An important source of knowledge for the technique of Greek vases is supplied by the representations of ancient potters at work and by potter’s implements which have survived. It may be interesting to review these and see what new interpretations experience at a modern pottery school will suggest.

FASHIONING THE VASES

An Athenian pottery establishment. To the left a man sits on a stool and is holding with both hands an amphora on his lap; a boy (only the head and one hand are preserved) is standing before him, placing one hand on the body of the vase; the latter is painted black, that is, it has already been glazed. The man has the air of inspecting it, while the boy is apparently helping him hold it (since it is still in leather-hard condition, it requires careful handling). The next group represents a man throwing a tall vase on a wheel; a boy is sitting before him on a low stool, turning the wheel with both hands at whatever speed is required. The vase is so tall that the entire forearm of the potter is inserted; while his other hand (now missing) was doubtless placed on the outside of the vase, so that by the pressure of the two hands the pot might acquire the necessary form and thickness. The vase is painted white to show that it is as yet unglazed. A pair of calipers is hanging on the wall ready for use, to enable the potter to check the heights and widths of his products. To the right a youth is carefully carrying away a vase that has just been thrown, to dry. A similar vase is already standing on the other side of a column, drying in the open air or in a court. Both vases are painted white to indicate their unglazed condition. Next we see an old man walking leisurely with a stick. His dignified air is in strong contrast to the busy absorption of the workmen. He is evidently the overseer or proprietor of the pottery. To his right a tall youth is carrying a heavy weight on his back, apparently a sack of charcoal. He is bringing it to the kiln, which is being stoked by the fireman. The kiln has a satyr head at the top to avert the evil eye and protect the pottery from all danger during the firing.[56]

A potter throwing a vase on a wheel, with both his hands placed on the outer surface; only the two hands of the potter and the upper part of the wheel with the vase are preserved.

A potter is sitting on a stool and throwing a vase on a wheel which is being propelled by a boy; another man sits behind him with a krater on his lap.

A potter is sitting in front of his wheel on which a kylix is standing. He is apparently engaged in attaching the handles. On a shelf above are piled some more kylikes and a jug. The whole is very roughly painted.

A potter is sitting before his wheel propelling it with one hand. He is working on what appears to be a one-handled jug. He is not “throwing” or “turning” it, since it already has its handle attached. Perhaps he is incising horizontal lines on it, for which process he could easily propel his own wheel. On the wall hang two other jugs (with similar incised lines), and some plates (?) are stacked on the floor.

A man is sitting in front of a tall globular vase on a high foot. He is not throwing it, for there is no indication of a wheel. Perhaps he is joining the sections of a tall vase, some of which are already in place, while one part lies on the floor waiting to be attached. But the whole scene is so roughly painted that it is impossible even to know definitely that a potter is represented.

A boy is sitting with a cup (kotyle) in one hand and an implement in the other, evidently engaged in a finishing process. Perhaps he is removing the surplus clay after the handles have been attached; for the vase is as yet unglazed and is left in the red color of the clay, in contrast to the black kotyle and oinochoË on the stand close by.

A man is represented in a crouching attitude apparently engaged in building a pot.

DECORATING THE VASES

Athena and two Victories crowning potters at work. To the left is a potter sitting on a low stool and engaged in decorating a volute krater; he is holding a brush in his closed fist in Japanese fashion, and is looking in surprise at the Nike who is crowning him; by his side are two paint pots. In front of him another workman, comfortably seated on a chair, is busily painting a kantharos which he holds tipped on his lap. He also holds the brush in his fist downwards. Another kantharos and an oinochoË stand on the floor, awaiting their turn to be decorated; on a low stand close by are two paint pots, one with its lid tipped against the side. The artist is completely absorbed in his work and has not yet discovered Athena, the patron of arts and crafts, approaching him with a wreath. Behind Athena a third workman is seated on a low stool, decorating a bell krater with a palmette design. He tips up the vase with one hand, holds the brush firmly in his fist, and has his paint pot within easy reach on the floor. A Nike is about to crown him with a wreath; but he, too, is entirely engrossed in his work and quite unconscious of the honor to be conferred on him. Completing the scene on the right is a girl on a low platform painting the handle of a large volute krater. The figure is of special interest today, for it shows that there were women potters then as now. Above her on the wall are suspended a kantharos and a lekythos. The whole scene is of great importance as the most representative we possess of ancient vase painters at work.

A youth is sitting on a stool, holding a kylix by the foot and decorating the outside of it with what looks like a brush with long bristles, though it has also been identified as a feather (by Hartwig). In the hand that grasps the kylix is a pointed instrument which has been identified by Hartwig as the implement with which the preliminary sketch was drawn. The attitude of the painter suggests the quiet absorption required by a delicate task. Behind the youth is his knotted staff, and on the wall hang his oil flask and strigil.

A potter glazing the inside of a kylix as it rotates on the wheel. A woman appears to be crowning him with a wreath.

A potter is sitting on a stool before his wheel, apparently in the act of painting broad black bands on a column krater while the vase is revolving.

To the left a youth is sitting on a stool painting the outside of a bell krater. He is steadying the vase with his left arm placed inside the krater, while he lets the rim rest on his lap. By his side is a low stand with a skyphos evidently containing the paint. A second workman is carrying off another krater to the right. He may be going to fetch some water or wine in it, for it is evidently a completed, fired vase, otherwise he would not be carrying it by the handles. A third workman is moving in the same direction holding up a skyphos, perhaps to get more paint or some water or wine to drink. A krater standing on the ground completes the scene. On the wall hang some implements of the potter’s trade, identified by Beazley from the original as (1) a kylix for drinking, (2) a mortar for grinding the ingredients of the glaze, (3) a brush case, (4) a bowl to contain liquid glaze, (5) a strainer for sieving the glaze.

The master of the pottery is sitting with a kylix in one hand, while with the other he is trying to beat a slave who is running off with three skyphoi. Three other skyphoi are on the ground, while a kantharos and a skyphos are near by on a shelf. Another workman is inspecting a skyphos he has just glazed; a paint pot and brush are on a low stand by his side. He takes no notice of a scene which is taking place close by, a man beating a slave suspended from the ceiling. The workmanship is very crude, and if it is a product of the pottery establishment which it depicts, it is a fair sample of the work we might expect from a place run on such methods!

FIRING THE VASES

Representations of potter’s kilns.

The kilns are domed, and have three openings, one at the bottom for the fuel, one on the side for the insertion of the ware and to act as a spy-hole, and one at the top to let out the smoke and for the regulation of the draught. On figs. 72-79, the firemen are busy stoking the fire, and climbing to the top of the kiln to manipulate the draught-hole with a hooked implement; for the flames are seen emerging at the top, which means that heat is being wasted. Fig. 80 shows the inside of a kiln, in horizontal section, with two openings for the fire, each opening having two channels into the kiln. The vases should of course stand upright, but the painter naturally found it difficult to depict them in the right perspective looking at them from the top.

FurtwÄngler (Beschreibung der Vasensammlung zu Berlin, I, p. 70, note) was inclined to think that these ovens are not pottery kilns, but furnaces for metal smelting. His objections, however, do not hold. The ovens are not too large for pottery, and the climbing to the top for the regulation of the draught is a well-known proceeding. Moreover, the scene (fig. 80) showing the stacked vases, the little pots painted on figs. 75 and 78 as if to indicate the purpose of the ovens, and the representations of potters at work on other tablets, make the interpretation as pottery kilns the most likely. These pictures are of special importance since no actual Greek kilns have yet been discovered, though several Etruscan and numerous Roman ones have come to light (cf. Montelius, Civilisation primitive, pl. 107, 11, and BlÜmner, op. cit., II, pp. 23 ff.).

MISCELLANEOUS SCENES

A youth is sitting in front of an oven removing with two sticks a two-handled vase which has been placed there for drying. He is using the sticks instead of his fingers because the pot is too hot to touch; not in order to avoid injuring the fresh glaze on the vase, as has been suggested (cf. BlÜmner, Technologie u. Terminologie II, 1895, p. 52), for the sticks would mark the glaze as much as the fingers would. Modern potters often use sticks for removing hot ware from the kilns (cf. p. 36).

A youth is sitting on a low tripod in front of an oven. He holds a jug by the handle, and seems to be working on it with an instrument. It is not clear what he is doing; the way he holds the vase by one handle suggests that the vase has been fired. On the oven are a kylix and an oinochoË, perhaps placed there for drying.

A bearded man is represented seated, holding in his left hand two kylikes, one by the handle, the other by the foot. A large part of the stele is missing. The figure has been interpreted, with some probability, as a “master potter.”

A woman is represented seated with a pyxis on her lap and a lekythos in one hand. On the analogy of the Akropolis stele, it is possible that here too we have a votive offering of a potter.

A client in a potter’s shop is examining the stacked ware, and holds his purse ready to pay for what he will select.

Sailing-ship with a sheet wound round the mast, and a row of jugs painted in the field above. The latter apparently indicate the cargo of the ship, and the tablet is probably an offering of a merchant to the sea-god Poseidon for the safe conduct of his precious consignment to foreign lands.

This is the only picture we have of the transport of Greek vases, which we know played so significant a part in Greek ceramic industry. Even in the seventh century B.C., when most important localities produced their own wares, such shipments must have been frequent, since, for instance, large numbers of Corinthian vases have been unearthed in Etruria, and Laconian vases are found scattered far and wide. In the sixth and fifth centuries B.C., when Athens supplied a large part of the Greek world with her pottery, the trade must have been an exceedingly active one; so that we must imagine ship after ship laden with pottery sailing from the Piraeus for distant lands.

REPRESENTATIONS WRONGLY INTERPRETED AS POTTERY SCENES

From time to time various representations have been interpreted as pottery scenes which probably have no such significance. The following are the two most important.

A satyr is stoking the fire of an oven on which is a skyphos. This scene is figured in many of the books on vases (cf. e.g. Walters, History of Ancient Pottery, I, p. 216, fig. 68) and interpreted as a satyr firing pottery; probably he is simply cooking his dinner.

Youth holding the rim of a large krater with both hands. He is sometimes interpreted as a potter working on a vase; but there is no clear connection with pottery work.

POTTER’S IMPLEMENTS

Unfortunately very few potter’s implements of classical Greek times have survived. We have no Athenian wheel or kiln or turning tools. And even from other periods the list of such utensils is a slim one. But what has survived here and there from other periods is in line with the general trend of the evidence—that the techniques in ancient times were very similar to what they are today. Perhaps the most interesting pieces are the terracotta disks found at Gournia, Arezzo, and elsewhere,[57] which are wheel-heads[58] on which the pottery was thrown and turned. On the under side of some of these is a hole for insertion in the pivot (fig. 87).

The potter’s tools found at Arezzo (fig. 88)[59] are not unlike our modern modeling tools and were doubtless used for various finishing processes.

In the British Museum (Nos. 74.7-10,302) are terracotta stilts used for supporting vases in the kilns, very like the stilts used by potters today. It is unlikely that they were used by the Athenian potters, since the Greek black glaze is so thin it would not be apt to run, but for the Roman ware with metallic glaze they were essential, and the marks they left are visible on the feet of the vases.[60] On one of the British Museum stilts (fig. 89) are remains of a greenish glaze from such a vase. No moulds for the Athenian plastic ware have to my knowledge been found. But moulds for the later wares, such as the Arretine, are of course plentiful. They are invariably made of burnt clay. The kilns which have survived all date from Roman times (cf. BlÜmner, op. cit., II, pp. 23 ff.).

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