DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4758#0031
XXX CATALOGUE OF VASES.
with badly fixed white pigme'nt on black-varnished or burnished grounds (A 339).
The primitive dark-faced burnished fabric persisted also for a very long time.
It was used by Cycladic as by Helladic potters for their imitations of Minyan
bucchero} A singular feature of Cycladic pottery is the marking of bases with
mat and leaf-impressions (A 322-6, A 361-2 : Fig. 66) and makers' signatures or
records (A 357 etc. : Fig. 80). Such marks occur mostly on Middle Cycladic
fabrics, but the conical shape of the cups with leaf-impressions may well be taken
to date . these examples by their. likeness to the typical Cretan form of
E.M. III (p xxxiii).
The early geometric style of Melos started in two techniques, with semi-
lustrous red-black varnish on a thin yellowish-white slip (A 340-1), and with dull
black pigment on a chalky white ground (A 343-4). The first represents the
last survival of Minoan varnish, which would not produce its lustre on the porous
surfaces of Cycladic and Helladic clays; the second shows the adoption of the
natural local materials. The progress of dull-painted ware in the islands as
on the Mainland was from rectilinear geometric to curvilinear and naturalistic
designs, and from black-on-white to polychrome painting. Polychrome Minoan
pottery (M.M. I—II) occurred chiefly at Phylakopi2 in association with the late
geometric (M.C. I) and early curvilinear styles (M.C. II) ; the polychrome
Cycladic style is. accurately dated by the discovery of about a dozen large jugs,
one of which is in this collection (A 360), in the top layer of one of the Temple
Repositories at Knossos (M.M. Ill b).
The monochrome Curvilinear Style (M.C. II—III) shows considerable
imitation of Minoan forms and motives, but a strong local element is seen in its
loose methods of arrangement and in .its partiality for abstract and fantastic
subjects (A 342). The aimless repetition of small figures and the unintelligent
development of grotesques in Greece have already been noted (p. xxvii), and
followed to Cycladic sources, beyond which may lie deeper Asiatic influences. It
may be that these departures from the orderly standards of Aegean ceramic art
were partly due to indiscriminate reproduction of designs from jewellery and other
decorated works that have not survived ; but it is doubtless true that the Central
Aegean area was exposed to continental influences on both sides, and the strange
anticipations of late Mycenaean and early Hellenic ornament which Middle
Cycladic pottery presents, may have had their origin in early contacts with
external forces which afterwards invaded Greece and contributed substantially to
the formation of its historical culture.
The first Cycladic Polychrome painting (M.C. Ill) was applied in a vigorous
naturalistic style. Its characteristic subjects are large birds, whose bodies are
made with lustrous red discs, their other parts being added in the usual dull
black pigment (A 360). Red is the subsidiary colour in this style, which is known
1 R. M. Dawkins and J. P. Droop in B.S.A., xvii, p. 17.
- J bid, p. 10.
with badly fixed white pigme'nt on black-varnished or burnished grounds (A 339).
The primitive dark-faced burnished fabric persisted also for a very long time.
It was used by Cycladic as by Helladic potters for their imitations of Minyan
bucchero} A singular feature of Cycladic pottery is the marking of bases with
mat and leaf-impressions (A 322-6, A 361-2 : Fig. 66) and makers' signatures or
records (A 357 etc. : Fig. 80). Such marks occur mostly on Middle Cycladic
fabrics, but the conical shape of the cups with leaf-impressions may well be taken
to date . these examples by their. likeness to the typical Cretan form of
E.M. III (p xxxiii).
The early geometric style of Melos started in two techniques, with semi-
lustrous red-black varnish on a thin yellowish-white slip (A 340-1), and with dull
black pigment on a chalky white ground (A 343-4). The first represents the
last survival of Minoan varnish, which would not produce its lustre on the porous
surfaces of Cycladic and Helladic clays; the second shows the adoption of the
natural local materials. The progress of dull-painted ware in the islands as
on the Mainland was from rectilinear geometric to curvilinear and naturalistic
designs, and from black-on-white to polychrome painting. Polychrome Minoan
pottery (M.M. I—II) occurred chiefly at Phylakopi2 in association with the late
geometric (M.C. I) and early curvilinear styles (M.C. II) ; the polychrome
Cycladic style is. accurately dated by the discovery of about a dozen large jugs,
one of which is in this collection (A 360), in the top layer of one of the Temple
Repositories at Knossos (M.M. Ill b).
The monochrome Curvilinear Style (M.C. II—III) shows considerable
imitation of Minoan forms and motives, but a strong local element is seen in its
loose methods of arrangement and in .its partiality for abstract and fantastic
subjects (A 342). The aimless repetition of small figures and the unintelligent
development of grotesques in Greece have already been noted (p. xxvii), and
followed to Cycladic sources, beyond which may lie deeper Asiatic influences. It
may be that these departures from the orderly standards of Aegean ceramic art
were partly due to indiscriminate reproduction of designs from jewellery and other
decorated works that have not survived ; but it is doubtless true that the Central
Aegean area was exposed to continental influences on both sides, and the strange
anticipations of late Mycenaean and early Hellenic ornament which Middle
Cycladic pottery presents, may have had their origin in early contacts with
external forces which afterwards invaded Greece and contributed substantially to
the formation of its historical culture.
The first Cycladic Polychrome painting (M.C. Ill) was applied in a vigorous
naturalistic style. Its characteristic subjects are large birds, whose bodies are
made with lustrous red discs, their other parts being added in the usual dull
black pigment (A 360). Red is the subsidiary colour in this style, which is known
1 R. M. Dawkins and J. P. Droop in B.S.A., xvii, p. 17.
- J bid, p. 10.