Museum of Antiquity: A Description of Ancient Life

by L. W. Yaggy; T. L. Haines

Greek.—The paste of these vases is tender, easily scratched or cut with a knife, remarkably fine and homogeneous, but of loose texture. When broken, it exhibits a dull opaque color, more or less yellow, red or grey. It is composed of silica, alumina, carbonate of lime, magnesia and oxide of iron. The color depends on the proportions in which these elements are mixed; the paler parts containing more lime, the red more iron. The exterior coating is composed of a particular kind of clay, which seems to be a kind of yellow or red ochre, reduced to a very fine paste, mixed with some glutinous or oily substance, and laid on with a brush; great difference is observable in the pastes of vases coming from widely separated localities, owing either to their composition or baking. The paste of the early vases of Athens and Melos is of a very pale red; that of vases of the Doric or Corinthian style is of a pale lemon color. At the best period of the art, the paste is of a warm orange red; but Lucanian and Apulian vases are of a paler tone. The Etruscan painted vases of all ages are of a pale red tone, with a much greater proportion of white, which appears to be owing to the greater proportion of chalk used in preparing the paste.

The earliest vases were made with the hand, while those of a later period were made with the wheel; the wheel, however, is a very early invention. Among the Egyptians and Greeks it was a low, circular table, turned with the foot. Representations of a potter turning the wheel with his foot, occur on painted vases of an early date. With this simple wheel the Greeks effected wonders, producing shapes still unrivalled in beauty.

After the vases had been made on the wheel, Dr. Birch writes, they were duly dried in the sun, and then painted; for it is evident that they could not have been painted while wet. The simplest and probably the most common, process was to color the entire vase black. The under part of the foot was left plain. When a pattern was added, the outline, faintly traced with a round point on the moist clay, was carefully followed by the painter. It was necessary for the artist to follow his sketch with great rapidity, since the clay rapidly absorbed the coloring matter, and the outline was required to be bold and continuous, each time that it was joined detracting from its merit. A finely-ground slip was next laid upon a brush, and the figures and ornaments were painted in. The whole was then covered with a very fine siliceous glaze, probably formed of soda and well-levigated sand. The vase was next sent to the furnace, and carefully baked. It was then returned to the workshop, where a workman or painter scratched in all the details with a pointed tool. The faces of female figures were colored white, with a thick coat of lime or chalk, and the eyes red. Parts of the drapery, the crests of helmets, and the antyges, or borders of shields, were colored with a crimson coat, consisting of an oxide of iron and lime, like a body color.

In the second style of vases the figures are painted in a dark brown or black, of an unequal tone, on yellow ground, formed of a siliceous coating over the pale red clay of the vase. An improvement upon this style was the changing of the color of the figures by painting, or stopping out, all the ground of the vase in black, thus leaving the figures of the natural red of the clay, and the marking of the muscles and finer portions, as an outline, of bright brown. After the paint had dried, the slip, or the siliceous glaze, was laid over the vase, except the under part of the foot and the inside. The colors used were few and simple, and were evidently ground excessively fine, and made into a kind of slip. Of these colors the black was the most important and the most extensively used. Great difference has always existed as to the nature of this color. Vauquelin takes it to be a carbonaceous matter, such as plumbagine or black lead. The Duc de Luynes asserts it to be an oxide of iron. Of opaque colors, the most important and extensively used is the white, said by Brongniart to be a carbonate of lime or fine clay. Red and yellow are sparingly used. Blue and green are rarely found, and only on vases of the latest styles. The liquid employed for mixing the colors is supposed to have been water.

The glaze with which these vases were covered is described by M. Brongniart as lustrous (lustre), and only one kind was used, the recipe for making which is now lost. It appears to have been composed of one of the principal alkalies, either potash or soda. The vases of Nola and Vulci are remarkable for the beauty and brilliancy of their glaze.

According to d'Hancarville the vases were baked in a naked furnace. Representations of ancient furnaces occur on painted vases. The furnaces were of simple construction, in shape like tall ovens, fed by fires from beneath, into which the vases were placed with a long shovel resembling the baker's peel.

VASE REPRESENTING A MARRIAGE. (Found at Pompeii.)[ToList]

The colors being laid on in a different manner in the earlier and later vases has caused them to be distinguished into two general classes. In the earlier the ground is yellow or red, and the figures are traced on it in black, so as to form kinds of silhouettes. These are called the black or archaic vases; they are generally in an ancient style; their subjects belong to the most ancient mythological traditions, and their inscriptions to the most ancient forms of the Greek alphabet, written from right to left, or in boustrophedon. The draperies, the accessories, the harness of the horses, and the wheels of the chariots, are touched with white. At a later period, the whole vase was painted black, with the exception of the figures, which were then of the color of the clay of the vase; the contours of the figures, the hair, drapery, etc., being previously traced in black. There are then two general classes of Greek vases, distinguished by the figures, which are black or yellow. They are in general remarkable for the beauty and elegance of their forms. There is a great variety in their sizes; some being several feet high, and broad in proportion; others being not higher than an inch. The subject is on one side of the vase; sometimes it occupies the entire circumference, but more generally it is on one side alone, and then there is on the reverse some insignificant subject, generally two or three old men leaning on a stick, instructing a young man, or presenting him with some instrument or utensil; a bacchanalian scene is sometimes represented on the reverse. Some vases have been found with two subjects on the sides of the vase. On some of the finest vases, the subject goes round the entire circumference of the vase. On the foot, neck and other parts are the usual Greek ornaments, the Vitruvian scroll, the Meander, Palmetto, the honeysuckle. A garland sometimes adorns the neck, or, in its stead, a woman's head issuing from a flower. These ornaments are in general treated with the greatest taste and elegance. Besides the obvious difference in the style of the vases, there is a remarkable difference in the execution of the paintings. They are not all of the highest merit, but the boldness of the outlines is generally remarkable on them. They could be executed only with the greatest rapidity, the clay absorbing the colors very quickly, so that if a line was interrupted the joining would be perceptible. Some thought that the figures were executed by the means of patterns cut out, which being laid on the vase, preserved on the black ground the principal masses in yellow, which were finished afterwards with a brush. But this opinion of Sir William Hamilton has been abandoned by himself, particularly since the traces of a point have been recognized, with which the artist had at first sketched on the soft clay the principal outlines, which he afterwards finished with a brush dipped in the black pigment, without, however, strictly following the lines traced by the point. The traces of the point are rarely observed; all depended on the skill and talent of the artists. They must have been very numerous, as these vases are found in such numbers, and the greater number may be considered as models for the excellence of their design and the taste of their composition. Not unfrequently, the artists by whom the designs have been painted, have placed their names on them; the principal names known are those of Clitias, Doris who painted the celebrated Francois vase, Asteas, and Epictetos. Clitias is the most ancient; his designs evince the infancy of art, those of the other artists display greater progress in the art; the name can be recognized from the word painted, which follows it immediately. Some vases have the potter's name inscribed on them.