History of
Greek Art
Thus much of the history of Greek art as illustrated
by the potteries of Cyprus. From the date of the first
painting of subjects, the advance of the art was
steadfast until its culmination in the productions of
the fourth century before Christ--the Golden Age of
Grecian civilization.
The customary classification of Greek painted vases
is in five divisions:
1. The earliest style, heretofore described, known as
Doric, etc., of which the type is the representation of
animals and flowers, usually in friezes or bands on
cream-colored or gray pottery (III. 46).
2. Vases of red lustrous pottery on which the figures
are painted in black (III. 41).
3. Vases of the same pottery on which the backgrounds
are black, the figures being in the red or yellow of the
pottery.
4. Vases of the same general style with the last,
decorated in florid style, with arabesque and other
ornamentations, often introducing Eros (Cupid), and
sometimes gilding.
5. Vases with white surfaces, painted with figures,
sometimes in outline, sometimes in several colors.
Besides these styles, others were occasionally used.
Vases ornamented by flutings; with moulded reliefs;
decorated in black only; in opaque white on black; in
pale-yellow and brown with white on black; vases in the
forms of animals, birds, human heads; in short, an
innumerable variety were produced. The five principal
styles, however, were vastly more common than any other.
The red color varies to a yellowish shade. Both were
artificially produced, heightening by an earth or
pigment the natural color of the clay. The black was
applied as a thick paint, sometimes burning to a
greenish shade, and occasionally to a metallic
iridescence. The details in subjects painted in
black--features, muscles, lines of dress, feathers,
etc.--were incised through the paint. White was used for
female faces, and on parts of armor and dress, and
maroon was sparingly employed in parts of the designs.
The vases were usually painted black, leaving open
spaces of the red on which the paintings were placed.
The best period was reached when the figures were
executed in red, with the details pencilled in black.
The advance of art is visible in these. The earlier are
stiff and hard; the later free, artistic, the
countenances for the first time having expression and
variety, figures and costume possessing grace and
delicacy. The ornamentations on the necks and smaller
parts of objects included a great number of patterns,
sometimes used purely as suitable and beautiful,
sometimes in reference to the subject painted.
Accessories were occasionally introduced as
explanatory--a bird to signify that the scene was in the
air, a fish to indicate a marine subject, etc. The
"fine style," so called, was characterized by
the perfection of the drawing, the figures being in red,
the ornaments and inscriptions in white. "All that
is known," says Mr. Birch, "of the style of
painting of Polygnotus, Parrhasins, and Zenxis may be
traced in the designs of these vases; while the later
ones, in the isolation of the figures upon larger plain
surfaces and the elongation of forms, approach the known
canon of Lysippus, and blend into the immediately
subsequent style, which just preceded the final
decadence of the art of painting vases." This
subsequent style was the florid, in which ornament is
increased to lavishness, the figures are more full and
round, polychrome decorations are introduced, and a
general luxury of art without simplicity characterizes
the vases.
The union of the two colors in pottery, black and
red, fully satisfied the Greek lover of the beautiful,
and these are the colors of much of the best Greek
pottery, in no way relieved as to general effect by the
slight use of dull maroon and white. Rare specimens have
figures in white on black grounds, and some have
polychrome decorations.
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