, some later examples of which
show the ambitious figurative painting that
was to become highly developed and typical.
After many centuries dominated by styles of
geometric decoration, becoming increasingly
complex, figurative elements returned in force
in the 8th century. From the late 7th century
to about 300 BC evolving styles of figure-led
painting were at their peak of production
and quality and were widely exported.
During the Greek Dark Age, spanning the 11th
to 8th centuries BC, the prevalent early style
was that of the protogeometric art, predominantly
utilizing circular and wavy decorative patterns.
This was succeeded in mainland Greece, the
Aegean, Anatolia, and Italy by the style of
pottery known as geometric art, which employed
neat rows of geometric shapes.The period of
Archaic Greece, beginning in the 8th century
BC and lasting until the late 5th century
BC, saw the birth of Orientalizing period,
led largely by ancient Corinth, where the
previous stick-figures of the geometric pottery
become fleshed out amid motifs that replaced
the geometric patterns.
====== Protogeometric styles ======
Vases of the protogeometrical period (c. 1050–900
BC) represent the return of craft production
after the collapse of the Mycenaean Palace
culture and the ensuing Greek dark ages. It
is one of the few modes of artistic expression
besides jewelry in this period since the sculpture,
monumental architecture and mural painting
of this era are unknown to us. By 1050 BC
life in the Greek peninsula seems to have
become sufficiently settled to allow a marked
improvement in the production of earthenware.
The style is confined to the rendering of
circles, triangles, wavy lines and arcs, but
placed with evident consideration and notable
dexterity, probably aided by compass' and
multiple brushes. The site of Lefkandi is
one of our most important sources of ceramics
from this period where a cache of grave goods
has been found giving evidence of a distinctive
Euboian protogeometric style which lasted
into the early 8th century.
====== Geometric style ======
Geometric art flourished in the 9th and 8th
centuries BC. It was characterized by new
motifs, breaking with the representation of
the Minoan and Mycenaean periods: meanders,
triangles and other geometrical decoration
(hence the name of the style) as distinct
from the predominantly circular figures of
the previous style. However, our chronology
for this new art form comes from exported
wares found in datable contexts overseas.
With the early geometrical style (approximately
900–850 BC) one finds only abstract motifs,
in what is called the "Black Dipylon" style,
which is characterized by an extensive use
of black varnish, with the Middle Geometrical
(approx. 850–770 BC), figurative decoration
makes its appearance: they are initially identical
bands of animals such as horses, stags, goats,
geese, etc. which alternate with the geometrical
bands. In parallel, the decoration becomes
complicated and becomes increasingly ornate;
the painter feels reluctant to leave empty
spaces and fills them with meanders or swastikas.
This phase is named horror vacui (fear of
the empty) and will not cease until the end
of geometrical period.
In the middle of the century there begin to
appear human figures, the best known representations
of which are those of the vases found in Dipylon,
one of the cemeteries of Athens. The fragments
of these large funerary vases show mainly
processions of chariots or warriors or of
the funerary scenes: πρόθεσις / prothesis
(exposure and lamentation of dead) or ἐκφορά
/ ekphora (transport of the coffin to the
cemetery). The bodies are represented in a
geometrical way except for the calves, which
are rather protuberant. In the case of soldiers,
a shield in form of a diabolo, called “dipylon
shield” because of its characteristic drawing,
covers the central part of the body. The legs
and the necks of the horses, the wheels of
the chariots are represented one beside the
other without perspective. The hand of this
painter, so called in the absence of signature,
is the Dipylon Master, could be identified
on several pieces, in particular monumental
amphorae.At the end of the period there appear
representations of mythology, probably at
the moment when Homer codifies the traditions
of Trojan cycle in the Iliad and the Odyssey.
Here however the interpretation constitutes
a risk for the modern observer: a confrontation
between two warriors can be a Homeric duel
or simple combat; a failed boat can represent
the shipwreck of Odysseus or any hapless sailor.
Lastly, are the local schools that appear
in Greece. Production of vases was largely
the prerogative of Athens – it is well attested
that as in the proto-geometrical period, in
Corinth, Boeotia, Argos, Crete and Cyclades,
the painters and potters were satisfied to
follow the Attic style. From about the 8th
century BC on, they created their own styles,
Argos specializing in the figurative scenes,
Crete remaining attached to a more strict
abstraction.
====== Orientalizing style ======
The orientalizing style was the product of
cultural ferment in the Aegean and Eastern
Mediterranean of the 8th and 7th centuries
BC. Fostered by trade links with the city-states
of Asia Minor, the artifacts of the East influenced
a highly stylized yet recognizable representational
art. Ivories, pottery and metalwork from the
Neo-Hittite principalities of northern Syria
and Phoenicia found their way to Greece, as
did goods from Anatolian Urartu and Phrygia,
yet there was little contact with the cultural
centers of Egypt or Assyria. The new idiom
developed initially in Corinth (as Proto-Corinthian)
and later in Athens between 725 BC and 625
BC (as Proto-Attic).
It was characterized by an expanded vocabulary
of motifs: sphinx, griffin, lions, etc., as
well as a repertory of non-mythological animals
arranged in friezes across the belly of the
vase. In these friezes, painters also began
to apply lotuses or palmettes. Depictions
of humans were relatively rare. Those that
have been found are figures in silhouette
with some incised detail, perhaps the origin
of the incised silhouette figures of the black-figure
period. There is sufficient detail on these
figures to allow scholars to discern a number
of different artists' hands. Geometrical features
remained in the style called proto-Corinthian
that embraced these orientalizing experiments,
yet which coexisted with a conservative sub-geometric
style.
The ceramics of Corinth were exported all
over Greece, and their technique arrived in
Athens, prompting the development of a less
markedly Eastern idiom there. During this
time described as Proto-Attic, the orientalizing
motifs appear but the features remain not
very realistic. The painters show a preference
for the typical scenes of the Geometrical
Period, like processions of chariots. However,
they adopt the principle of line drawing to
replace the silhouette. In the middle of the
7th century BC, there appears the black and
white style: black figures on a white zone,
accompanied by polychromy to render the color
of the flesh or clothing. Clay used in Athens
was much more orange than that of Corinth,
and so did not lend itself as easily to the
representation of flesh. Attic Orientalising
Painters include the Analatos Painter, the
Mesogeia Painter and the Polyphemos Painter.
Crete, and especially the islands of the Cyclades,
are characterized by their attraction to the
vases known as “plastic”, i.e. those whose
paunch or collar is moulded in the shape of
head of an animal or a man. At Aegina, the
most popular form of the plastic vase is the
head of the griffin. The Melanesian amphoras,
manufactured at Paros, exhibit little knowledge
of Corinthian developments. They present a
marked taste for the epic composition and
a horror vacui, which is expressed in an abundance
of swastikas and meanders.
Finally one can identify the last major style
of the period, that of Wild Goat Style, allotted
traditionally to Rhodes because of an important
discovery within the necropolis of Kameiros.
In fact, it is widespread over all of Asia
Minor, with centers of production at Miletos
and Chios. Two forms prevail oenochoes, which
copied bronze models, and dishes, with or
without feet. The decoration is organized
in superimposed registers in which stylized
animals, in particular of feral goats (from
whence the name) pursue each other in friezes.
Many decorative motifs (floral triangles,
swastikas, etc.) fill the empty spaces.
===== Attic vase painting =====
The subject is dominated mostly by Attic vase
painting. Attic production was the first to
resume after the Greek Dark Age and influenced
the rest of Greece, especially Boeotia, Corinth,
the Cyclades (in particular Naxos) and the
Ionian colonies in the east Aegean. Production
of vases was largely the prerogative of Athens
– it is well attested that in Corinth, Boeotia,
Argos, Crete and Cyclades, the painters and
potters were satisfied to follow the Attic
style.
By the end of the Archaic period the styles
of black-figure pottery, red-figure pottery
and the white ground technique had become
fully established and would continue in use
during the era of Classical Greece, from the
early 5th to late 4th centuries BC. Corinth
was eclipsed by Athenian trends since Athens
was the progenitor of both the red-figure
and white ground styles.
====== Black figure ======
Black-figure is the most commonly imagined
when one thinks about Greek pottery. It was
a popular style in ancient Greece for many
years. The black-figure period coincides approximately
with the era designated by Winckelmann as
the middle to late Archaic, from c. 620 to
480 BC. The technique of incising silhouetted
figures with enlivening detail which we now
call the black-figure method was a Corinthian
invention of the 7th century and spread from
there to other city states and regions including
Sparta, Boeotia, Euboea, the east Greek islands
and Athens.
The Corinthian fabric, extensively studied
by Humfry Payne and Darrell Amyx, can be traced
though the parallel treatment of animal and
human figures. The animal motifs have greater
prominence on the vase and show the greatest
experimentation in the early phase of Corinthian
black-figure. As Corinthian artists gained
in confidence in their rendering of the human
figure the animal frieze declined in size
relative to the human scene during the middle
to late phase. By the mid-6th century BC,
the quality of Corinthian ware had fallen
away significantly to the extent that some
Corinthian potters would disguise their pots
with a red slip in imitation of superior Athenian
ware.
At Athens researchers have found the earliest
known examples of vase painters signing their
work, the first being a dinos by Sophilos
(illus. below, BM c. 580), this perhaps indicative
of their increasing ambition as artists in
producing the monumental work demanded as
grave markers, as for example with Kleitias's
François Vase. Many scholars consider the
finest work in the style to belong Exekias
and the Amasis Painter, who are noted for
their feeling for composition and narrative.
Circa 520 BC the red-figure technique was
developed and was gradually introduced in
the form of the bilingual vase by the Andokides
Painter, Oltos and Psiax. Red-figure quickly
eclipsed black-figure, yet in the unique form
of the Panathanaic Amphora, black-figure continued
to be utilised well into the 4th century BC.
====== Red figure ======
The innovation of the red-figure technique
was an Athenian invention of the late 6th
century. It was quite the opposite of black-figure
which had a red background. The ability to
render detail by direct painting rather than
incision offered new expressive possibilities
to artists such as three-quarter profiles,
greater anatomical detail and the representation
of perspective.
The first generation of red-figure painters
worked in both red- and black-figure as well
as other methods including Six's technique
and white-ground; the latter was developed
at the same time as red-figure. However, within
twenty years, experimentation had given way
to specialization as seen in the vases of
the Pioneer Group, whose figural work was
exclusively in red-figure, though they retained
the use of black-figure for some early floral
ornamentation. The shared values and goals
of The Pioneers such as Euphronios and Euthymides
signal that they were something approaching
a self-conscious movement, though they left
behind no testament other than their own work.
John Boardman said of the research on their
work that "the reconstruction of their careers,
common purpose, even rivalries, can be taken
as an archaeological triumph"
The next generation of late Archaic vase painters
(c. 500 to 480 BC) brought an increasing naturalism
to the style as seen in the gradual change
of the profile eye. This phase also sees the
specialization of painters into pot and cup
painters, with the Berlin and Kleophrades
Painters notable in the former category and
Douris and Onesimos in the latter.
By the early to high classical era of red-figure
painting (c. 480–425 BC), a number of distinct
schools had evolved. The mannerists associated
with the workshop of Myson and exemplified
by the Pan Painter hold to the archaic features
of stiff drapery and awkward poses and combine
that with exaggerated gestures. By contrast,
the school of the Berlin Painter in the form
of the Achilles Painter and his peers (who
may have been the Berlin Painter’s pupils)
favoured a naturalistic pose usually of a
single figure against a solid black background
or of restrained white-ground lekythoi. Polygnotos
and the Kleophon Painter can be included in
the school of the Niobid Painter, as their
work indicates something of the influence
of the Parthenon sculptures both in theme
(e.g., Polygnotos’s centauromachy, Brussels,
Musées Royaux A. & Hist., A 134) and in feeling
for composition.
Toward the end of the century, the "Rich"
style of Attic sculpture as seen in the Nike
Balustrade is reflected in contemporary vase
painting with an ever-greater attention to
incidental detail, such as hair and jewellery.
The Meidias Painter is usually most closely
identified with this style.
Vase production in Athens stopped around 330–320
BC possibly due to Alexander the Great's control
of the city, and had been in slow decline
over the 4th century along with the political
fortunes of Athens itself. However, vase production
continued in the 4th and 3rd centuries in
the Greek colonies of southern Italy where
five regional styles may be distinguished.
These are the Apulian, Lucanian, Sicilian,
Campanian and Paestan. Red-figure work flourished
there with the distinctive addition of polychromatic
painting and in the case of the Black Sea
colony of Panticapeum the gilded work of the
Kerch Style. Several noteworthy artists' work
comes down to us including the Darius Painter
and the Underworld Painter, both active in
the late 4th century, whose crowded polychromatic
scenes often essay a complexity of emotion
not attempted by earlier painters. Their work
represents a late mannerist phase to the achievement
of Greek vase painting.
====== White ground technique ======
The white-ground technique was developed at
the end of the 6th century BC. Unlike the
better-known black-figure and red-figure techniques,
its coloration was not achieved through the
application and firing of slips but through
the use of paints and gilding on a surface
of white clay. It allowed for a higher level
of polychromy than the other techniques, although
the vases end up less visually striking. The
technique gained great importance during the
5th and 4th centuries, especially in the form
of small lekythoi that became typical grave
offerings. Important representatives include
its inventor, the Achilles Painter, as well
as Psiax, the Pistoxenos Painter, and the
Thanatos Painter.
===== Relief and plastic vases =====
Relief and plastic vases became particularly
popular in the 4th century BC and continued
being manufactured in the Hellenistic period.
They were inspired by the so-called "rich
style" developed mainly in Attica after 420
BC. The main features were the multi-figured
compositions with use of added colours (pink/reddish,
blue, green, gold)and an emphasis on female
mythological figures. Theatre and performing
constituted yet one more source of inspiration.
Delphi Archaeological Museum has some particularly
good examples of this style, including a vase
with Aphrodite and Eros. The base is round,
cylindrical, and its handle vertical, with
bands, covered with black colour. The female
figure (Aphrodite) is depicted seated, wearing
an himation. Next to her stands a male figure,
naked and winged. Both figures wear wreaths
made of leaves and their hair preserve traces
of golden paint. The features of their faces
are stylized. The vase has a white ground
and maintains in several parts the traces
of bluish, greenish and reddish paint. It
dates to the 4th century BC.
In the same room is kept a small lekythos
with a plastic decoration, depicting a winged
dancer. The figure wears a Persian head cover
and an oriental dress, indicating that already
in that period oriental dancers, possibly
slaves, had become quite fashionable. The
figure is also covered with a white colour.
The total height of the vase is 18 centimeters
and it dates to the 4th century BC.
===== Hellenistic period =====
The Hellenistic period, ushered in by the
conquests of Alexander the Great, saw the
virtual disappearance of black and red-figure
pottery yet also the emergence of new styles
such as West Slope Ware in the east, the Centuripe
Ware in Sicily, and the Gnathia vases to the
west. Outside of mainland Greece other regional
Greek traditions developed, such as those
in Magna Graecia with the various styles in
South Italy, including Apulian, Lucanian,
Paestan, Campanian, and Sicilian.
== Inscriptions ==
Inscriptions on Greek pottery are of two kinds;
the incised (the earliest of which are contemporary
with the beginnings of the Greek alphabet
in the 8th century BC), and the painted, which
only begin to appear a century later. Both
forms are relatively common on painted vases
until the Hellenistic period when the practice
of inscribing pots seems to die out. They
are by far most frequently found on Attic
pottery.
A number of sub-classes of inscription can
be distinguished. Potters and painters occasionally
signed their works with epoiesen and egraphsen
respectively. Trademarks are found from the
start of the 6th century on Corinthian pieces;
these may have belonged to an exporting merchant
rather than the pottery workfield and this
remains a matter of conjecture.) Patrons'
names are also sometimes recorded, as are
the names of characters and objects depicted.
At times we may find a snatch of dialogue
to accompany a scene, as in ‘Dysniketos’s
horse has won’, announces a herald on a
Panathenaic amphora (BM, B 144). More puzzling,
however, are the kalos and kalee inscriptions,
which might have formed part of courtship
ritual in Athenian high society, yet are found
on a wide variety of vases not necessarily
associated with a social setting. Finally
there are abecedaria and nonsense inscriptions,
though these are largely confined to black-figure
pots.
== Figurines ==
Greek terracotta figurines were another important
type of pottery, initially mostly religious,
but increasingly representing purely decorative
subjects. The so-called Tanagra figurines,
in fact made elsewhere as well, are one of
the most important types. Earlier figurines
were usually votive offerings at temples.
== Relationship to metalwork and other materials
==
Several clay vases owed their inspiration
to metalwork forms in bronze, silver and sometimes
gold. These were increasingly used by the
elite when dining, but were not placed in
graves, where they would have been robbed,
and were often treated as a store of value
to be traded as bullion when needed. Very
few metal vessels have survived as at some
point they were melted down and the metal
reused.
In recent decades many scholars have questioned
the conventional relationship between the
two materials, seeing much more production
of painted vases than was formerly thought
as made to be placed in graves, as a cheaper
substitute for metalware in both Greece and
Etruria. The painting itself may also copy
that on metal vessels more closely than was
thought.The Derveni Krater, from near Thessaloniki,
is a large bronze volute krater from about
320 BC, weighing 40 kilograms, and finely
decorated with a 32-centimetre-tall frieze
of figures in relief representing Dionysus
surrounded by Ariadne and her procession of
satyrs and maenads.
The alabastron's name suggests alabaster,
stone.Glass was also used, mostly for fancy
small perfume bottles, though some Hellenistic
glass rivalled metalwork in quality and probably
price.
== See also ==
Ancient Roman pottery
Tanagra figurine
Kerameikos Archaeological Museum
== References and sources ==
Sparkes, Brian. Greek Pottery: An Introduction.
== Further reading ==
Aulsebrook, S. (2018) Rethinking Standardization:
the Social Meanings of Mycenaean Metal Cups.
Oxford Journal of Archaeology, 25 January
2018, doi: 10.1111/ojoa.12134.
Beazley, John. Attic Red-Figure Vase Painters.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1942.
--. The Development of Attic Black-Figure.
Berkeley: University of California Press,
1951.
--. Attic Black-Figure Vase Painters. Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1956.
--. Paralipomena. Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1971.
Boardman, John. Athenian Black Figure Vases.
New York: Oxford University Press, 1974.
--. Athenian Red Figure Vases: The Archaic
Period: A Handbook. London: Thames and Hudson,
1975.
--. Athenian Red Figure Vases: The Classical
Period: A Handbook. London: Thames and Hudson,
1989.
--. Early Greek Vase Painting: 11th-6th Centuries
BC: A Handbook. London: Thames and Hudson,
1998.
Bundrick, Sheramy D. Music and Image In Classical
Athens. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
2005.
Cohen, Beth. The Colors of Clay: Special Techniques
In Athenian Vases. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty
Museum, 2006.
Coldstream, J. N. Geometric Greece: 900-700
BC. 2nd ed. London: Routledge, 2003.
Herford, Mary Antonie Beatrice. A Handbook
of Greek Vase Painting. Sparks, NV: Falcon
Hill Press, 1995.
Mitchell, Alexandre G. Greek Vase-Painting
and the Origins of Visual Humour. New York:
Cambridge University Press, 2009.
Noble, Joseph Veach. The Techniques of Painted
Attic Pottery. New York: Watson-Guptill, 1965.
Oakley, John Howard. The Greek Vase: Art of
the Storyteller. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty
Museum, 2013.
Pollitt, J. J. The Cambridge History of Painting
In the Classical World. New York: Cambridge
University Press, 2014.
Robertson, Martin. The Art of Vase-Painting
In Classical Athens. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1992.
Steiner, Ann. Reading Greek Vases. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2007.
Trendall, A. D. Red Figure Vases of South
Italy and Sicily: A Handbook. London: Thames
& Hudson, 1989.
Vickers, Michael J. Ancient Greek Pottery.
Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 1999.
Von Bothmer, Dietrich. Greek Vase Painting.
New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1987.
Winter, Adam. Die Antike Glanztonkeramik:
Praktische Versuche. Mainz am Rhein: P. von
Zabern, 1978.
Yatromanolakis, Dimitrios. An Archaeology
of Representations: Ancient Greek Vase-Painting
and Contemporary Methodologies. Athens: Institut
du Livre, A. Kardamitsa, 2009.
--. Epigraphy of Art: Ancient Greek Vase-Inscriptions
and Vase-Paintings. Oxford: Archaeopress,
2016.
== External links ==
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide, a collection
catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art
containing information on the pottery of ancient
Greece (pages 315–322)
Beazley Archive of Greek pottery
Journey through art history: Ancient Greek
Art
Ancient Greek Pottery, professor Kenney Mencher,
Ohlone College
"Secrets of Greek artists revealed: X-rays
show hidden layers of paint on a stunning
2,500-year-old vase". DailyMail. 4 October
2016. Retrieved 20 October 2016.
S. Bleecker-Luce, A Brief History of the Study
of Greek Vase Painting, American Philosophical
Society 1918
The evolution of Greek vase painting. Ure
Museum of Greek Archaeology.
