History of Ancient Pottery: Greek, Etruscan, and Roman. Volume 1 (of 2)Walters, H. B. (Henry Beauchamp)
History
History of Ancient Pottery: Greek, Etruscan, and Roman. Volume 1 (of 2)
Walters, H. B. (Henry Beauchamp)
Mythology, Classical, in art; Pottery, Ancient; Pottery, Etruscan; Pottery, Greek; Pottery, Roman
The statue of Zeus, which has already been mentioned as made by
Theokosmos for Megara (p. 92), appears to have been made from a clay
model. It was intended to be of gold and ivory, but the breaking out of
the Peloponnesian War prevented the artist from carrying out his
intention, and only the head was completed, the other portions being of
gypsum and terracotta. At a later period gypsum was sometimes used for
sculpture, as in the case of an Apollo mentioned by Prudentius,[392]
and some fragmentary remains from Cyprus in the British Museum.
The clay models were sometimes made entirely by hand, but more usually
on a wooden core known as κάναβος,[393] which we may conjecture to have
been formed of two rods in the form of a cross, from the use of the
Latin word _crux_ in this connection.[394] It was certainly a
framework, not a solid core, and must be carefully distinguished from
κίνναβος, a lay-figure. Aristotle, in an interesting passage, uses the
word in speaking of skeletons drawn on a wall.[395] The modelling of
details was done partly with tools, partly with the finger. The use of
the finger-nail for this purpose became proverbial, as in the saying
attributed to Polykleitos: “When the clay has reached the finger-nail
stage, then the real difficulty begins.”[396]
The chief attention of inferior artists was directed to the production
of small terracotta figures, which the Greeks used as ornaments or
household gods, buried in their tombs, or dedicated in their temples.
They follow the same lines of development as the larger sculptures,
beginning with the columnar (ξόανα) and board-like (σανίδες) types
found in the primitive tombs of the Mycenaean and early Hellenic
civilisation. Originally they seem to have been manufactured purely for
religious purposes, but in course of time, with the gradual
rationalising of religious beliefs and consequent secularisation of
art-types, they lost this significance, and, while the _types_ were
preserved, they were converted into _genre_ figures from daily life.
These statuettes have been found on nearly all the famous sites of
antiquity from Babylonia to Carthage and Kertch; the most fruitful have
been Tanagra in Boeotia, Rhodes, the Cyrenaica, Capua and Canosa in
Italy, and various sites in Sicily. In Cyprus, Sardinia, and to a great
extent also in Rhodes, Phoenician influences seem to have been
dominant, and the earlier types bear a markedly Oriental character. For
beauty and charm the palm has by general consent been given to the
Tanagra statuettes of the fourth and third centuries, which were known
in antiquity as κόραι or “maidens,” from the prevalence of the seated
or standing types of girls in various attitudes.
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