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
Greek vases are not so easy to imitate as terracotta figures, the main
difficulty being the black varnish, which can never be successfully
reproduced. Acids or alcohol will always remove modern counterfeits,
but cannot touch the original substance. Since the discovery in Greece
of white-ground vases forgers have had a better chance, and they have
often ingeniously availed themselves of genuine ancient vases on which
to place modern paintings. But the antique drawing is exceedingly
difficult to imitate. In former times Pietro Fondi established
manufactories at Venice and Corfu, and the Vasari family at Venice, for
fictitious vases,[66] and many such imitations have been made at Naples
for the purpose of modern decoration.
The first to make such an attempt in England was the famous potter
Wedgwood, whose copy of the Portland Vase is well known. His paste is,
however, too heavy, and his drawings far inferior to the antique in
freedom and spirit. At Naples, chiefly through the researches and under
the direction of Gargiulo, vases were produced, which in their paste
and glaze resembled the antique, although the drawings were vastly
inferior, and the imitation could be at once detected by a practised
eye. They were, indeed, far inferior in all essential respects to the
ancient vases. Even soon after the acquisition of the Hamilton
collection by the public, the taste created for these novelties caused
various imitations to be produced. Some of the simplest kind were made
of wood, covered with painted paper, the subjects being traced from the
vases themselves, and this was the most obvious mode of making them.
Battam also made very excellent facsimiles of these vases, but they
were produced in a manner very different from that of the ancient
potters, the black colour for the grounds or figures not being laid on
with a glaze, but merely with a cold pigment which had not been fired,
and their lustre was produced by a polish. In technical details they
did not equal the imitations made at Naples, some of the best of which
deceived both archaeologists and collectors.
Sometimes illustrations of vases which never had any real existence
have appeared in publications. One of the most remarkable of these
fabricated engravings was issued by Bröndsted and Stackelberg in a fit
of archaeological jealousy. A modern archaeologist is seen running
after a draped woman called [PHÊMÊ], or “Fame,” who flies from him
exclaiming, [ΕΚΑΣ ΠΑΙ ΚΑΛΕ], “A long way off, my fine fellow!” This
vase, which never existed except upon paper, deceived the credulous
Inghirami, who too late endeavoured to cancel it from his work. Other
vases, evidently false, have also been published.[67]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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