POTTERS AND PAINTERS

POTTERY

THE MAKING AND PAINTING

Pots are made from clay and although not the purest clay there was a plentiful supply in Greece.  It was these impurities that coloured the clay, giving it an orangey-red colour when fired.

The pots were made in a similar method to today – using water and a potter’s wheel.  The handles, spouts and lid were made separately.

After potting came the decoration.  Some sketching was often done before the final painting.  The materials that Athenian potters used to decorate the vessels were nothing more than specially prepared clays.  The key colour was shiny black, which contrasted well with the orangey clay colour.  The black slip (clay), usually called black glaze was made of finer clay.  Additional colours were also used, especially from the 7^th century onwards.  Common colours that were used where purplish red and a yellowish white that picked out features on figures such as hair and skin colour.  The application of colour was made with brushes.  These created ‘relief lines’ to give an impression of depth.

Pots were stacked in the kiln and heated at 800 ºC.   Variations in temperature in this firing process leave the dominant colours of red and black.

Things could go wrong in the kiln and ancient potters seem to have been very superstitious, fearing all sorts of special demons with names like ‘Smasher’, ’Crasher’ and ‘Shaker’. Pottery making was hard and demanding and required a great deal of skill and experience.  Therefore, not only were many potters slaves but also the craft was passed on from father to son.

Greek pottery had an eastern influence, with Corinth being a popular exporter of arybolloi that held perfumed oil.  

Early pots

The Early Years:

Many pots fulfilled a range of functions, being domestic, ceremonial or religious.

Clay, cheap and plentiful in many parts of ancient Greece, was the basic raw material for most containers. At most times the wealthy would have drunk from gold and silver cups, but practically all households would have been well supplied with a range of clay vessels, both coarse and fine. These would have been used for storage, cooking and for the table.

The basic shape of a vase can often provide clues to its function. The open form of broad, shallow cups or large wine bowls (kraters), suggests easy access for hands or implements, for drinking, dipping or mixing. Small closed shapes with narrow mouths, such as lekythoi, are more likely to have contained something that was sealed up with wax or a stopper, and they might have been used for storage. The two horizontal handles of the water-jar (hydria) must have been essential for lifting the vessel when it was full and needed to be transported on someone's head, while the single vertical handle would have been used for pouring or for carrying the pot when empty.

Scenes on pottery may also illustrate the way the vases were used. Cups, bowls, jugs and wine coolers are shown in use at drinking parties, hydria in fountain house scenes; small arybolloi, holding the perfumed oil that athletes rubbed on themselves after exercise, appear in scenes of the gymnasium. Very often the same vases that were used in these domestic contexts could also be dedicated in sanctuaries or laid in the tomb; but there were also individual shapes, such as the lekythos, that were particularly favoured for special purposes, in this case as funeral offerings.

In the early 7^th century Corinthian pottery became a popular export especially the small aryballoi, the small perfume pot.  The extra demand for pots caused changes in the vase painting.  Before this change very rigid, straight line figures were drawn and now they where new oriental looking motifs (decorations).

New patterns were introduced with curvilinear (lines with curves).  Most of the early drawings were done as an outline, but then was a move towards the silhouettes.  There was also the introduction of scratching with a fine point through the black slip to the pale clay below, (details were scratched in).

In the 7^th century a purplish red was also added to highlight certain areas too.  This was the so-called black-figure’ technique as most of the people are black

BLACK FIGURE

When it is dry, you fire it in a kiln. First you give it a lot of air, so the whole pot turns red, slip and all. Then you shut off the air supply, but just for a little while right at the end of the firing. When the air runs out, the fire sucks oxygen right out of the clay of the pot. But the places where there is slip, the slip is thinner and easier to suck air out of. So the slip turns black (the colour of iron with no oxygen in it) faster than the rest of the pot (which is red, the colour of iron with oxygen in it).

At first the Athenian potters didn't know much about drawing people, and their people look a little funny. Later they got better at it. They began to care more about drawing the muscles and the eyes right. They were especially careful about arranging the people in the picture in a pleasing way.

One famous Athenian potter of this time is Exekias.  Black figure vase painting lasted until about

RED FIGURE

Around 530 BC, Athenian potters were more and more frustrated by the black-figure way of vase painting. They wanted to paint figures that overlapped, for instance, which was very difficult to do in black figure without the whole thing looking like just a big black blob. And they wanted to be able to show the muscles better too.   So somebody had an idea: instead of painting the people black, why not paint the background black and leave the people red? This is harder because you have to carefully paint all around the people in the picture, but it makes the people look much more real. The slip and the firing are exactly the same as in black figure.

Some of the greatest vases are in red figure. One of the most famous painters is the Berlin Painter.

But by around 450 BC, just eighty years after the invention of red-figure painting, hardly any vases were still being produced. We don't really know why this happened. Maybe it just went out of style. Some people think that the Athenians became so rich that they all used metal (bronze or silver) dishes instead of pottery. Maybe the Athenians were rich enough that they didn't need to sell their pottery to other people. Also, the Etruscans, who had bought a lot of this pottery, were no longer doing very well by 450 BC, and maybe they couldn't afford to buy Athenian pottery anymore.

THE POTTERS AND BLACK FIGURE POTTERY:

EXEKIAS

(middle of 6^th century – potter and painter)

  Exekias was one of the finest painters to use the black-figure technique.  He was the ‘master of speaking contour and form’, as well as incision.  He also seems to be the first person to attempt some new and improved shapes, including the calyx-krater and new forms of cup amphora.  Exekias may also have been the first to use a new difficult slip (called red or intentional red), which was achieved by mixing black slip with red ochre.  His pots had fine finishes, with clarity on the neck and the handles

Achilles killing Penthesilea (Exekias). Achilles is thrusting a spear into her throat.  Blood gushes from her throat.  Their eyes seem to be locked together, suggesting that Achilles fell in love with Penthesilea at the very instant in which he killed her.

The name Amasis comes from the Egyptian name

suggesting Amasis was at least part Egyptian. 

The name of ‘the Painter’ is not certain but it

is quite possible that the potter and painter were

the same person.  Amasis’ original work was small

works (miniaturist); his style had a strength as

well as delicacy, breadth as well as precision.  He

had superb control on incision and brushwork.

  One of the most famous vase paintings of the mid-6th century BC is that of Mycenaeans Achilles and Ajax playing a game which might be dice. The vase is in the black figure style, by the Exekias.  Andokides has based this amphora on his work.