Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIII.djvu/803

 POTTERY AND PORCELAIN TT9 of pottery, though not actually the baking of clay. They carved small articles from steatite or soapstone, which they covered with a vitre- ous substance and baked in furnaces, produ- cing a resemblance to enamelled pottery. This art was of very early origin, and specimens are known bearing the names of kings who reigned before 2000 B. 0. The Egyptians also had knowledge from an early period of the art of enamelling pottery. No chemical analysis has yet been made of their enamel, but it re- sembles the stanniferous enamel of modern times. They used colors with this enamel, pro- ducing pure white, yellow, purple, and green objects, and especially a blue which was very rich and pure, and has never been surpassed. Articles enamelled in blue 15 centuries B. 0. are as bright and perfect to-day as articles of modern production. They made vases, cups, amulets of many kinds, and especially figures of the Egyptian pantheon, which were exquisite in model, and rank as works of high art. When Egypt fell under Greek domination, the pot- FIG. 1. Egyptian Aryballos. tery for the first time in 15 centuries began to show indications of foreign influence ; and in the Roman period Egypt produced only such pottery as the Romans everywhere made. In the Euphrates valley pottery was made from the earliest dates. The expression in Genesis xi. 3, " Go to, let us make brick and burn them thoroughly," shows a knowledge of the art, which must have included other articles than brick, but we have no relics of this early period. The ruins of Babylon and Nineveh abound however in remains of brick walls, and these bricks were often covered with a stanniferous enamel. This art was probably learned from Egypt. The most remarkable use of pottery in the valleys of the Euphrates and Tigris was as a method of perpetuating records. Many thousands of specimens have been discovered which show that even the most ordinary transactions, the conveyance of land and of slaves, were recorded on tablets of wet clay, baked, and thus rendered perma- nent. History, fable, poetry, and a vast amount of literature were thus recorded, and modern learning is fast deciphering and translating these curious and interesting relics. At a later period it was the custom to make coffins of pottery, unglazed and enamelled, with more or less decoration. At Warka vast numbers of these coffins have been found. Very few vases or articles of ordinary use have been discovered, and we have but slight knowledge of the taste and skill of the Assyrians in or- namental pottery. They built walls of cities and of palaces with brick, and enamelled the surfaces in brilliant colors. The ceramic art probably went eastward as well as westward from the Euphrates valley. Eastward we cannot trace its course, except as possibly the Chi- nese derived it from them. West of the Euphrates we find it in Phoenicia, whence it went by different routes across the ar- chipelago to Greece. With Phoenician art the modern world has been little ac- quainted until the discoveries made by Gen. di Cesnola in Cyprus (see CESNOLA), the results of which are in the Cesnola collection in the metropol- itan museum of art in New York. The Phoe- nicians appear to have possessed the art at a period prior to 1500 B. 0. Their products of .that time consist of rude images of Venus, and unglazed pottery wares of great variety in form, but without interest in decoration. As the predecessors of the finest works of Greek ceramics, the Phoenician relics possess great interest. The first decoration was in lines scratched or in color, circles, zigzags, simple geometric figures, chequers, &c. At an early period a glaze or lustre was invented which gave brilliancy to the surface. It is so thin that it has defied chemical analysis, and its composition is unknown. On this the same simple forms of decoration were first used. When Egypt conquered Cyprus, Egyptian in- fluences began to reach the Phoenician work on this and other islands of the archipelago. The lotus flower, birds in deep red and black colors, and at length various animals, were painted on the vases. Prior to TOO B. C. no attempt is made to divide Greek pottery into classes. The works which are painted in white, black, and red, with rows of tigers, goats, lions, &c., around the piece, or with lotus flowers, birds, &c., have been variously called Doric, Corinthian, Cartha- ginian, Phoenician, and Egyptian. The Ces- uola discoveries show them to be Phoenician modified by Egyptian influence, and properly FIG. 2. Phoenician Vase, from the Cesnola Collection.