Greek Pottery
Potters are very interested in Greek Pottery because they can study and learn the different techniques and styles which were used in early Grecian times. The Greeks had many styles of pottery and there were also many designs and techniques used. It is believed that Greek pottery is valuable in that it shows the development of Greek pictorial art, which is the beginning of the European Drawing and Painting art.
There have been many Greek pottery pieces preserved over the years. There are very few, if any, wood, textile, or wall paintings that have survived. The pottery is the only way we can see what the early Greek art was alike, besides their architectural art. The reason the pottery has survived so well was because the clay was fired and made it very durable. There was a lot of pottery made in Ancient Greek because it was used for storage, transporting, or drinking. The smaller vessels were used for drinking cups, perfumes, and ointments.
The painted decoration of the Greek pottery has become the main source for getting information about the process used to solve the problems of getting a three dimensional object onto a flat or curved surface. The use of the pottery vessels was so strong because other materials were too expensive to use. This is also the reason there are still so many of them around. There were many of them made because they were not to look at, they were to use. No on e said they had to use ugly things so they put their talents to work and decorated the vessels them too. Some of the pieces of pottery date back to 1395-1200 B. C. And possibly earlier.
The first known style of Greek pottery is called the geometric style because it shows designs with circles, arcs, triangles, and wavy lines. The stage when they used the simple geometric patterns on their pottery was known as the Early or “Proto” Geometric. Some of the large storage jars were used for the cremated remains of men, boys, women, and girls. Different shaped jars determined which remains of what gender would be put into it.
The decline of the interest in Greek pottery began before the end of the 5th century B.C..The most inventive artists were becoming more interested in wall painting and other crafts. There are many different styles of pottery made by the Greeks and they are: Pyxis, Alabastron, Aryballos, Skyphos, Sterniess Kylix, Kylix, Kantharos, Oinochoe, Squat Lekythos, Lebes, Stamnos, Psykter, Hydria, Lebes Garnikos, Calyx Krater, Column Krater, Bell Krater, Loutrophorus, Volute Krater, Pelike, and the Amphora. Most of the styles had handles on them.
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