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Pottery of Ancient Greece

Tuesday, 08 August 2006 03:38

Achilles (left) and Ajax (right) playing dice. Detail from black-figure amphora by Exekias, c. 540-530 BCE

The pottery of ancient Greece is one of the most tangible and iconic elements of ancient Greek art. The colourful vases and pots of the ancient Greeks have survived in large numbers and are today highly prized as collectors' items.

Uses of pottery in Ancient Greece

Ancient Greeks made pottery for everyday use, not for display; the trophies won at games, such as the Panathenaic amphorae (used for storage), are the exception. Most surviving pottery consists of drinking vessels such as amphorae, kraters (bowls for mixing wine and water), hydria (water jars), libation bowls, jugs and cups. Painted funeral urns have also been found. Miniatures were also produced in large numbers, mainly for use as offerings at temples. In the Hellenistic period a wider range of pottery was produced, but most of it is of little artistic importance.

In earlier periods even quite small Greek city-states produced pottery for their own locale. These varied widely in style and standards. Distinctive pottery that ranks as art was produced on some of the Aegean islands, in Crete, and in the wealthy Greek colonies of southern Italy and Sicily. By the later Archaic and early Classical period, however, the two great commercial powers, Corinth and Athens, came to dominate. Their pottery was exported all over the Greek world, driving out the local varieties. Pots from Corinth and Athens are found as far afield as Spain and Ukraine, and are so common in Italy that they were first collected in the 18th century as "Etruscan vases". Many of these pots are mass-produced products of low quality. In fact, by the 5th century BC, pottery had become an industry and pottery painting ceased to be an important art form of ancient Greece.

History of Ancient Greek pottery

The history of Ancient Greek pottery is divided stylistically into periods:

the Protogeometric from about 1050 BC;
the Geometric from about 900 BC;
the Late Geometric or Archaic from about 750 BC;
the Black Figure from the early 7th century BC;
and the Red Figure from about 530 BC.

The range of colours which could be used on pots was restricted by the technology of firing: black, white, red, and yellow were the most common. In the three earlier periods, the pots were left their natural light colour, and were decorated with slip that turned black in the kiln.

Red-figure kylix by Euerdiges (circa 500 BC) in the British Museum, London.

The fully mature black-figure technique, with added red and white details and incising for outlines and details, originated in Corinth during the early 7th century BC and was introduced into Attica about a generation later; it flourished until the end of the 6th century BC. The red-figure technique, invented in about 530 BC, reversed this tradition, with the pots being painted black and the figures painted in red. Red-figure vases slowly replaced the black-figure style. Sometimes larger vessels were engraved as well as painted.

During the Protogeometric and Geometric periods, Greek pottery was decorated with abstract designs. In later periods, as the aesthetic shifted and the technical proficiency of potters improved, decorations took the form of human figures, usually representing the gods or the heroes of Greek history and mythology. Battle and hunting scenes were also popular, since they allowed the depiction of the horse, which the Greeks held in high esteem. In later periods erotic themes, both heterosexual and male homosexual, became common.

Greek pottery is frequently signed, sometimes by the potter or the master of the pottery, but only occasionally by the painter. Hundreds of painters are, however, identifiable by their artistic personalities: where their signatures haven't survived they are named for their subject choices, as "the Achilles Painter", by the potter they worked for, such as the Late Archaic "Kleophrades Painter", or even by their modern locations, such as the Late Archaic "Berlin Painter". Corinth once made pottery decorated without any paint. Instead a watery clay mixture was used. When the pot was fired in a kiln, the areas painted with clay mixture turned black. Unpainted areas turned a light brown or reddish brown colour, depending on the type of clay.

Greek glass alabastron of 1st/2nd century BC, probably made in Italy For 200 years the Corinthians sold their pottery all over the Greek world, and Corinth became a wealthy and busy trading centre.