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HISTORY
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Greek Vases from the Classical Period
Ushering in a shift from Black Figure to Red Figure pottery, the Classical Period in Greek Art has left behind a selection of beautiful cultural works.
By Will Street
Jul. 25, 2019, 11:30 AM
Making a Vase
To make a vase, the ancient greeks first procured the clay from the ground at a local source and brought it to a pottery. There, it was mixed with water and placed in basins to allow impurities to fall and settle at the bottom. The clay, being liquid at this point, was drained off and transported to another basin where the process was repeated several times again. The process is known as levigation. The clay would then be kneaded and sometimes mixed with other clays until it was stored for ageing before it was ready to use.
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In use, the prepared clay was first wedged, which amounted to mixing, kneading and compressing the clay to remove air bubbles. After that point, the clay was ready to be transferred to the wheel and drawn up. The wheel was rotated by hand at 50-150 rotations per minute, often it seems from the vase-paintings that depict potteries, by the force of boys. The body, foot, mouth and handles were often thrown separately and in the case of larger vases, the body may be thrown in sections.
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Once the vase was fully formed, it was allowed to dry to a leather-hard state before it was trimmed and refined using metal and wooden tools. Decoration was then added to the vases, most commonly involving the red or black figure techniques however other methods, such as white ground, on some occasions involved adding colours after the vases were fired.
The firing usually took place in an up-draught kiln that was constructed with a rising heat source of a firebox, fuelled with brushwood, small logs and other natural fuels and the pots placed in a chamber above.
Previous History and Genesis
The earliest found vases come from the Bronze Age, including Minoan and Mycenaean Bronze Age pottery (3000 - 1100 BC). These were generally simplistic, with a very few having figured decorations. Following the Bronze Age and into the Iron Age, past also the Greek Dark Ages, the next period is termed as the Geometric Period, which endured from 900 - 700 BC. This period is characterised as producing repetitive circling pottery, with geometric forms. In the Late Geometric Period in Athens, from 760 - 700 BC, there is, however, an abundance of vases with figured decorations.
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The Geometric period was followed by the Orientalizing period (700 - 600 BC), when the Greeks were heavily influenced by the art from the Near East. Vases produced incorporated eastern influences in the shape of the vessels, most notably seen with the Late Proto- Corinthian lion- headed aryballos on the "Chigi Painter" vase (British Museum, London 1889,0418.1). Corinth, a settlement in the Peloponnese, led the way in terms of vase-painting, being the first to use corporeal figures and ornament rendered in outline.
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In the 7th Century BC, in Athens, Orientalizing pottery was produced known as Proto-Attic, which was characterized by outline drawing. Later, in 630 BC, Athens began to produce vases that were decorated entirely in the black-figure technique and continued to do so until the style died in the first half of the 5th Century BC during the Classical Period. Black-figure painting was produced elsewhere during the Archaic period (600 - 480 BC) including in Laconia, the area around Sparta, Boetia, the region to the north of Athens, Euboea, an island off the eastern coast of Attica, Chalcidia, Chia, an Aegean island off the coast of Turkey and Clazomenia, an Ionian city on the western coast of Turkey.
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During this Archaic period, the black-figured works produced explored themes of mythology and everyday life, most notably and impressively found on the vases produced in Laconia and Chalcidia. Although Chalcidia is a just east off the Greek mainland, it is thought the that the Chalcidian fabric, which explored themes of mythology and everyday life, may have come from Southern Italy. There is a Tyrrenhian amphora, which was a term given by Greeks to non-Greeks, by the Timiades Painter, who, it is thought addressed his works towards a Western clientèle. It depicts the sacrifice of Polyxena, who died after Achilles' death in the Trojan War. (London 1897,0727.2)
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Attic black figure painting began to decline during the last thirty years of the 6th Century BC. Out of this decline, rose several different techniques. These included red-figure, white-ground, which was used on a wide range of vases until 450 BC, when it became primary limited to lekythoi (funerary vases), Six's technique (polychrome on a black background) and the so-called "intentional red" (coral-red gloss). However, it was the Athenian invention of red-figure, which involved taking the red ceramic clay and painting a black background thereby creating red figures, that came to dominate.
This was in part down to the economic and cultural prosperity of Athens, but also because it brought a more modern design, and it spread across the Greek world, including parts of Italy. ​
White-ground lekythos (funerary vase) depicting warriors arming. Douris Painter, c. 500 - 490 BC. H. 33.4 cm. J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu 84.AE.770, Digital image courtesy of the Getty's Open Content Program.
Classical Greece
The Classical Period of Ancient Greek history is defined as existing from 510 - 323 BC, but 480 - 323 BC in terms of pottery. It was a period that encompassed the Persian Wars (499 - 449 BC), the Peloponnesian War (431 - 404 BC) and much of the literature that has influenced future western thought. In a historical sense, the period is demarcated from the fall of the last Athenian tyrant in 510 BC to the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC.
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Ancient Greece was comprised of independent city-states that shared a culture and religion. Herodotus in book 8 of the Histories defined Hellenism in contrast to the barbarians of the East. He stated: "We are one in blood and one in language; those shrines of the gods belong to us all in common, and there are our customs, bred of all common upbringing." It was also unified by traditions like the games at Olympia.
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During the period, leagues of city-states existed, such as the Delian League in 480 BC, which was led by Athens, and the Peloponnesian League, led by Sparta and formed in the 6th Century BC. The two leagues came to a head in the Peloponnesian War.
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Owing to the geography and prevailing self-determination feeling for the regions, city-states were, however, largely independent. In the case of the Delian and Peloponnesian Leagues, they were largely dominated by two powerful city-states. The threat of the Persian invasions brought Greece to unify, however the alliance fell away after the war and conflict between the city-states resumed.
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Greek religion revolved around myths, which explained the origins of the world and geographical features. Religion permeated both private and civic life. Temples were a central and fundamental feature of urban life, where formal worship took place. The Greeks fundamentally believed that the gods could influence human affairs and reacted toacts of piety and worship. The most famous temple constructed during the Classical Period was The Parthenon, built by the Athenians from 447 - 438 BC as a temple to the presiding deity, Athena.
In each city-state, the majority of the population lived within the urban city, which normally had a surrounding wall (except in Sparta) and an agora, which was a common public area in the centre.
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During this period, the ancient Greeks produced significant works and advancements in the fields of literature and science. The modern world's basic ideas about geometry and mathematical proofs derive largely from Classical Greek mathematicians including Pythagoras and Euclid. Pythagoras, for instance, invented the equation for the length of right angle triangles, a2 + b2 = c2, from whom it takes its eponymous name.
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There were advances also in astronomy and medical science. The first astronomical models were formed, which tried to describe planetary movement, the Earth's axis and the heliocentric system (a model, which placed the sun at the centre of the solar system) while in medical science, Hippocrates, who became the most famous physician in antiquity, established a medical school. Owing to his systematic and empirical investigation of diseases and cures, attested in the surviving many medical treatises he wrote, he is considered the founder of modern medicine, and today modern doctors swear a Hippocratic oath, to intend not to neglect but strive for a high standard of care, after him.
Hippocrates, 1881 Young Person's Cyclopedia of Persons and Places.
In philosophical and literary arts, Plato founded his Academy in circa 387 BC, producing milestone works such as the Apology, Symposium and Republic. Aristotle, his student, would go on to write about topics as varied as physics, geology and dreams, creating the Peripatetic school of philosophy in around 334 BC.
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The Iliad and Odyssey were written down in 670 BC and Greek theatre began in the 6th Century BC. By the time of the Classical Period, what had originally started as tragic theatre led into comic plays, involving writers such as Aristophanes and Sophocles.
Ancient Greece was therefore developing culturally at a quick and successful pace. What is noticeable about this period is the Greeks had firmly established a recognisable and substantive culture, while society was becoming increasingly modern. Red-figure pottery enabled the Greeks to explore themes of this society and culture in an increasingly modern way.
Types of Vases
Ancient Greek vases are characterised by practical shapes, which were particular to the function they were used for. The most common of these shapes were those used for dining, which amounted to a large portion of figured Greek pottery. Most prominently within this category were the pottery involved in the allmale drinking party, the symposium.
Central to the symposium was the krater, which was a large open-mouthed vessel for mixing wine and water, most commonly at one part wine to three parts water, although other stronger or weaker ratios were also used. Alongside the krater was the oinochoe or jug, which was used to pour the wine into drinking vessels once it had been mixed.
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Outside the symposium, the amphora, which was a two-handed jar, was the primary vessel used for storage of liquids. In funerary rites, the lekythos was the most popular oil container and were placed around graves. In the 5th Century BC, the white ground cylindrical lekythos became the quintessential funerary vase of the Ancient Greeks. An example of a calyx-krater is London 1947,0714.18, housed in the British Museum.
Painters
Although there are some signed Athenian Vases, the majority of our modern scholarship's understanding of who painted each vase relies upon drawing together closely similar vases based on style and topics (a process called connoisseurship) and attributing them to a particular painter, whom we can only give a summary modern name.
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The names given to the painters are based on a variety of factors. The Berlin Painter is so called as it was in Berlin that one of their great works was found while the Achilles Painter because of the subject they depicted. These painters developed schools of painters themselves. The Achilles Painter, Providence Painter and Hermonax were all students of the Berlin Painter, and the Phiale Painter was in turn a student of the Achilles Painter.
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In terms of style, painters differed noticeably in their approach. For instance, the mannerists, such as the Pan Painter, held to the archaic features of still drapery and awkward poses with exaggerated gestures whereas the Berlin School favoured a naturalistic pose, usually of a single figure against a solid black background. An example of a work by the Achilles Painter is Eos pursuing Kephalos on London 1772,0320.31, housed in the British Museum.
Themes and Depictions
The themes depicted on Classical Greek Vases range from depictions of the divine and mythological figures to aspects of Greek life in general.
In terms of the divine, one of the most widely seen depictions on Classical Greek Vases is the childhood of the gods, the most common being the birth of Athena, who was born as an adult from the head of Zeus. This can be seen on an Attic black-figure lip cup by the Phyrnos Painter (c. 550 - 530 BC), now housed in the British Museum (1867,0508.962). Other examples of the birth of the gods included the birth of Aphrodite, who was born from the sea, having fallen in after Ouranus' sexual organs had been cut off by Kronos, andDionysus, who was born twice. He is depicted on the Villa Guilia Painter Vase, shown as being handed over by Hermes to the nymphs of Nysa for his upbringing. In general, goddess were depicted as born in adult form, whereas the gods as infants.
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A widespread group of images found mainly on Attic red-figure vases from between c. 500 - 430 BC depict various gods pursuing their love interests. The gods involved include Apollo, Dionysos, Eos, Hermes, Poseidon and Zeus.
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The rise in popularity has attributed to a number of reasons such as the loosening of morals at the time, the increasing male assertiveness in Athens and the perception that women had to be captured and tamed by marriage. Albeit a misogynistic world, pottery produced during 500 - 430 BC in particular depicted scenes such as Zeus chasing both boys and women. This can be seen in a scene of Zeus attacking Ganymede on an Attic red- figure pelike by the Achilles Painter. Other depictions of male gods and goddesses chasing women and boys included Eos, the goddess of the dawn, chasing a boy and Boreas, the North Wind, chasing the Attic princess Oreithyia.
Zeus and Ganymede, Attic red-figure pelike, Achilles Painter, c. 445 - 440 BC. H. 23.6 cm. J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu 75.AE.81 (Gift of Seymour Weintraub), Digital image courtesy of the Getty's Open Content Program.
The Ancient Greeks' mythological depictions during the Classical Period revolved around the myths of Herakles, Theseus, The Trojan War, Perseus and Jason and the Argonauts.
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Notable vases produced during the Classical Period depicting the myth of Theseus includethe Attic red figure dinos by the group of Polygnotos painters (British Museum, London 1899,0721.5), which depicts Theseus fighting the Amazons, and the Apulian red-figure calyx-krater by the Laodamia painter, which depicts the part of the myth where a centaur abducts Periothoos' bride. (350-340 BC) (British Museum, London 1870,0710.2).
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The Ancient Greeks also depicted aspects of human life such as childhood, male labour, women at home, funerals, sport and theatre. Topics ranged from youths playing knucklebones, such as on an Attic red- figure chous, by the group of Boston painters (c. 420 BC) (J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu 96.AE.28) to Greek pantries and drinking mistresses such as on an Attic red figure skyphos. A famous example of a funerary depiction was the grave of an actor depicted on an Apulian red figure volute krater, attributed to the Underworld Painter, which depicts the monument at the grave of the actor. (J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu 96.AE.117).
Mistress Drinking. Attic red-figure skyphos, Unknown painter c. 460-450 BC H. 17.9 cm British Museum, J. Paul Getty Museum 86.AE.265) Digital image courtesy of the Getty's Open Content Program.
Another genre of vase painting was centred around sexual and sensual affairs including courting and sexual activities. These were often racy in imagery and depicted Greeks in the erotic and sexual realm.
Legacy
The Hellenistic period in Ancient Greece, ushered in by the conquests of Alexander the Great, saw the rapid decline and virtual disappearance of black and red-figure pottery. It was replaced by the emergence of new styles across Greece and Italy that swept Ancient Greece away from the traditions of the Classical Period. However, the vases of the Classical Period were collected and sold throughout the following époques of history and many are preserved almost completely intact across the museums of the world today.