GREEK POTTERY PART I

The Ancient Greeks did not make vases in the modern sense of 'a jar for displaying flowers'. They did use vase-shaped vessels, but for storing perfume or oil (they called this type of vase a lekythos). Other types of Greek pottery were for transporting wine (amphora); or for mixing it (krater); or for drinking it (kylix, phiale). Pottery was an important part of Greek daily life. It is an even more important part of classical archaeology: more pottery has survived from the ancient world than anything else.

Greek pottery was made of clay. First, a potter formed the clay into the desired shape, using a wheel. Then, if the pottery was to be decorated, a pottery artist carved the outline of the design and painted the clay with a slurry of water and clay called 'slip'. Finally the clay was 'fired' in a kiln. The temperature of the kiln was controlled in a way that made the painted area go black, while the rest of the clay's surface turned red.

Greek pottery was decorated in different ways during different periods.

Minoan and Mycenaean periods (3000 BCE – 1200 BCE)

The two great civilisations of Bronze Age Greece were the Minoans, from the island of Crete, and the Mycenaeans, from the Peloponnesian peninsula and surrounds. Their pottery often depicted animals, like cows or famously octopuses. Minoan pottery often displayed geometric patterns, or marine creatures. Mycenaean pottery sometimes depicted human figures, especially in processions or on chariots.

The Greek 'Dark Ages' (1000 BCE – 700 BCE)

After the collapse of its Bronze Age civilisations, Greece entered a 'Dark Age' (how dark this age was is heavily debated). During this period, pottery tended to display 'geometric' designs: dominated by repeating shapes and patterns. Earlier in this period, most pottery is described as 'proto-geometric': nearly all decorations are abstract shapes. In the high geometric period, animals and humans return but in stylised, pattern-like form. Amphorai like this one are thought to depict funerary processions. Often, in such scenes, one figure (sometimes the corpse) will be bigger than the others: their inflated size is almost certainly a mark of high status.

Asiatic Period (700 BCE – 600 BCE)

As international trade grew, there was a heavy Asian influence on Greek art, as the Greeks came into contact with other peoples, especially the Phoenecians. The Sumerians and Babylonians, by then already ancient, had developed a complex mythology and iconographical system. This iconography brought lions, griffins, sphinxes and other mystical creatures into Greek art. Note the lion was already extinct in Greece by this time.

Archaic Period: Black-Figure (600 BCE – 480 BCE)

Black- and red-figure pottery are the Platonic ideal of Greek clay-ware: when you think of a Greek vase, it is these two styles that come to mind. The difference is simple: in black-figure, the figures were coloured black. In red-figure, they were red.

Black-figure technique came first, probably invented by the Corinthians and then disseminated around Greece. Once the pottery painter had carved in the scene, he painted in the outline of the figures with slip. When the jar was fired, the figures turned black.

The innovation of black-figure was its depiction of lifelike human forms. Mythological scenes are common. This amphora depicts two Trojan war heroes, Achilles and Ajax, playing dice; it is one of the most famous examples of Greek pottery. It is also with black-figure that pottery-painters begin signing their work: the amphora of Achilles and Ajax, for instance, is signed by the Athenian Exekias.

The Trojan war was perennially popular. Other recurring mythological figures were Herakles (the Roman Hercules) and Dionysos, the god of revelry — and the patron of the symposium, the male-only debauches where pottery vessels were heavily used.

Apart from mythology, wedding scenes were popular, especially wedding processions. A veiled female seated on a cart is almost always a bride.

Other scenes of mortal life include women weaving, or displays of athleticism (some vases were given as trophies in athletic contests). Nude men indicate that a scene is sports-related.

Sometimes, black-figure wares label the characters they depict. But often they do not. Sometimes, there will be writing above a figure, but it will merely declare the figure is 'beautiful'.

In mythological scenes, there are ways to tell who is who, iconographically:

- Gods are often bigger than mortals;

- Herakles often wears a lion-skin;

- Apollo, god of music, has a lyre or kithara;

- Hermes, the messenger-god, has winged sandals;

- Poseidon, sea-god, has a trident;

- Zeus has a long beard and sometimes a thunderbolt or a bird-messenger;

- Athena, the warrior-goddess of wisdom, is the only woman to regularly dress in armour;

- Dionysus is often surrounded by stunted and ugly humanoid creatures called satyrs.

Another point to note is that women are also often painted in white (coloured paint was applied after firing). For example, in this amphora, Achilles (black) slays the queen of the Amazons, Penthesilea (white).

Note that different sides of a vase are often decorated with different scenes. Sometimes, more geometric forms are found, like the stylised eyes that often appear on kylikes or drinking cups. The captivating power of 'the eye' was, it seems, associated with Dionysus, whose dangerous energy led inebriated symposiasts into transgression.

GREEK POTTERY PART II

Classical Period: Red-Figure (500 BCE – 200 BCE)

Red-figure was invented at Athens during the height of that city's powers: in the 5th century, it was the premier seafaring city-state in the Greek world and the pinnacle of cultural achievement (Socrates, Plato, the tragedians and Aristophanes etc). Red-figure quickly spread across the mediterranean: the Etruscans of central Italy (modern Tuscany) imported vast quantities of the stuff from Athens, Corinth and the Greek colonies in Sicily.

Red-figure is the opposite of black-figure: the pottery painter carves the figures and then paints the background with slip. After firing, the background turns black, but the figures stay red.

The new technique was a triumph in expressiveness. Because the figures were now painted a lighter shade, the artist could draw their faces in greater detail. In black-figure, figures had only been depicted in profile. Now, they could be shown front-on (lyre-player on right). Note the practice of painting women white ceased.

Similar subject matter was popular as in black-figure.

Trojan war scenes: for instance, the exceptionally famous kylix of Achilles binding the wounds of his co-combatant, best friend and possibly lover Patroclus.

Other mythology: Oedipus and the sphinx; Poseidon creating a fresh water spring for Athens; Orpheus the ur-poet, about to be murdered by Thracian women.

Non-mythological: scenes from comedic plays (also here and here — note the grotesquely misshapen bodies of the actors, who all wore a kind of fat suit avant la lettre); women playing music; sport.

The iconography of red-figure is very similar to that of black-figure.

Classical Period: White Ground (500 BCE – 200 BCE)

Around the time red-figure technique emerged, the Athenians also began making white pottery. They did this by using a lighter-coloured clay slip: when fired, the painted area turned white rather than black. White ground pottery was less popular and seems to have been produced exclusively in Athens. Often, white ground ware was used in weddings and funerals.

The famous kylix of Apollo is painted in this style. The kithara in the seated figure's hand give him away as Apollo, god of music.

Into the Hellenistic period and beyond

Athens declined as a centre for pottery production some time after its conquest by Philip II of Macedon. Fine wares were still produced across the Greek world, however. But the human form was rarely again depicted on pottery with the level of detail seen in the 6th to 3rd centuries.

To modern eyes, the decorations of Greek pottery are fascinating. The ancients seem to have been less enthralled: pottery-painting is not mentioned anywhere in surviving classical literature. Other visual art forms, like sculpture and wall-painting, were prized (very little Greek painting survives). We also must remember that most Greek pottery was not decorated. A family of limited means might have owned one set of expensive painted pottery, just as a modern household might have a set of silver cutlery for 'special occasions'.

Resources (from most to least accessible)

John Boardman (2016). Greek Art. 5th ed. Thames & Hudson.

John Howard Oakley (2013). The Greek Vase: Art of the Storyteller. British Museum Press.

Joan R. Mertens (2010). How to Read Greek Vases. Yale University Press.

Andrew J. Clark (2002). Understanding Greek Vases: A Guide to Terms, Styles, and Techniques. Getty Publications.

Susan Woodford (2015). An Introduction to Greek Art: Sculpture and Vase Painting in the Archaic and Classical Period. Bloomsbury Academic.

Tyler Jo Smith and Dimitris Platnzos (eds) (2012). A Companion to Greek Art. Blackwell Publishing.