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
In the Hellenistic period, when vase-painting had reached its latest
stages, the fashion of glazed enamelled ware was revived; its chief
centre was Alexandria, which would naturally have carried on the
traditions of Egyptian porcelain or faïence. Specimens of glazed ware
with reliefs or modelled in various forms have been found at Naukratis
and in the Fayûm, including a fine blue porcelain head of a Ptolemaic
queen (Plate X.). In a tomb at Tanagra were found a beautiful _askos_
in the form of a duck on which Eros rides, and another porcelain
vase,[439] evidently imported from Alexandria, or some other industrial
centre of Hellenised Egypt. Porcelain jugs, inscribed with the names of
Arsinoe, Berenike, and one of the Ptolemies, have been found at
Benghazi in North Africa, at Alexandria, and at Canosa in Southern
Italy.[440] They are of blue ware, with reliefs of Greek style
attached. Fragments of the same kind dating from the first century B.C.
were found at Tarsos in Cilicia,[441] and in the Louvre there are
glazed wares covered with yellow or green enamel from Smyrna and Kyme.
The British Museum possesses similar vases from Kos and elsewhere, with
wreaths and similar patterns in relief (Plate X.), but these are not
earlier than the Roman period. Enamelled wares of early Roman date have
also been found on the Esquiline, and the ware is common at
Pompeii.[442]
It does not appear that the manufacture of these enamelled wares was
confined to one spot; they are found all over Asia Minor, Italy, and
Gaul, and in other countries bordering on the Mediterranean. It seems
probable, however, that there were three principal centres of the
fabric, at least in the Roman period. The first of these was in Asia
Minor, or the islands along its coasts, whence came the specimens found
at Tarsos, in Ionia, and in the islands such as Kos. These are mostly
small vases, of metallic form, especially in the treatment of the
handles (cf. Plate X., fig. 5), the colour being usually a bluish
green, though some examples are more polychromatic. These seem to have
been exported to Italy, and _viâ_ Marseilles to Gaul. Next, there are
the wares made at Alexandria, of which the vases described above are
examples. And, thirdly, there was a Gaulish fabric, which must probably
be located at Lezoux in the Auvergne (see Chapter XXIII.), examples
from which are found at Vichy, in the Rhone Valley, and at Trier and
Andernach in Germany.[443] Fragments of this ware are even reported to
have been found in England—as, for instance, at Ewell in Surrey, at
Colchester and Weymouth.[444] These are of grey clay with yellow,
green, or brown glaze, with ornaments of leaves, vine-branches, or
scrolls, stamped in moulds; the shapes are jugs, flasks, or two-handled
cups. A later variety is of white clay with a malachite-green glaze,
the forms being again of a metallic type, and towards the end of the
period imitations of glass with _barbotine_ decoration (see Chapter
XXIII.) appear.
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