Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/630

Rh 606 POTTERY [PHOSNICIAN AND ARCHAIC. The islands of Thera, Rhodes, and Cyprus, which were colonized by the Phoenicians at a very early period (see PH&amp;lt;ENICIA, vol. xviii. p. 804 &amp;lt;?.), have supplied large quantities of archaic pottery, ornamented with charac teristically Phoenician patterns and figures. The equally rich finds of pottery from Mycenae and the Troad, though not free from Phoenician influence, have mostly a more native style of decoration. Though in some few cases the finding of Egyptian objects with dated hieroglyphs sug gests a probable age for the pottery they were found with, yet in the main it is impossible to give even an approxi mate date to this large class of archaic pottery. Its pro duction evidently extended over many centuries, and little or no help towards a chronological classification is given by any clearly-defined stages of artistic development. Some of the earlier specimens may possibly be as old as the 18th century B.C. (scarabs of Amenhotep III. were found with pottery in Rhodes), while later ones, not very different in style, were probably made as late as the 8th century. 1 Forms Forms and Materials of Archaic Pottery. There is a and special charm about this early pottery. Graceful as the Greek vases of the best period of art are, there is some thing rigid and slightly mechanical in their highly-finished beauty, their polished surface, and their shape, accurately produced after some fixed model, from which but little deviation was permitted. Endless varieties of form occur in archaic pottery, changing with the mood and indi viduality of each potter ; full of spirit and life, in their easy grace and the multiplicity of their flowing lines, these simple clay vessels give one more perhaps than any other works of art that keen aesthetic pleasure which consists in a retrospective sympathy with the joy that the artist took in his own handiwork. Extreme fertility of inven tion, as well as the utmost freedom of touch in the manipulation of the revolving mass of clay, are its chief characteristics. Fig. 12 gives some of the many forms. mate rials. FIG. 12. Shapes of archaic pottery. It is usually thin, light, and well baked, formed either of pale buff, whitish, or straw-coloured clay ; or, if a darker clay is used, the surface is generally covered with a fine white slip composed of silica, lime, and a little alumina. This forms a ground for the painting, which is executed in ochre earths, browns, and reds of different shades, the colours of which are due to oxides of iron. Most of the pottery is biscuit, clay ground and painted ornament being 1 See Schliemann, Mycense (1877), Troy (1875), and Ilios (1880) ; Cesnola, Cyprus, 1877 ; Dumont, Les Ceramiques de la Grece, 1881 ; Salzrnaiin, Necropole de (Jamiros, 1874-75. alike free from any gloss; but in some cases silica and an alkali (probably carbonate of soda) have been added to the ochre pigment, which has thus become vitrified in the kiln and acquired a glossy surface. This does not occur among the earlier specimens. Enamelled Pottery. In some of the tombs in /Egina Enai and Rhodes a quantity of small vases, statuettes, and led v other objects have been found, executed under Egyptian ^ c&amp;gt; influence, with decoration of various coloured enamels. The colours used and the methods of manipulation re semble the enamel work of Egypt so closely as to need no special description. Some fine pilgrim -flasks of blue and green have blundered copies of hieroglyphs and repre sentations of Egyptian deities incised in the moist clay. Less purely Egyptian in style are certain small vases (see fig. 13), coarsely ornamented with bands and chevrons in various enamels white, blue, green, purple-brown, and yellow. The Louvre and the British Museum have the best specimens of these. Small vases, ex actly similar in design and execution to those from ^Egina and Rhodes, have been found in the tombs of Vulci and other places in Etruria, probably brought there by Phoenician traders, to whose inter course with Egypt and knowledge of the Egyptian designs and mechanical pro- FKJ. 13. Enamelled cesses the existence of the enamelled pot- pottery from tombs tery of Rhodes is probably due. Other in R^des, made J ., r j it under Egyptian 111- specimens have been found in the re- fluence. cently discovered Etruscan necropolis on the Esquiline in Rome. 2 One curious variety of early pottery is of a fine glossy red like the later Samian ware. Its smooth surface of rich red is due to the application of a thin finely-ground mixture of silica, soda, and some alu mina, forming a vitreous enamel to which the opaque red colour was given by a large proportion of oxide of iron (see fig. 14). Some of this red pottery is of extreme anti- V FIG. 14. Prehistoric red pottery from the Troad and Mycenoe. quity; it is either smooth and undecorated, or has rudely- incised hatchings and zig-zags, scratched down to the clay body of the vessel through the red enamel. Another variety of very early pottery from Mycenre and the Troad is of a hard black clay, with glossy surface (see fig. 15). Painted Ornament on Archaic Vases. This may be divided roughly into four classes. (1) Hatchings, concentric circles, chevrons, and other simple com binations of lines, arranged fre quently in designs obviously FIG. 15. Prehistoric black suggested by matting or textile I &quot; e e ^ from tlie Troatl fabrics, and also various ar rangements of spirals, apparently taken from patterns used in metal-work. Some of the designs of this class seem Inst., 1882, p. 2.