Greek Pottery

Although Greek architecture may have the most obvious influence on modern society, we cannot forget the importance of pottery. These everyday items ranged from cups and bowls for eating the daily meal to elaborately painted vases and plates commemorating the stories of mythology and legend. Greek pottery went through several distinct stages of development, and knowing them is useful when you want to determine the age of non-pottery pieces. Archeologists use pottery as a way of dating other material found in the same location.

How do we determine the age of a piece of pottery? One way is to examine the style in which it is painted. The use of color, both in design and background, helps to date a piece. It can also be helpful to examine the shape and uses of a piece.

Origins of Greek Pottery: The First Painted Greek Vases

From the beginning of Greek pottery work, it clearly distinguished itself from other styles in the decoration of its surfaces and a visible presence of a new intellect. The Greco-Phoenician styles are quite distinct from the Egypto-Phoenician and the Phoenician. From the overlapping circles and crossing straight lines of these earlier pottery styles, the Greek eye selected and improved upon them with a variety of bead, drop, and scroll patterns, which have always remained favorites on Greek vases. The lines of the rigid lotus flower were altered into separate patterns, recombined in conventional forms of exceeding gracefulness, without symbolic meaning, and used solely as ornamental devices pleasing to the eye. Other leaves and flowers first copied from nature were arranged as wreaths or border patterns, indicating a new interest in the art of ornamentation.

In other words, early Greek pottery borrowed the imagery from earlier pottery, but did so by rearranging it into patterns without any symbolism.

This style of decorated vases has been regarded as the earliest of purely Greek origin, and is known as the Geometric style. As was mentioned on the previous page, it consisted of patterns borrowed from earlier motifs as well as purely geometric shapes. Later, toward 800 BCE, another form of decoration was added. The new puzzling character of decoration, which usually consisted of rows of animals – panthers, lions, goats, deer and birds was usually arranged in friezes around the vase.

What were the primary colors used in ancient Greek pottery? Red and black.

Storytelling and Pottery

The Black and Red-Figured styles depicted scenes from Greek history and mythology as well as scenes from daily life. This concept of story-telling through pictures was a giant stride for the Greeks. They had introduced the idea of decoration for beauty into the ceramic art and discarded the old prevailing notion of using this art form for religious symbolism. Now another innovative idea was born, that of illustrating stories on pottery. In our age of pictures and illustrated books, it seems a simple idea. So is writing and printing. But the birth of invention is more marvelous than its progression. The first use of a sign to express the spoken word visually is a far more impressive invention than the printing press.

Was this new use of art a Greek invention? The Egyptians seem to have practiced it for 2,000 years. Egyptian hieroglyphic writing often included an occasional picture to clarify the meaning of preceding signs, which is the basic essence of the art of illustration. However, there is no evidence that the Greeks derived this idea from Egypt, and it may have been an original Greek conception. The Greeks claimed it as such, but no records remain of painting in very early times. Homer says nothing of painting at the time of the siege of Troy. The Greeks ascribed the beginning of painting in their culture to outlines drawn on works found on the island of Sicyon. But the technique of filling in the outlines with color was regarded as a later practice.

Wherever the Greeks found this idea, they now began for all subsequent ages the custom of telling stories, recording history, and perpetuating mythology in pictures. For the purposes of this art, they found that pottery was best suited to their ideas, and the favored colors were red and black.