The daily life of the Greeks and Romans as illustrated in the classical collectionsMetropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.)
History
The daily life of the Greeks and Romans as illustrated in the classical collections
Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.)
Art, Greek; Art, Roman; Greece -- Social life and customs; Rome -- Social life and customs
[Illustration: FIG. 139. TERRACOTTA BOAT]
There are a number of objects illustrating various industrial processes
in the collection. A fragment of a pottery cup of the red-figured
technique shows the stage at which the figure is outlined with a
broad band of black paint, in order to make a red silhouette, but the
background has not yet been filled in with black (fig. 141). Several
moulds for making terracotta reliefs are shown with modern impressions
made from them; they represent the lower part of a young man’s figure
(Case A in the Fifth Room, fig. 142), a grotesque of a man, a Medusa
head, and a number of symbols, perhaps for stamping sacred cakes. Another
mould, unfortunately fragmentary, is a chimaera or a goat, a fine and
spirited figure (Case B in the Seventh Room). In Cases C and G2 in the
Eighth Room are examples of Arretine ware, the most beautiful pottery
of ancient Italy. There are also ancient moulds with modern bowls made
from them. Several of the moulds are signed by the makers and by the
owner of the workshop. A small stone mould for casting gold ornaments
of the Late Minoan period is in Case B in the First Room. It has two
dies representing animals, one a bull and the other probably an ibex.
The gold-beater’s block in Case 5 was used for making small ornaments
when many of the same kind were needed. A thin sheet of metal was laid
on the die, covered with wax or lead, and then beaten into the die with
a hammer. There are twenty-two dies on this block belonging in style
to the Roman period. Some gold ornaments used for borders among the
Roman jewelry in the Gold Room were probably made in this way, but such
mechanical devices do not seem to have been employed in making Greek
jewelry of the best period (fig. 140).
[Illustration: FIG. 140. GOLD-BEATER’S BLOCK]
[Illustration: FIG. 141. UNFINISHED POTTERY CUP]
[Illustration: FIG. 142. ANCIENT MOULD AND MODERN RELIEF]
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