"O strict bride of silence,
A child in the obscurity of times gone by,
Silent woman, on which antiquity
An eloquent trail captured! ".......

John Keats "Ode on a Grecian Urn" (Translation by G. Kruzhkov)

Why I fell in love with Greek vases, I once told you a long time ago in this entry http://liorasun55.livejournal.com/126036.html But, realizing that ancient vessels are not only household items, but also works of ancient art, I decided to take an interest them in more detail, and, as is usually the case, everything turned out to be very difficult. It turns out that vases are very different from each other, depending on the period, and on the place where they were made, and on the method of applying the design, and on the forms, and accordingly, they also have a lot of names. In general, as usual: what seems simple to an amateur turns out to be a whole science! :)

And, in order to dot the i's and to understand the matter, look at the photographs from the Berlin Altes Museum, which I brought from the last edition, I decided to organize the information that I managed to collect on this topic.

The variety of forms can be demonstrated by this picture:

Actually, if you look at it, vases are dishes. Utensils are always needed in the household; the need for them, apparently, appeared when ancient man realized the need to store food... And then he learned to cook food in them. Once upon a time, in the Neolithic era, someone thought of throwing an object molded from clay into the fire. It became hard and ceramics were born. Even today we readily use ceramic tableware and, it seems, humanity will not give it up for a long time, despite the fact that we have an abundance of other materials for the production of tableware of all forms.

Anyone with even the slightest interest in history and archeology knows that ceramics are an important marker for dating the cultural layers revealed during excavations. Precisely because it accompanied man for many millennia and because scientists know how it developed and changed over all these centuries depending on its location on earth.

Why did the ancient Greeks come up with so many shapes for their vases? The shape of the vessel was determined depending on what products it was intended for storing. And the ancient Greeks stored mainly olive oil, wine and water, as well as bulk products. Of course, there was a need to serve drink and food to the table, and to pour wine, and the forms of ancient ceramics multiplied and improved.

But in order to describe how different vessels differ from each other, you first need to master how the parts of a vase are usually called. This picture is very convenient for this:

Perhaps the most famous of the Greek vases is amphora. There is hardly a person who has not heard of her.
Amphora (from ancient Greek ἀμφορεύς "vessel with two handles"- an egg-shaped vessel, sometimes with a narrowed lower part and widened upper part, with a narrow neck, with two vertical handles, used for transporting wine and oil. Amphoras both decorated the life of the ancient Greeks and were practical in everyday life. It was convenient to store wine in amofras: close the narrow neck with wax or resin, and the wine located in the lower wide part did not evaporate and was preserved longer. The sediment accumulated in the lower narrow part and was not agitated when the wine was poured from the amphora. Thanks to its cone-shaped lower part, the amphora was easy to bury in the ground and thereby preserve the wine at lower temperatures.

Thanks to the elongated, rounded shape of the amphora, they were easy to fan out into the holds of ancient ships. Actually, amphorae were ancient containers.

This is an amphora from the Berlin Old Museum (it is not prohibited to photograph there, but all exhibits are under glass). Images on vases are a separate, very fascinating and extensive topic, since understanding what plot is depicted by the artist on each of them, delving into the reading of the Myths of Ancient Greece at the same time is an incredibly interesting activity, but this is material for many books, and not for one story)

It would be a mistake to believe that amphorae were used exclusively by the Greeks. They are found during excavations over a very vast territory, quite a few of them in the Black Sea region and in the Crimea, for example... and thisbecause Greek amphoras were very valued by the Scythian kings.(while looking for information for an article, I saw such facts mentioned many times. If you remember, recently even Putin was lucky enough to dive and - oh, miracle! - emerge with an ancient amphora in his hands :))

Amphoras were often sealed with a clay stopper, which was fixed with resin or plaster. The Greeks placed a mark on the handle of the amphora indicating the city of manufacture (Sinope, Tauride Chersonesos), and the Romans hung a label on the handles, for example, indicating the type of wine.

Hydria(lat. Hydria), otherwise Kalpida (lat. - Kalpis) - a vessel for water with three handles: two small horizontal on the sides and one vertical, as well as a long neck. They are similar to amphorae, but hydria have a more rounded body.

The girls went with them to the source for water. Hydria were worn on the head or shoulder, holding them with the hand. Images of such scenes from life can also be seen in the drawings depicted on the vases themselves.

Sometimes hydria were also used as urns for storing the ashes of the dead.

Personally, I really liked the idea of ​​three handles: two are convenient for carrying water, as well as placing a vessel under a stream of water, and the third is needed when tilting the vessel, pouring water out of it, and it is also convenient to carry an empty vessel, holding it by the vertical handle.

Here is a hydria from the Hermitage collection, dating back to 510 BC.

And here is a hydria from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which depicts a scene of the hydria being filled from a source :)

As we can see from the painting on the vase, nothing has changed since the sixth century BC: women, having come for water, use the occasion to chat to their heart's content :)

Kanfara- wide drinking vessels with two handles, something like a goblet. Most often on a high leg. The graceful handles of the canfar protrude beyond the top line of the vessel. Canthar was considered an attribute of Hercules and especially Dionysus: the Greek God of wine was often depicted with canthar in his hands.

Kanfar from the Athens Archaeological Museum

This is a drawing depicting the god Dionysus with a canthar in his hands. It was painted in 500 BC on a plate that is kept in the Louvre.

Kilik (Greek kylix, Latin calix - “round”)- a vase from which they drank wine. This is a vessel that looks like a flat bowl on a foot or low tray with two horizontal handles. Kiliks were very common. The kylikas were decorated with paintings outside and inside.On many kylixes there is an inscription:“Chaire kai piei eu” (Greek, “Rejoice and drink happily”). Narrative scenes were depicted in a circle on the outside of the bowls (in the intervals between libations, the kylixes were hung by the handle from the wall and such paintings were clearly visible)

Here is a kylix from Greece, dating from the first quarter of the 6th century BC and is an exhibit of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts.

The same kylix from the inside

and he's the one below

CRATER(Greek krater, from kerannymi - “mix”) - an ancient Greek vessel for mixing wine with water. According to customs, the ancient Hellenesthey mixed one part of wine with two parts of water - drinking undiluted wine was considered a manifestation of wildness, immoderation, although drunkenness was common (remember Bacchus).Craters are large vessels with a wide mouth, like cauldrons, and two handles on the sides.

Examples of craters:

Both craters are from the collection of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts.

Continued here (part 2).

Ancient Greek vase painting

CORDED AND Jagged ORNAMENTS OF NEOLITHIC CERAMICS OF KARELIA

Ceramics belongs to a number of the most important archaeological materials and is the subject of diverse research. The typological study of vessels according to their shape, clay composition, type of glaze, coloring, ornament, and method of molding has the main goal of identifying the characteristics of the material culture of ancient tribes, as well as establishing the age of archaeological sites. Studying the technology of ancient pottery production using a typological approach is unlikely to give full results. With the help of a simple inspection and comparison of different series of ceramic fragments, it is possible to reliably distinguish a vessel made by hand or on a machine, restore it from fragments, roughly determine the composition of the clay and describe the ornament, and assign it to a typological group. Much more difficulties arise with this approach, when it is necessary to distinguish between unique molding methods, the technology of synthetic construction of the mass, the type and temperature of firing, methods of surface treatment by embossing, blackening and polishing, the sequence of various operations in the production process, as well as the economic purpose of each type of vessel in different living conditions, different tribes, methods of cooking food, etc.

Of considerable interest are all kinds of prints preserved on the surface of vessels: fingers, molding tools, fabrics, braids, stamps, seals, plant and animal fibers, grains, etc. Imprints of grain grains on ceramic products often served for archaeologists as documentary evidence of the existence of a certain species agriculture of some sites and entire regions. However, the study of imprints on ancient ceramic products was of a random nature; moreover, it was carried out by very few archaeologists and without any methodological prerequisites. An example of such a random study is the article by A. S. Sidorov “On twisting fibrous substances,” in which the author tried to show the technique of twisting ropes using imprints on ceramics from northeastern Europe. The matter actually came down to very meager descriptions of two types of twisting (from right to left and from left to right), which existed since Neolithic times.

Of significant interest is the work of M. V. Voevodsky “On the study of pottery techniques of primitive communist society in the forest zone of the European part of the RSFSR.” In the work, based on ethnographic and archaeological material, the ancient production of ceramics is examined comprehensively. Methods of surface treatment are properly covered, noting, for example, that a tuft of grass, a rag or leather, and a toothed smoothing iron were widely used as tools. The author successfully compared the ornaments on the vessels with impressions on plasticine of toothed stamps found at the sites.

Traces on ceramic products undoubtedly represent a more extensive source of knowledge than has hitherto been commonly thought. To use it, a functional-analytical approach to the material is required.

The study of numerous imprints - impressions on ancient clay vessels allows us to study methods of molding, processing the surface of vessels and restore the appearance of the tools that served for this purpose.

It must be pointed out that the application of microscopic analysis to the study of imprints on clay products is very limited. The relatively rough, porous structure of the ceramic allows for small magnifications that are within the capabilities of a binocular loupe. Only the determination of the composition of the clay mass, when observations are made from thin sections, requires larger magnifications. When it comes to examining imprints or voids formed from animal or plant fibers, there is a need for a binocular microscope. Often, however, such prints are quite large, well defined, and when studying them you can do without the use of optics.

We studied the techniques of surface treatment and applying ornaments using materials from various eras and regions.

The first work in this direction was carried out on fragments of pottery from the Neolithic site of Kurmoyla on Syamozero in Karelia, excavated by N.N. Gurina in 1949. It was ceramics typical of the north of Eastern Europe with textile and pit-comb designs, quite rough in quality and dough composition. However, the rope and jagged stamp impressions on the surface created an impression of elegance. The ornamentation, based on the combination of elements - pits, rope imprints, combs - was varied, and it seemed that here we were dealing with a relatively complex technique for decorating vessels. The task was to find out the specific technical means by which the ornament was applied.

The observation was carried out using a binocular magnifying glass (12.5 X 1.3). Then plasticine casts were made of the main ornamental details, which showed very simple techniques for working with rope and gear stamps. Based on observations and casts, it was not difficult to recreate these stamps and use them to reproduce similar patterns on plasticine.

The simplest stamp was a piece of cord, 3-4 mm thick, which was pressed onto the outer surface of the vessel. We show an image of a fragment of a vessel with an ornament of round pits, pressed out with a wooden stick on the rim, and below it are horizontal impressions of a two-strand cord in several rows (Fig. 52-1). The lace was twisted from two strands of plant fiber by moving the fingers from left to right. It is twisted relatively weakly, since the prints of the turns did not close to each other (Fig. 52-3).

The second type of cord stamp was a flagellum made from cord. A slightly more tightly twisted strand of fibers was wound onto the same lace, resulting in a flagellum with seven turns. Clutching the flagellum with his fingers, the potter pressed this simple stamp onto the damp surface of the vessel (Fig. 52-8). Proof that the lace was not wound around a stick, but was used in the form of a soft flagellum, can be a plasticine cast of this type of ornament (Fig. 52-6). From the cast you can see, firstly, that the outer turns are poorly imprinted here - and this can only be the case if the axis of the stamp is bent in an arc; secondly, the coils were wrinkled and slightly separated from pressure, which would not have happened if the lace had been wound around a stick.

Rice. 53. Technique for applying the ornament: 1 - fragment of a vessel with an ornament resembling a wickerwork; 2 - plasticine cast of the ornament; 3 - a stamp in the form of a stick wrapped in a cord made of cotton fiber; 4 - stamp imprint on plasticine; 5 - fragment of a vessel decorated with ornaments; 6 - plasticine cast of a cord ornament; 7 - a stamp made of cord wound around a stick; 8 - imprint of a cord stamp on plasticine; 9 - imitation of a “textile” ornament on plasticine using a cord stamp.

The third type of rope stamp, which has a number of options, is a cord wound around a stick with a round cross-section. The imprints of the turns made with such a stamp are arranged in a row in the form of indentations, the shape of which depends on the nature of the lace and the method of winding. In some cases, a slightly twisted strand of fibers is wound around the stick with a small or large interval between turns. If the distances between the turns are significant, then the imprints on the vessel sometimes create a false impression of traces from the “basket” (Fig. 53 - 2). Often, impressions of this type are combined with rows of pits. Stamps made from tightly twisted cord into two strands, with turns closely spaced next to each other on a stick (Fig. 53-3), produce impressions of a more complex pattern, reminiscent of an ornament applied with a “flagellum,” but with a clearer and more regular shape. The number of turns wound on a stick ranges from 4 to 10. This type of stamp is interesting because with its help it is very easy to create the appearance of an imprint of coarse fabric by pressing the stamp evenly in a row so that there is no interval between each imprint. For comparison, here is a snapshot of the “textile” texture from the imprint of our rope stamp on plasticine (Fig. 53 - 9). It is very likely that many samples of Neolithic pottery from northeastern Europe, on which archaeologists have so far seen fabric prints, bear the impressions of a rope stamp obtained by this method.

Thus, the study of rope ornaments on clay vessels allows, in addition to an accurate restoration of the application technique, to provide some insight into such an important issue as the origin of weaving. When and how does it arise in northern Europe? After all, the fact of spinning threads, twisting cords and ropes, which we speak about with certainty, does not mean the existence of even the rudiments of weaving. Weaving should not be confused with weaving, which arose very early, possibly in the Paleolithic.

The simplest rope production is fully justified in the north by fishing, the need for nets, lines for fishing rods, etc. But the population of this region in the Neolithic era and even later continued to dress in large numbers in animal skins, leather and wickerwork.

It is also worthy of attention that the weaving of threads, laces and ropes, judging by the impressions of the studied ceramics, was made from fiber not of animal, but, most likely, of plant origin. Imprints of large fibers, strands and coils show that the fiber was not elastic, the coils easily wrinkled and shifted, and took on a disjointed appearance. Such signs are especially characteristic of plant fibers that have absorbed moisture.

Applying jagged ornaments (pit-comb) to vessels was a very elementary matter, perhaps simpler than decorating dishes using a cord stamp.

At a quick glance at pit-comb ceramics, much seems incomprehensible, since the tools (stamps) are reflected here in a negative form. In addition, some symmetry in the arrangement of ornamental details on the surface of the vessel creates the impression of complex work. But after plasticine casts were taken from the depressed ornament, the shape of the stamp, at least its working part, which is of greatest importance to us, became very clear. In some examples (Fig. 54) you can see that to obtain jagged images you do not even need a bone or stone stamp, similar to those presented in the work of M.V. Voevodsky. A piece of wood, a sliver with light notches or cuts along the end (which can be a matter of one or two minutes) is easily transformed into a stamp that gives very clear and distinct impressions on plastic material. There is no doubt that wooden stamps were used widely, but only stone and bone stamps have survived, from which we make judgments about the technique of applying the ornament.

RECONSTRUCTION OF GEAR TOOLS FOR SMOOTHING SURFACES AND APPLYING ORNAMENTS ON VESSELS FROM ILURATE AND OLVIA

Very often, when making simple vessels, Neolithic hunters and fishermen and potters of relatively developed societies, far advanced from the Neolithic stage, processed the surface of the vessels and applied ornaments with only one tool. The ironing iron in their hands also served as a stamp, which during ordinary observation escapes the attention of the archaeologist, who believes that in this case two or even several tools could have been used.

Such examples are very numerous. We will limit ourselves to considering first the simplest case, using ceramics from a Neolithic settlement discovered by N.N. Gurina near the city of Narva in 1951. Fragments of vessels were found here, covered with frequent small pits on the outside and furrowed with equally frequent grooves on the inside. At first, the outer surface appears to bear traces of rough fabric or weaving. But upon careful study, one can be convinced that it was simply “stuck” with a bunch of short twigs, with the help of which the inner surface of the vessel was smoothed. The width of the marks-furrows and the diameter of the pits (the impression of the twigs at the end) completely coincide, as do the outlines of the entire bunch, the shape of which is depicted here from different viewing angles. A bundle of thin twigs was quite suitable as a trowel or spatula, representing a flexible tool, very convenient for surface treatment. When pressed, its working end moved slightly to the sides and did not press through the soft walls of the raw vessel. It was especially advisable to use it when processing the internal surface.

A more interesting example of the use of a notched spatula and as a stamp is provided by materials from Olbia, delivered to the laboratory of S.I. Kaposhina from excavations in 1951. The gray-brown surface of the vessels was streaked with thin parallel grooves about 1-1.5 mm wide; The grooves are located in a certain order; these are traces of leveling the surface with a toothed tool (Fig. 55 - 1).

The use of a serrated instrument was not accidental. A spatula with a serrated edge had its advantages: when leveling the walls, the raw semi-liquid mass of clay on the surface was not captured by the edge of the tool, but was evenly distributed over the surface, spreading between the teeth. Here the same thing happened that can be observed when working with a bunch of twigs: the twigs do not remove the clay from the vessel, do not scrape it, but only move it from place to place. This was especially important when making pottery by hand. Consequently, working with a serrated tool or a bunch of twigs or plant stems was not yet the final finishing of the vessels, but only the final stage of shaping, after which smoothing and even polishing could follow. The latter was obviously done after drying.

Often clay products were not smoothed or polished. They went to drying and firing with such a scratched surface. In the case of vessels from Olbia, a serrated tool was also used to apply ornaments. They made impressions with the serrated end (end) along the rim and in other places (Fig. 55 - 5, 6). The impressions were made with the corner of the instrument and the entire serrated edge, but in all cases, in the depths of the impressions, traces of the teeth, the shape and size of which were the same, are very clearly visible. The size of the denticles corresponded to the width of the grooves on the entire surface. The width of the working part of the instrument could also be determined from impressions; in some places (Fig. 55-2) it was about 20 mm. Judging by the end prints, the thickness of the tool did not exceed 1.5 mm.

Thus, the gear tool was a small plate, slightly grooved, on the rectangular end of which light cuts were made in a row, forming small and very low teeth. The material for this tool apparently was animal tubular bone or a piece of shell. The length of the instrument is short, otherwise it would be difficult for them to work inside the vessels. Parallel horizontal grooves are visible on the outer and inner surfaces of the vessels, mainly in the upper part, in the neck. Reconstruction of the instrument, installed according to traces of work, according to impressions, is shown in Fig. 55-7.

In this article, dear readers, we will look at the vase painting styles of Ancient Greece. This is an original, bright and stunning layer of ancient culture. Anyone who has seen an amphora, lekythos or skyphos with their own eyes will forever remember their unsurpassed beauty.

Vase painting of Ancient Greece

Stunning examples of vase paintings from Ancient Greece delight the eyes of tourists and are a desirable item in the collection of many art connoisseurs. These colorful vessels delight with their variety of shapes, themes and colors.

In the article we will look at vase painting styles, starting from the periodization of Hellenic culture. Greek vases (drawings will be given below) have gone from a simple pot fired over a fire to a masterpiece of ancient painting in the form of a red-figured bilingual amphora.

Due to their exceptional beauty and delicacy, these items quickly became popular imports to various parts of Europe and Asia. They are found both in Celtic burials and in the tombs of the Middle East and North Africa.

The following fact is interesting. The very first examples were found in Etruscan crypts, and initially no one associated them with the Greeks. It was only at the end of the nineteenth century that Johann Winckelmann proved their Hellenic origin. After this discovery, ancient Greek vase painting became one of the most important topics in the study of antiquity.

Today, vessels make it possible not only to reconstruct many areas of the life of this people, but also to date various events, as well as get acquainted with the names of the masters.

Centers and technologists of vase painting

Thanks to the finds of archaeologists, today many museums around the world can boast of examples of vase paintings from Ancient Greece. There are also Corinthian ceramics, black- and red-figure amphoras, lekythos and other types of dishes from the island of Crete.

On the mainland, the main centers of production were the Attic metropolises of Athens and Corinth. In addition to them, there are also craftsmen from Laconia and Boeotia. It was in these policies that various methods of decorating vessels were invented.

Later the center of production moved to Southern Italy. Just as in the early Hellenic period, he moved from Crete to the mainland. Two cities stand out here - the Sicilian Centuripa and the southern Italian Canosa.

It is worth mentioning the technology used to make Greek vases. The drawings indicate the use of the potter's wheel as early as the second millennium BC.

The clay was selected according to colors. In some areas it was of different colors - from yellow to brown. If the material was very oily, fireclay and sand were added to it. In addition, the clay was specially “aged.” The process involved keeping the raw materials in a humid room for a long time after washing. As a result, it became very elastic and pliable.

The material was then kneaded with feet and placed on a potter's wheel. The finished vessel was dried in the shade for several days, after which the painting was applied. Only after all these procedures was the object subjected to firing.

Aegean period

The earliest examples of this art form are the vessels of Minoan, Minyan and Mycenaean pottery. The first, in particular, is also called the Kamares vase painting (after the name of the grotto on the island of Crete, where samples were first discovered).

As we said earlier, such ceramic painting appears around the middle of the third millennium BC. The first period, which corresponds to the Early Helladic or Aegean era, is divided by scientists into several subperiods.

The first lasted until about the twenty-first century BC. At this time, simple geometric patterns on the single-color walls of vessels prevailed. Then it is replaced by the Kamares style. It stands out among contemporary ceramics. The main distinguishing feature is the white spiral and floral elements that were applied to the matte background of the vessel.

In the seventeenth century BC, the nature of the design changes significantly. Now marine elements become predominant: octopuses, fish, corals, nautiluses, dolphins and others. From the mid-fifteenth century there was a period of decline in Cretan painting.

But on the mainland at this time the so-called “archaic vase painting” was developing. First of all, Minya ceramics should be included here. It was thin-walled, without drawings. This type of pottery existed from the twenty-second to the mid-sixteenth century BC. It is replaced by Mycenaean ceramics.

The seventeenth century BC turned out to be a turning point both in mainland Greece and in Greece. At this time, the Mycenaean culture with its motifs in vase painting spread here. Researchers divide it into four periods, leading up to the era of the Dorian invasion of the country (in the eleventh century BC).

Judging by the drawing, early Mycenaean painting is dominated by simple matte dark drawings around the fifteenth century BC, they are replaced by plants and representatives of the animal world. And in the thirteenth century before Christ, human figures and ships appear. The latter is often associated with which belonged approximately to this period.

Geometrics

In the middle of the twelfth century, the visual arts declined along with the rest of culture. The period before the tenth century is considered a “dark time” in the development of this people.

If we talk about ceramics, then in this era there are three styles of painting. With the arrival of the Dorians, most of the achievements of Mycenaean culture are lost. Until the middle of the eleventh century there was a stage of the “Submycenaean” tradition, when the shapes of the vessels were preserved, but the drawings on them disappeared.

Afterwards comes the period of protogeometric ornament. The pottery was generally characterized by two horizontal circular bands near the neck and in the middle of the vessel. Between them there were usually concentric circles, which were created using a compass.

The composition became significantly more complicated in the tenth century BC. Now single and double meanders appear. Often, geometric objects played the role of a frieze on the wall of the vessel. Below them were stylized images of people, plants and animals.

Gradually, ancient Greek culture progressed. During the life of Homer, there is a tendency to reduce the area of ​​​​geometric friezes, which are replaced by military processions with chariots or a series of various outlandish animals.

The predominant color of the drawings was black or red on a white background. During this period, all anthropomorphic figures were depicted schematically. The men's body was in the form of an inverted triangle, the head was an oval with a hint of a nose, and the legs were depicted as two cylinders (thigh and lower leg).

Eastern trends

Gradually, ancient Greek culture is improving. The images become more complex, and a process of borrowing elements from the art of eastern peoples occurs. Corinth especially stands out during this period. In the next century, this policy will become the only center of vase painting.

So, in the seventh century BC, Greek craftsmen began to adopt motifs from imported fabrics and carpets. Sphinxes, lions, griffins and other living creatures “settle” on the walls of the vessels.

Also a characteristic feature of this era is the “fear of emptiness.” This is how researchers named the original feature that distinguished ancient Greek vase painting of the Corinthian style. We tried not to leave a single unfilled space on the entire surface area.

It was the Corinthian potters who laid the foundation for an entire era in ceramics. The triple firing, which they invented, subsequently showed itself in black-figure amphorae, which we will talk about later.

Researchers divide the orientalizing style into the Corinthian and Attic periods. In the first of them, vase painting developed from schematic animals to natural images of animals and detailed depictions of mythological creatures. The main rule of potters was to make maximum use of the outer surface of the pots. These vessels can be compared to a painter's canvas or a tapestry covering a vase.

The Attic period is characterized by a braid of geometric elements on the neck and near the bottom. Most of the wall was allocated for figures of animals and occasionally plants, which were painted with black paint.

Black-figure vases

A consequence of the development of the Corinthian and early Attic style was black-figure vase painting. This is one of the two most famous and significant techniques in the ancient world, along with red-figure.

The peculiarity of this stage of production was that potters were identified as a separate layer of craftsmen. They worked exclusively on creating the shape of the vessel and securing the finished sample. That is, these artisans sculpted clay and fired products. Painting of ceramics was done exclusively by slaves, who were considered significantly lower in status than potters.

The prepared vessel was fired to a “raw” state. The not completely hardened walls made it possible to make incisions and apply a layer of prepared material, which later became a stunning decoration. Next, the image was created using glossy clay and a special cutter.

Previously, it was believed that such ceramics were coated with varnish, but recent research has proven that it is the slip (a glossy type of clay) that, after firing, makes the surface of the vessel look so.

Thus, black-figure vase painting was born within the walls of Corinth, in the workshops of artisans who sought to bring a piece of the mysterious East into the everyday life of the Hellenes.

But after the Orientalized style, in which animals predominated, black-figure ceramics proper appeared. It is already dominated by images of people. The main motives were feasts, celebrations and themes from the Trojan War.

Such production lasted from the seventh to the mid-sixth century BC. It is being replaced by the red-figure style in ceramics.

Red-figure vase painting

It is believed that red-figure vase painting appeared in the thirties of the sixth century BC. The Athenian Andokidas, being a student of a master of black-figure ceramics, began experimenting with colors for the first time. In fact, he simply did the opposite. Not a black design against a background of unfired clay, but a black background in which the image emerges from the natural color of the material.

It was this period that is famous for the unspoken competition between vase painters, who in science are often called “pioneers.” They worked in different cities, but often left messages for each other on vases. For example, on one of the amphorae the inscription “Epiphanius never knew how to do this” was found. The authorship of the graffiti is attributed to the master Euthymides.

Thus, the red-figure style of vase painting is spreading quite widely. He has already stepped beyond the borders of Greece. A similar technique for painting vessels is found in Southern Italy. It was also popular among the Etruscans.

It is noteworthy that during this period there was a certain departure from the detailing and naturalization of images. The number of characters on the vessels is decreasing, but perspective, movement and other artistic techniques are beginning to be used professionally.

Now the masters do not specialize in the plot or a certain type of images (animals, people, plants...). From now on, vase painters are divided according to the type of vessel. There were artists who worked exclusively with amphorae. Also, the most common types of ceramic products include bowls, vials, lekythos and dinos.

Drawing on a white background

Ancient Greek vase painting continued to develop. Red and black vessels are being replaced by a completely new technique for decorating bilinguals. Now the background is made not black or natural, but white. Also during this period, craftsmen continued to pay attention exclusively to certain types of vessels.

In particular, painting on a white background was used on terracotta alabastrons, lekythos and arybales. It is believed that Psiax was the first to use this technique. He created a lekythos in this style in 510 BC. But the most famous vase painter on a white background is Pistoxenus.

This master worked using the “four-color technique.” He used varnish, paint and gilding. The white itself was achieved using limestone clay, which covered the “raw” material.

Similar styles of vase painting are already moving away from the original decoration of ceramic vessels. Now a completely new direction in art is being created, like original painting.

This period became one of the final ones in the history of ancient Greek vase painting. Then production moved beyond the country to the colonies and neighboring states. In addition, there is now a move away from scenes with gods and animals. The new masters focused on the everyday life of the Greeks.

Vessels appear with women engaged in daily activities, theater, playing musical instruments, festivals, etc. are depicted.

Gnafia

Gradually, the art of vase painting moved from the Greek metropolis to the colonies. Southern Italian masters were especially strong. Their most ancient and widespread style was gnafia. This is a specific and very colorful painting technique that appears at the beginning of the fourth century BC.

It is characterized by a huge assortment of colors. There were green and brown, red and orange, yellow and gold, white, black and others. The plot was also characterized at the initial stage by diversity. Cupid was found on the vessels, the daily work of women, holidays on the days of veneration of Dionysus, theatrical performances and others.

However, in the thirties of the fourth century BC there is a sharp restriction of means of expression and scenes. Now only white and black colors are used, and the ornament is greatly simplified. Mostly plants are depicted, such as grapes, ivy and laurel, and sometimes human faces are found between the shoots and vines.

Thus, Greek vase painting begins to spread throughout the Mediterranean region during the period of red-figure pottery. After all, it was from this technique that gnafia was born, as its continuation.

Canosa and Centuripe

From now on, Greek vase painting, having gone through the period of gnathia, turns into an attribute of rituals. Roman citizens were more interested in weapons, and the most simple and practical utensils were used.

At the final stage, two production centers are identified - Canosa and Centuripe. In the first one they made vessels, painting them with water-soluble paints. This utensil has not been fired and has not been used. She was simply placed in tombs.

Sicilian craftsmen from Centuripe went further. They didn't even bother to form a whole vessel. Individual parts were produced and painted, which were painted and decorated with stucco. Then, in crypts and sarcophagi, the shards were attached to each other, creating the likeness of a whole jug, bowl or goblet.

The fine arts of Ancient Greece finally moved to Italy. Now the Latins used the experience of ancient craftsmen to decorate the life of their deceased relatives.

As we see, the painting of vessels after the decline of Hellas gradually faded away and sank into oblivion. The Roman Empire was built as a state of warriors and patricians, and not a philosophical society of explorers and inventors.

Thus, in this article we talked about ancient vase painting. This is an original form of art that, after two millennia, decorates more than one world museum. Masterpieces of vase painting from Ancient Greece still amaze researchers and art connoisseurs.

Good luck to you, dear readers! Long journeys and colorful impressions.

“Common culture is what allows a person to feel with all his soul solidarity with others in time and space, both with people of his own generation, and with deceased generations and with future generations.” (Paul Lajevin - French physicist 1872-1946)
One day I opened a purely scientific book -
Questions of the ancient history of Southern Siberia./team of authors; resp. Ed. ME AND. Sunchugashev. - Abakan: Khakass NIYALI, 1984.
And in the article:
Matyushchenko V.I., Sotnikova S.V. “On the nature of cultural and historical connections of the population of the Tomsk Ob region in the Late Bronze Age”
I came across amazing geometric patterns on ancient pottery.

I was deeply struck by the imagination of our ancestors. How they were able to create an infinite number of patterns from ordinary dashes, squares, diamonds, and dots. How strong was their desire to decorate their existence! The article even made an attempt to classify these patterns and compiled the following diagram-table:

1. various combinations of triangles (orn. 13-20);
3. various variants of the meander (orn. 30-41).
And so I started searching on the Internet for the most ancient ornaments created by the creativity of the first people. By the way, the Yandex search engine did not give me too much information on the requested topic. The most important thing is that I clarified for myself the meaning of some words that were unfamiliar to me.
So, I found out the following.
Archaeological research has established that ornamentation on pottery appeared in the Neolithic era, in the 3rd millennium BC, when, while wiping a molded damp pot with grass, a person saw that traces remained on the surface of the wet clay - stripes and dashes. The stripes caught my attention. Apparently at this moment the imagination of the first artist began to work, who subsequently guessed to complicate the patterns by squeezing them out on the damp surface of the dishes with a stick, a bone or a pebble (archaeologists call this pattern pricked).
“The decoration on ancient dishes was in relief: it was applied to a dried but still wet surface using various tools. In the Neolithic era, the entire vessel was covered with ornaments - wavy and straight lines drawn with the end of a stick.” http://hmao.kaisa.ru/showObject.do?object=1808735216
“From the end of the Neolithic, comb stamps (similar to the impression of comb teeth) have been spreading.” http://hmao.kaisa.ru/showObject.do?object=1808735216
In 1968, the Khakass archaeological expedition of Moscow State University under the leadership of Professor L.R. Kyzlasov, during excavations of medieval mounds and a fortress on the left bank of the Yenisei, 40 km below the city of Abakan, in the Oglakhty mountains, two Neolithic sites were discovered - Oglakhty II and Oglakhty III.
During the Neolithic era, people learned to sculpt pottery. The dishes were made by hand, and their walls were usually decorated with various patterns. Settlements with Neolithic ceramics were discovered on the right bank of the Yenisei near the village of Unyuk and on the left - near the villages of B. Kopeny and Abakano-Perevoz, as well as on the Oglakhty mountains - 50 km away. below the city of Abakan. A significant number of molded Neolithic vessels were discovered, their shape approaching ovoid. Their surface is completely covered with an ornament of pitting, herringbone patterns applied with a jagged stamp, carved lines, etc.

Fragments of Neolithic clay vessels with ornaments from the Oglakhty II site. The comb ornament is inherent in the ceramics of all the Neolithic cultures of Khakassia under consideration.

Fragments of vessels near mound No. 4 at the Oglakhty III site. The surface is decorated with a herringbone pattern made with shallow impressions of a comb stamp with triangular teeth; the ornamental lines consist of two rows of these impressions.

Fragments of vessels at mound No. 4 and mound 7 at the Oglakhty III site. Covered with an ornament in the form of a wide “smooth rocking chair”

Explanations on the technique of applying ancient ornaments to pottery:
Comb decoration is a widespread way of decorating ceramics in ancient times. The comb ornament was applied to the damp surface of the clay vessel with an ornament with a jagged edge, leaving imprints in the form of comb teeth (hence - comb, comb). Ornamental stamps were made of wood, bone, stone, and later metal. The most ancient were natural jagged ornaments: shells, rodent jaws. Thus, the lateral parts of the beaver’s lower jaw were used to decorate Neolithic Suppanin ceramics. G. o. appeared on the territory of the district in the Neolithic, along with ceramics. He decorated both Suppanya pottery (5th millennium BC) and early Neolithic pottery in the Surgut Ob region (Bystrinsky type).
The patterns obtained using comb or jagged ornaments are varied. They depend on the size of the stamp, the number of teeth, and the method of contact of the stamp with the surface of the vessel. The stamp could be placed vertically, obliquely, forming horizontal belts, ribbons, waves; could print a broken line, zigzag, wavy line, geometric shapes (diamonds, triangles, etc.); could move the stamp, placing it from corner to corner, forming a “rocking chair” or “walking comb”; they could drag the stamp without separating it from the wall of the vessel (“dragged comb”), and roll the stamp (“rolling”). http://hmao.kaisa.ru/showObject.do?object=1808729303&rubrikatorObject=0
A pricked pattern is a pattern applied using the technique of drawing and pricking patterns onto the soft, unfired surface of a vessel with a sharpened stick or the end of a broken bird bone. The stamping pattern arose as a modification of the pricked one. If the pierced technique involves applying patterns with the end of the ornament at an acute angle to the surface, then with Sh. the end of the ornament was pressed at an angle or rolled (if the stamp had a rounded working surface). Stamps were made from wood, bone, clay or shells.
The simplest, toothed or comb application technique, the stamp appeared in the Neolithic. 2-3 or more teeth were cut on its end. In the Bronze Age, figured stamps (cross, zigzag) appeared. (Lit.: Ryndina O. M. Ornament // Essays on the cultural genesis of the peoples of Western Siberia. T. 3. - Tomsk, 1995. http://hmao.kaisa.ru/showObject.do?object=1808735592)
In the middle of the 3rd millennium BC. The Eneolithic era begins - the Copper-Stone Age. The beginning of the history of Siberian cattle breeders is connected with it. At this time, an alien culture appeared on the territory of the Khakass-Minusinsk basin, which received the name Afanasyevskaya - after the site of the first excavations near the village of Afanasyevo.
The Afanasyevites lived in light portable dwellings such as tents (on pastures and while hunting) and in permanent settlements of half-dugouts and log houses. The ovens looked like cup-shaped pits framed with flagstone. The stove stones retained heat for a long time. Fish, tubers, game and other food were baked in the ashes of hearths; It was convenient to place sharp-bottomed Afanasiev vessels in the ashes.
The ceramics of the Afanasyevites consisted of ovoid, round-bottomed and spherical vessels, as well as incense burner vases. Before firing, all dishes were decorated with various patterns on the top and painted with ocher.

Ceramic pottery found in a mound of the Afanasyevskaya culture of the mid-3rd millennium BC. on the banks of the Yenisei.

In the XVI-XIV centuries. BC. In the vastness of Siberia, the Andronovo culture of the Bronze Age became widespread. It received its name from the excavation site of the first mound near the village of Andronovo near Achinsk. Monuments of this culture are widespread in Kazakhstan, the Urals, Western Siberia, and Khakassia. Archaeologists have revealed that the Andronovo culture was a single culture from the Urals to the Yenisei.

The people of Andronovo did not know the potter's wheel, but they made very beautiful vessels by hand. The ornaments with which the vessels were decorated probably had not only a decorative, but also a magical purpose.

Since the Final Bronze Age, various figured stamps have appeared: wavy, cross, angular, rhombic. Many stamps resemble tracks of animals - a bear, a fox, a moose. To this day, ancient ornaments live on birch bark products of the modern Khanty and Mansi. http://hmao.kaisa.ru/showObject.do?object=1808735216