Roman Glazed Pottery

Author(s): Gisela M. A. Richter

Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin , Apr., 1924, Vol. 19, No. 4 (Apr.,
1924), pp. 94-95
Published by: The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3254899

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 BULLETIN OF THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART

same
samepurpose,
purpose,
was printed
was the
the Ten
Ten Bam-
in printed Bam-
inkinds
kindsofoftechniques
techniques
made
made
their
their
appearance,
appearance,
boo studio and bore the Chin ese
ese name,
name,Shih
Shihsoon
soontotobebe
swamped
swamped again,
again,
however,
however,
by by
chu chai shu hua tse. This waswas first
firstpub-
pub-the
thereddish
reddishbrown
brown
terra
terra
sigillata
sigillata
wareware
of the
of the
lished in I700 and also appe
eared
eared in
in many
manyRoman
RomanEmpire.
Empire.Side
Side
by by
sideside
withwith
the the
terraterra
new editions during the rei
igns
igns of
of Ch'ien
Ch'iensigillata
sigillatapottery
pottery
andand
originating
originating
apparently
apparently
this
this publica-
Lung and Tao Kuang. Of publica-ininthe
theexperimental
experimental
Hellenistic
Hellenistic
epoch
epoch
oc- oc-
rs,
rs, birds,
tion, also, fine pages of flowebirds,fruit,
fruit,cur
curthese
these
vases
vases
with
with
colored
colored
glazes.
glazes.
and bamboo are shown. The ware has been found in diverse
peculiarities
One of the qualities and I of localities, both in the East (Syria, Cilicia,
these Chinese prints is the
way in which Cyprus, Thrace, Southern Russia, etc.) and
black is used in different s] hades and the in the West (Gaul, Italy, etc.); but it
manner in which both the black and the never seems to have had a very extensive
from dark to market; at least up to the present it has ap-
colors are effectively shaded
light by means of wetting ethblock, a pro- peared in comparatively small quantities
ceeding which we do not ,ese in Japanese and has indeed only lately received ade-
prints before the time of roshige
Hi (1797- quate attention by scholars.4 This Mu-
1858). seum is fortunate in having several fine
S. C. B. R. specimens, acquired from the Morgan and
Fletcher Collections and from time to time

ROMAN GLAZED P 'OTTERY by purchases5; so that our collection now

ranks as one of the best. Lately we have
There is a rare and beaul tiful variety of been able to add three new examples (now
late Greek and Roman poti tery of special shown in the Recent Accessions Room) of
appeal to us today, for it s covered
is with which one is an exceptionally important
wn and green one. It is an amphora of angular outline
the blue alkaline and broi
lead glazes so popular -nodern
in r times. with two ribbed handles, covered with a
We are apt to think of hese
t brilliant- beautiful blue-green glaze now partly iri-
inclassical
colored glazes as essentially i and descent (H. I41 in. [35. 8cm.]). The
as confined to Egypt, Mese)potamia, Per- neck is decorated with reliefs of single,
sia, and China.' As a matte
,r of fact, they unrelated figures, taken from the regular
have a long history alsoGreek
in lands. Roman repertoire-Eros playing the lyre,
We encounter them firstMinoan
in times holding his bow and arrows (?), and wrest-
ake
in such products as the sngoddesses ling with a serpent; a seated woman; a fig-
from Enkomi ure with a cornucopia; an eagle; a grass-
from Knossos or in the vases
in Cyprus.2 Then they occiir sporadically hopper; two bearded masks; a female head
during the archaic Greek pe nriod in Ionian -all subjects familiar from countless rep-
wares, for instance, in thosefrom Rhodes resentations on other Roman monuments
and Naukratis.3 But all su lch individual- of the early Imperial period, especially on
ied by the all- sarcophagi, gems, and lamps. On our vase
istic efforts were soon stopp
conquering popularity ofe th< black-glazed the glaze is so thick in places that details
vases which from the sixth ca
entury onward have become blurred and identification is
became the Greek pottery par Iexcellence. neither easy nor certain.
When their ascendancy swas at last over, Neither the shape of the amphora nor the
there was again an opportur lity for experi- quality of workmanship in the reliefs has
mentation and in the Hellen istic period all any particular artistic merit. But the
whole has been transformed into a thing of
1Green lead glazes are commor
in Chinese pot- beauty-as so often in modern pottery-
(206 B. C.-22o
tery as early as the Han period
A. D.). 4For the best account which has so far ap-
2Cf. Murray, Excavations in:yprus,
C pp. 33 ff., peared cf. Zahn, Amtliche Berichte aus dem kgl.
pi. 3. Kunstsammlungen, 1914, XXXV, No. Io, pp.
3Cf. Kinch, Vroulia, p. 67, 6; I Prinz, Funde aus 778 ff. and 8istes Winckelmannsprogramm.
Naukratis, pp. Ioo ff.; Walters, History of An- 5For a description of our best pieces cf. Mu-
cient Pottery, I, pp. 126 ff., etc. seum BULLETIN, 1916, pp. 64 ff.
94

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 BULLETIN OF THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART

by
bythe
the
brilliant
brilliant
glaze, and
glaze,
still more stillin
andperhaps inmore
thethe
kiln.kiln.
The perhaps
plate
The
was fired
plate upside
was down,
fired upside down,
by
bythe
the
many-colored
many-colored iridescence for
iridescencefor
it has ac- there
there
are
itdrops
are
hasof drops
glazeac-
on the
ofrim.
glaze on the rim.
quired.
quired. Moreover,
Moreover,the presence
the ofpresence
the re- of the re- G. M. A. R.
liefs,
liefs, which
whichare rare
are on rare
such vases,
on such
adds vases, adds
considerable
considerable interest
interest
by showingbybeyond
showing
RECENT beyond
ACCESSIONS IN THE
doubt
doubt thethe
classical
classical
origin oforigin
this ware.
of this ware.PRINT ROOM
The
The vase
vase
is made
is made
of coarse,
ofyellowish
coarse, clay
yellowish clay
and was thrown on the wheel, but not Among the accessions of the last year
turned. The reliefs were worked separate- which have not as yet been mentioned
ly in moulds and attached. On the shoul- the BULLETIN, Netherlandish work is
der is a rope pattern, represented by a
roughly worked by . ,, , i- very few items, but
hand. The inside of .. those extraordinarily
the vase is not glazed, interesting. Rem-
but glaze was applied brandt leads the list
to the bottom of the with a number of
foot, to make it water- 'i; ; prints among which
tight. in - te attention may be di-
It is interesting to rected to the Christ
compare our amphora on the Mount of
with a similar one Olives, the small
now in the possession Christ Carried to the
of John D. Rockefel- Tomb, the Spanish
ler, Jr., which is like- Gypsy, the Young
wise decorated with Couple Surprised by
reliefs on the neck, Death, and the sec-
several of which are ond state of the En-
identical with ours tombment in the Dark
Manner. Lucas of
and were evidently !i ..
made from the same . i Leyden follows with
moulds. Still another two of his large wood-
amphora with such cuts: Virgil Suspend-
reliefs has recently . . _ ed in a Basket, and
come into private pos- Truth Deceived by a
session in New York; Woman; and by two
all three are said to engravings: Susan-
have come from Syr- nah and the Elders,
ia and are probably ROMAN A kMPHORA and Samson. In ad-
the products of the COVERED WITH I LUE-GREEN GLAZE dition to these there
3]

same workshop. is an Antwerp Book

The two other new pieces (also from Syr-of Hours of about I495, the only other
ia) consist of an amphora (height, I2-5- in.known copy of which is the well-known one
in the University Library at Cambridge,
[3 I.5 cm.]) decorated with grooves and boss-
es and covered with an attractive blue-green England.
glaze which has assumed a silvery shimmer, France is represented among the recent
and a bright green plate (diameter, 6% in.accessions by a little group of prints and
[I6 cm.]) of the familiar Roman form with books of more than usual interest. Of
low annular foot and short upright rim.these the chief, perhaps, are the Postilles,
While not so important as the amphora with printed by Guillaume Le Rouge at Troyes
reliefs, they are attractive specimens in ex-in I492 (Hain-Coppinger 6097); a curious
ceptionally good preservation. In both we and very rare Danse des Aveugles, printed
can see the marks left by the bits of clayat Paris, presumably a little before 1500,
serving as stilts when the vases were packed which comes from the libraries of Firmin

95

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