Household pottery of the ancient world

The Greek vases on display at the Otago Museum were not made for show. They were items of daily and domestic use, catering for three simple elements; wine, water and oil. 

Wine was stored and transported in amphora; water was carried in hydria; and wine and water was mixed for consumption in kraters. Olive oil may have been carried or stored in amphora, but smaller vessels were in everyday use. These came in three principal forms; aryballos, alabastron, and lekythos. The Otago Museum has examples of these in its collection.

The Otago Museum’s items of Greek pottery have been placed into sections based on the time and style in which they were created.

Geometric

After 1100BC, Greece was cut off from foreign artistic inspiration. Pottery design began to develop without outside influence. This geometric style utilised simple patterns such as checkerboards and concentric circles. The ‘maeander’ (line, or more usually parallel lines with hatching between) was a common component, and geometric decoration was usually broken into rectangular sections called ‘metopes’. In the latter part of this period artists began to draw human figures, birds, fish, chariots and horses in silhouette, retaining the geometric style. These were represented removed from natural surroundings and appreciated for their decorative shape.

Orientalising vases

From the 7th century onwards, communication developed between Greece and the east. This caused the standards and conventions of 7th century vase painters to differ greatly from the geometric works. In vase painting of this period figures of humans, animals and plant life, though formal, are derived from nature and begin to replace the geometric patterns. Subjects are often from the east such as lions, lotus and palms. The new style abandoned geometric silhouette for outline. This meant anatomical and facial details were distinguishable, so one could identify a characters, for example Theseus fighting Skiron rather than “two men in battle”.

Black figure pottery

The black figure technique was invented in Corinth and introduced to Athens about 625BC. This was the technique of painting a figure in a black glaze silhouette with inner details incised with a pointed tool. Red and white paint were sometimes used for added detail. Athens had the advantage of better clay and superior artists that made black figure pottery from Athens the finest of the time. The disadvantage of this technique was that there was no way of varying the intensity of the black. This is why, after the invention of the red figure technique in approximately 525BC, black figure was virtually abandoned.

Red figure pottery

This technique was a reverse of the black figure technique, as the vase was covered in glaze with only the silhouette of the image revealing the bare red clay. Details were then painted on. These vases often combined over-elaboration in design with poor quality execution. In terms of subject matter, any interest in the lives of humans is lost and replaced with images of cupids and women at their vanities. Subject matter was also inspired by the contemporary theatre.