Museum of Antiquity Part 21

The form of the vessels themselves next calls for our attention. The vases, two-handled amphorai and krateres, found most frequently during this period, are slender and graceful. Together with them we meet with beautifully modeled drinking-horns, and heads or whole figures, used to put vessels upon. The variety of forms, and the largeness of some vessels, overloaded as they were with figures, soon led to want of care in the composition. The moderation characteristic of the "beautiful style" was soon relinquished for exaggerated ornamentation, combined with a preference for representing sumptuous dresses and the immoderate use of white, yellow, and other colors. This led gradually to the decadence of pottery.

In some Etruscan cities earthenware was manufactured by local artists working after Greek patterns. The figures are distinguished from genuine Greek work by the contours being incised very deeply and filled up with red color. The clay also is coa.r.s.er. The compositions show an admixture of local myths and usages, not to mention Etruscan inscriptions.

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VASES.

Painted vases may be considered as the most curious, the most graceful, and the most instructive remains that have come down to us from ancient times. The beauty of the forms, the fineness of the material, the perfection of the varnish, the variety of the subjects, and their interest in an historical point of view give painted vases a very important place among the productions of the arts of the ancients. Painted vases have been collected with great eagerness ever since they have been known, and the most remarkable have been engraved by celebrated artists, and explained by profound archaeologists. Modern art and archaeology have obtained from them beautiful models and important information. They were known for the first time in the seventeenth century.

Painted vases were, to a considerable extent, objects of traffic and of export from one country to another. They may be generally traced to Athens as the original place of exportation. Corinth also exported vases, for the products of Corinthian potters have been found in Sicily and Italy, and there can be no doubt that Corinth had established an active trade in works of art with the Greek colonies all over the Mediterranean. Athenian vases were carried by the Phnicians, the commercial traders of the ancient world, as objects of traffic to the remotest parts of the then known world. In the Periplus of Scylax, the Phnicians are mentioned as exchanging the pottery of Athens for the ivory of Africa. They were, in fact, the ornamental china of the ancient world.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ETRUSCAN VASE.]

_Etruscan._--The potter's art was introduced into Etruria by Demaratus of Corinth, who, flying from that city, took up his abode at Tarquinii, the modern Corneto, where vases in the most archaic style, resembling those of Corinth, or those called Doric, have been found.

Vases, the Etruscan origin of which can not be disputed, have been found at Volterra, Tarquinii (Corneto), Perugia, Orvieto, Viterbo, Aquapendente, and other towns of ancient Etruria. The clay of which they are made is of a pale or reddish yellow, the varnish is dull, the workmanship rather rude, the ornaments are devoid of taste and elegance, and the style of the figures possesses all those characteristics already a.s.signed to that of the Etruscans. The figures are drawn in black on the natural color of the clay; sometimes a little red is introduced on the black ground of the drapery. It is by the subject chiefly that the Etruscan vases are distinguished from the Greek vases. On the former, the figures are in the costume peculiar to ancient Italy; the men and the heroes are represented with their beards and hair very thick; the G.o.ds and genii have large wings; monstrous combinations not capable of explanation by h.e.l.lenic myths; we may also observe divinities, religious customs, attributes, manners, arms, and symbols, different from those of Greece. Etruscan deities, such as Charun with his mace, denote their Etruscan origin; the subjects of the vases are, however, generally derived from Greek mythology, treated in a manner consonant to the Etruscan taste, and to their local religion, while their drawing is of the coa.r.s.est kind. If an inscription in Etruscan characters, traced invariably from right to left, accompanies the painting, certainty with regard to their origin may be considered as complete. It is true that the greater number of the letters of the ancient Greek alphabet are of the same form as those of the Etruscan alphabet; but there are in the latter some particular characters which will prevent any confusion. The names of the personages on the vases are spelt differently from those on the Greek, as Ainas for Ajax, Atreste for Adrastus, Akle for Achilles, Alesti for Alcestis, etc. We must also observe, that Etruscan painted vases are very rare, and are but few in number, compared with those for which we are indebted to the arts of Greece.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ROMAN VASES.]

_Greek._--The paste of these vases is tender, easily scratched or cut with a knife, remarkably fine and h.o.m.ogeneous, 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 a.s.serts 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 l.u.s.trous (_l.u.s.tre_), and only one kind was used, the recipe for making which is now lost. It appears to have been composed of one of the princ.i.p.al 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: VASE REPRESENTING A MARRIAGE. (_Found at Pompeii._)]

The colors being laid on in a different manner in the earlier and later vases has caused them to be distinguished into two general cla.s.ses. 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 cla.s.ses 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 circ.u.mference, 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 baccha.n.a.lian 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 circ.u.mference 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 princ.i.p.al ma.s.ses 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 princ.i.p.al 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 princ.i.p.al names known are those of c.l.i.tias, Doris who painted the celebrated Francois vase, Asteas, and Epictetos. c.l.i.tias 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.

One of the earliest makers was Taleides. Nearly fifty names of potters have been found, but they only occur on choice specimens of art. On many vases the name of the artist appears along with that of the potter, which much enhances the value of the vase. On the celebrated Francois vase appear the name of the artist c.l.i.tias, and the name of the potter Ergotimos. Some potters, such as Amasis and Euphronius, painted as well as made vases. Other inscriptions are sometimes found on vases which enhance their value greatly. They are generally the names of G.o.ds, heroes, and other mythological personages, which are represented in the paintings.

These inscriptions are of great interest for two reasons: in the first place, from the form of the letters and the order according to which they are traced, the greater or lesser antiquity of the vase can be recognized, these inscriptions necessarily following all the changes of the Greek alphabet; care must be taken to examine whether the inscription goes from right to left, whether the long vowels, the double letters are replaced by the silent vowels, or single letters; these are in general signs of relative antiquity which prove that of the vase itself; secondly, because the names invariably explain the subject of the painting, and even indicate by a name hitherto unknown, either some personage who sometimes bore another name, or a person whose real name was unknown, in fine, some mythic being of whom ancient writers give us no information.

The information derived from vases is of great importance for the study of Greek mythology viewed in its different epochs, and for the interpretation and understanding of ancient tragic or lyric poets.

Moral or historical inscriptions, in prose and in verse, have also been found on vases. The letters of these inscriptions are capital or cursive; they are very delicately traced, and often require a great deal of attention to perceive. They are traced in black or white with a brush, sometimes they are incised with a very sharp point.

On some which had been gifts to some "beautiful youths," we find the inscription, "the handsome boy," and also the form, "the handsome Onetorides," "the handsome Stroibos." One youth is called "the most handsome Hippocritus." The names of females, whether brides, beauties, or hetairae, are found accompanied with the expression, "the lovely nanthe," "the fair Rodon." On others, salutatory expressions are sometimes found, such as "Hail to thee;" "Happy as possible."

The subjects represented on painted vases, although of infinite variety, may be reduced to three cla.s.ses, which include them all: 1.

Mythological subjects; 2. Heroic subjects; 3. Historical subjects. The _Mythological_ subjects relate to the history of all the G.o.ds, and their adventures in human form are reproduced on them in a thousand shapes. It requires a deep and intimate knowledge of Greek mythology, in order to explain the different subjects. One of the oldest and most popular subjects in Greece was the Gigantomachia, which is found represented as a whole upon many vases, while others contain individual incidents from it.

Among the Olympic deities represented, Zeus takes a prominent part.

The father of the G.o.ds, the great thunderer, seldom appears alone, but is chiefly seen in scenes from the Heracleid and the Trojan war. On the black vases, and on those of the finest style with red figures, his amorous adventures are also frequently depicted. The G.o.ddess Hera rarely appears.

Athene, the great female deity of the Ionic race, plays an important part in many scenes. As Pallas Athene she frequently appears; generally on foot, but sometimes in her quadriga. Poseidon, the sea G.o.d, appears as a subordinate in many scenes, and as a protagonist in others. Apollo, Artemis, Hephaestos, Ares, Aphrodite, and Hermes, frequently appear in various scenes in the vases. The greater part of the paintings of the vases are relative to Dionysus, his festivals and mysteries. On them we see depicted his birth, childhood, education, all his exploits, his banquets, and his games; his habitual companions, his religious ceremonies, the lampadephori brandishing the long torches, the dendrophori raising branches of trees, adorned with garlands and tablets; the initiated preparing for the mysteries; lastly, the ceremonies peculiar to those great inst.i.tutions, and the circ.u.mstances relative to their dogmas and their aim. The inferior deities also appear on the vases.

The _Historical_ subjects begin with the war of Troy. Painters, as well as poets, found in this event a vast field to exercise their talents and their imagination. The princ.i.p.al actors in this memorable drama appear on the vases. The princ.i.p.al scenes of the Trojan war are depicted; but we must remark, that the historical subjects do not extend to a later period than that of the Heracleidae.

Among the incidents represented are the opening scenes of the Iliad, the quarrel of Agamemnon and Achilles, Briseis led away by the heralds, Paris and Helen, the death of Patroclus, the grief of Achilles, the arming of Achilles, the death of Hector, Priam entreating for the corpse of Hector, the terrible scene of the last night of Troy. Many subjects from the Odyssey also occur. Incidents from the Greek drama are of common occurrence, such as the death of Agamemnon, Orestes and Pylades meeting Electra, the death of Clytemnestra, the Furies pursuing Orestes.

[Ill.u.s.tration: VASE REPRESENTING TROJAN WAR (_Found at Pompeii._)]

We may consider, as belonging to the cla.s.s of historical vases, those with paintings relative to public and private customs; those representing games, repasts, scenic representations of combats of animals, hunting and funeral subjects.

Millingen remarks that the subjects of the paintings vary according to the period and the places in which they have been executed; on the most ancient vases Dionysiac scenes are frequently seen. As, originally, the greater number were destined to contain wine, they were adorned with a.n.a.logous subjects. Those of the beautiful period of the art, especially of the manufacture of Nola, a town in which Greek inst.i.tutions were observed with extreme care, present the ancient traditions of mythological episodes in all their purity. Those of a later period represent subjects taken from the tragic writers. Lastly, on those of the decline, we see depicted the new ceremonies and superst.i.tions which were mingled with the ancient and simple religion of the Greek. Painted vases are, therefore, of the greatest interest for the study of the manners and customs of ancient Greece, and of those which the Romans adopted from her in imitation.

[Ill.u.s.tration: VASE. (_Found at Pompeii._)]

As to the uses of these vases, there have been a variety of opinions; but a careful examination of a great number of vases would lead us to suppose that many were, doubtless, articles of household furniture, for use and adornment, such as the larger vases, destined, by their size, weight, and form, to remain in the same place, while others, of different sizes and shapes, were made to hold wine and other liquids, unguents, and perfumes. It is evident that they were more for ornament than use, and that they were considered as objects of art, for the paintings seem to have been executed by the best artists of the period. They were chiefly employed for entertainments, and the banquets of the wealthy. They are seen in use in scenes painted on the vases themselves. Many, especially those of the later style, were solely used for decorative purposes, as is evident from the fact of one side only being executed with care, while the other has been neglected, both in the drawing and in the subject. Those with Panathenaic subjects were probably given full of oil, as prizes at the national games. These were called _Athla_. Certain vases bearing the inscription, "From Athens," or "Prize from Athens," seem to have been given to the victors in the pentathlon, or courses of athletic exercises in the Panathenaea. Others may have been given at the palaestric festivals, or as nuptial presents, or as pledges of love and friendship; and these are marked by some appropriate inscription.

We find that they were also used in the ceremonies of the Mysteries, for we see their forms represented on the vases themselves: Bacchus frequently holds a cantharus, Satyrs carry a diota. A few seem to have been expressly for sepulchral purposes. Some have supposed that these vases were intended to hold the ashes of the dead; but this could not have been their use, for they are only found in tombs in which the bodies have been buried without being burnt. The piety of the relations adorned the tomb of the deceased with those vases, together with his armor and jewelry, which they had prized most in life, which were a.s.sociated with their habits, or recalled circ.u.mstances the memory of which they cherished.

We could not but feel astonished at the perfect preservation of such fragile objects, did we not know that they were found in tombs. Those in which they are found, are placed near the walls, but outside the town, at a slight depth, except those of Nola, where the eruptions of Vesuvius have considerably raised the soil since the period when the tombs were made, so that some of the tombs of Nola are about twenty-one feet under ground.

In Greece, the graves are generally small, being designed for single corpses, which accounts for the comparatively small size of the vases discovered in that country. At Athens the earlier graves are sunk deepest in the soil, and those at Corinth, especially such as contain the early Corinthian vases, are found by boring to a depth of several feet beneath the surface.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A GREEK SACRIFICE.]

The early tombs of Civita Vecchia, and Caere, or Cervetri, in Italy, are tunneled in the earth; and those at Vulci, and in the Etruscan territory, from which the finest and largest vases have been extracted, are chambers hewn in the rocks. In southern Italy, especially in Campania, the common tombs are constructed of rude stones or tiles, and are exactly of sufficient size to contain a corpse and five or six vases; a small one is placed near the head, and the others between the legs of the body, or they are ranged on each side, frequently on the left side alone.

The number and beauty of the vases vary, probably, according to the rank and fortune of the owner of the tomb. The tombs of the first cla.s.s are larger, and have been built with large cut stones, and rarely connected with cement; the walls inside are coated with stucco, and adorned with paintings; these tombs resemble a small chamber; the corpse is laid out in the middle, the vases are placed round it, frequently some others are hung up to the walls on nails of bronze.

The number of vases is always greater in these tombs; they are also of a more elegant form.

Several other articles are sometimes found in the tombs, such as gold and silver fibulae, swords, spears, armor, and several ornaments. The objects buried with the corpse generally bespeak the tastes and occupation of the deceased. Warriors are found with their armor, women with ornaments for the toilet, priests with their sacerdotal ornaments, as in the tomb at Cervetri. When the vases are taken out of the excavations, they are covered with a coating of whitish earth, something like tartar, and of a calcareous nature; it disappears on the application of aqua fortis. This operation ought to be done with great caution; for though the aqua fortis does not injure the black varnish, it might destroy some of the other colors.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 2000 YEARS OLD.]

Some of these vases are as well preserved as if they had just been issued from the hands of the potter; others have been greatly injured by the earthy salts with which they have come in contact; many are found broken--these have been put together and restored with great skill. But this work of restoration, especially if the artist adds any details which are not visible on the original, might alter or metamorphose a subject, and the archaeologist ought to set little value on these modern additions, in the study of a painted vase.

Several collections have been formed of these vases. The British Museum contains the finest collections, purchased by government from Sir William Hamilton and others. The Museum at Naples, and the Gregorian Museum in the Vatican, also contain many beautiful specimens from Magna Graecia and Etruria. The British Museum has about 2,600 vases of all kinds. The Museum at Naples contains about 2,100, and the Gregorian Museum at Rome about 1,000. Several amateurs have also formed collections in England, France, and Italy. We may mention those of Roger, Hope, Sir Harry Englefield, in England; those of the Duc de Blacas, the Comte Pourtales, in France; and that of the Marquis Campana, in Rome. The total number of vases in public and private collections probably amounts to 15,000 of all kinds. Some of these collections have been published, such as the first collection of Sir William Hamilton, explained by d'Hancarville; the second by Tischbein.

Several works have also been published, giving detailed accounts of painted vases in general.