Ceramics in Greek art It constitutes in the minor arts the best and most varied expression as far as decoration and painting is concerned. This variety gives us a very complete evolution of its culture. With its own style and techniques, it is characterized by having varied and original forms, the geometric elements arranged in stripes, the shades of the mud, from the yellow to the brown gray predominate, has red figures on the black or red background the background and black figures, animal and human forms predominate.
- Greek ceramics had clay material and used several types of this.
- Athens’s clay was rich in Hiero oxide and with cooking acquired a beautiful orange red color.
- The Corinth, devoid of iron oxide, had a whitish color. These differences allow determining the origin of ceramic vessels.
Greek ceramic elaboration process:
The clay was extracted from quarries was purified and then washed for several weeks. It was soaked in large ponds where the fine particles rose to the surface and were recovered. This stage allowed to eliminate impurities that could cause the outbreak in cooking. Then it dried to the sun cut into blocks. Then they were stored for some time to acquire their plastic qualities that allow it to mold it.
When making a glass, the potter kneaded the paste to expel the air bubbles and worked on a lathe operated by the potter himself or an assistant. Once manufactured he started drying. It was then painted, according to a technique that varied according to the style used. In general, the painter played with the contrast of the red clay and with a black layer.
The water of the impurities, recovered opting and used to draw the decorative motifs. Through cooking, the drawings on the clay color background resurface.
Once the painting had dried, the painter gave way to the potter for cooking that was relatively simple in principle, but required attention and experience and counted three stages:
- Cooking in oxidant atmosphere
- Cooking in reducing atmosphere
- Cooking in re-oxidant atmosphere
We find in the subject of ceramics a large number of forms and decorative motifs: heroic legends, historical themes, athletic games, scenes of everyday life. Proof of its importance and prestige is the fact of being signed by both the ceramist and the painter.
Geometric style (X -to the VIII AC)
The geometric decorative motifs in horizontal bands are the main theme. They are arranged in bands separate from black areas by triple lines. After the time, the balance between the decorated bands and the shaded bands broke in favor of the decoration: the meanders and other reasons ended up covering the entire glass.
In the average geometric the figurative aspect is introduced representing animals, such as horses. Ocas and deer that combine with geometric -style bands.
The vessels begin to decorate profusely without leaving any empty space, showing signs of what is known as a vacui horror; Latin expression that literally means (fear of vacuum) and is a widely used expression in art criticisms to point out this phenomenon in the decorative aspect.
Scenes usually appear in the center with the following characteristics:
– The main theme is a funeral ceremony.
– Schematism and stylization.
– Flat painting, without perspective or proportion.
Corinthian style (until the sixth century ac) Decoration of animals, real and fantastic, in horizontal stripes on white background.
Orientalizing style (until the seventh ac)
I was influenced by the oriental reasons, protagonists the human figures, also in horizontal bands
Ceramics of “Black Figures”
From the seventh century, the narrative displaces the geometric and the bands definitively disappear, the only theme in the belly of the glass. The appearance of the human figure is noticed here, silhouetted in black on ocher funds. It is characterized not only by the drawing of black figures on the clay bottom, but also by the use of incisions.
Ceramics of “Red Figures”
It appears at the end of the sixth century BC, but its peak is in the 5th century the scenes win in naturalism and expressiveness, perspective effects, sensation of spatial reality are achieved. In this case, an inverse technique is used to that of the black figures in which on black background highlights in red corresponding to the color of the mud that was used to obtain the mixture of the paint.
There are also greater delicacy in the details and greater complexity in the reasons. In addition to the simple investment of the colors, the technique of the ceramics of red figures allowed an improvement of the drawing, especially in the representation of the draped, the bodies and the details, whose precision replaced the almost complete disappearance of the polychromy, winning in the realistic expression.
Polychrome ceramics
It also develops in the 5th century, when more colors are added.
From the 5th century, we cannot appreciate the evolution of Greek painting taking as an example the ceramic decoration, since there will be no correlation between them.
To learn more about Greek ceramic types according to their shape and usesI suggest visiting this very interesting and informative article in the blog “Aparnar la Historia.com”
The mosaics and some frescoes of the Roman era, copies of the most famous Greek painters (Apeles, “official” painter of Alexander the Great, dose of Pergamum, Theon or Eretria Filoxen), show that their evolution continued towards a greater naturalism, achieving in Hellenistic era the domain of the volume and perspective.
Unquestionably Greek art deeply inspired the artists of the time not only in Rome but also throughout the region and who subsequently used the techniques and advances of the Greeks in achieving the perfect representation of the figure; continuing that line and adopting it as the root of their works to which they added their own personal vision as well as the influence that the socio -economic environment inspired their works. Greek ceramics Among the so -called minor arts, it laid aesthetic, stylistic and technological basis for contemporaries and future generations of ceramists and even painters and mosaic creators.
Greek sculpture and architecture due to the magnitude and importance they are treated in separate articles.