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Artykuły / Articles
DOI article:Gorzelany, Dorota: Arethusa cups in the collection of the Princes Czartoryski Museum in Krakow: the coin as a decorative element in pottery
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.22230#0044
DOROTA GORZELANY
The effect of additional resemblance of this pottery to the relief-bottom met-
alware was achieved by coating the medallions with a silver or tin layer (tin is
cheaper, but its colour is the same as that of silver and, unlike silver, it does not
yield to oxidization).28 The result was an effect suggestive of the actual usage of
a silver coin for the purpose of the cup’s decoration. This method contributed to
greater prestige for the clay vessels, thus resembiing the metalware thanks to its
borrowed form as well as its specific means of decoration. The black glaze with an
external metallic layer was obtained as a result of the firing at a temperaturę about
1000°C. Such a surface type would be associated with “bright spots” on silver-
ware, and is sometimes compared with tamished wares, darkened from sulphide
layers.29 However, the black colour of the glaze itself, even in the case of thin-wall
cups, would not have an effect on their direct association with metalware. Rather,
they constituted an aesthetic and attractive altemative. A local coating of the still
warm vessel surface by means of a silver or tin foil, which is a techniąue well at-
tested in Greece as well as in the south of Italy, was intended to make those items
of pottery even morę appealing.30 A similar techniąue was applied for silverware
with gilded relief decorations.31
Arethusa cups provide good examples of the evolution of ceramics as well
as the spreading of the forms and methods of metalware decoration into pottery.
The forms of the metal vessels inspired potters or served as models for their prod-
ucts, implemented mostly by putting an emphasis on certain elements of the vessel
structure, e.g., profiled foots, introduction of sharp handle curves and the replace-
ment of chiselled and engraved decorations by impressed and incised ones. The
workshops at Cales became famous for making pottery with its relief decoration
incorporating motifs from relief vessels, coinage, and bas-relief. In the aforemen-
tioned two cases, commonly known iconographic motifs and the objects manu-
factured over the last one hundred years. Calenian vessels enjoyed considerable
popularity, as confirmed by their dissemination in the south of Italy and Etruria.
The use of clay stencils madę it possible to perform serial decorations at some
other centres as well, e.g. at the nearby town of Teanum. Two sanctuaries founded
there by the Sidicines during the Archaic period were located in the proximity of
water-springs (Fontana Regina, Torricelle) and the Loreto sanctuary, established at
the close of the sixth century BC, provided examples of the vases decorated with
28 ZIMMERMANN, Beziehungen..., pp. 66-74.
29 M. VICKERS, D. GILL, Artful Crafts. Ancient Greek Sihęrware and Pottery’, Oxford 1984, pp. 123ff.
The authors assume that the silverware would soon take on darker hues (normally, it was not cleaned up in order
to restore its original colour) and, in conseąuence, dark-coloured vessels served as models in pottery-making.
30 J. BOARDMAN, “Silver is White,” RA 1987, p. 284; ZIMMERMANN, Beziehungen..., pp. 67f.
31 Cf. above.
The effect of additional resemblance of this pottery to the relief-bottom met-
alware was achieved by coating the medallions with a silver or tin layer (tin is
cheaper, but its colour is the same as that of silver and, unlike silver, it does not
yield to oxidization).28 The result was an effect suggestive of the actual usage of
a silver coin for the purpose of the cup’s decoration. This method contributed to
greater prestige for the clay vessels, thus resembiing the metalware thanks to its
borrowed form as well as its specific means of decoration. The black glaze with an
external metallic layer was obtained as a result of the firing at a temperaturę about
1000°C. Such a surface type would be associated with “bright spots” on silver-
ware, and is sometimes compared with tamished wares, darkened from sulphide
layers.29 However, the black colour of the glaze itself, even in the case of thin-wall
cups, would not have an effect on their direct association with metalware. Rather,
they constituted an aesthetic and attractive altemative. A local coating of the still
warm vessel surface by means of a silver or tin foil, which is a techniąue well at-
tested in Greece as well as in the south of Italy, was intended to make those items
of pottery even morę appealing.30 A similar techniąue was applied for silverware
with gilded relief decorations.31
Arethusa cups provide good examples of the evolution of ceramics as well
as the spreading of the forms and methods of metalware decoration into pottery.
The forms of the metal vessels inspired potters or served as models for their prod-
ucts, implemented mostly by putting an emphasis on certain elements of the vessel
structure, e.g., profiled foots, introduction of sharp handle curves and the replace-
ment of chiselled and engraved decorations by impressed and incised ones. The
workshops at Cales became famous for making pottery with its relief decoration
incorporating motifs from relief vessels, coinage, and bas-relief. In the aforemen-
tioned two cases, commonly known iconographic motifs and the objects manu-
factured over the last one hundred years. Calenian vessels enjoyed considerable
popularity, as confirmed by their dissemination in the south of Italy and Etruria.
The use of clay stencils madę it possible to perform serial decorations at some
other centres as well, e.g. at the nearby town of Teanum. Two sanctuaries founded
there by the Sidicines during the Archaic period were located in the proximity of
water-springs (Fontana Regina, Torricelle) and the Loreto sanctuary, established at
the close of the sixth century BC, provided examples of the vases decorated with
28 ZIMMERMANN, Beziehungen..., pp. 66-74.
29 M. VICKERS, D. GILL, Artful Crafts. Ancient Greek Sihęrware and Pottery’, Oxford 1984, pp. 123ff.
The authors assume that the silverware would soon take on darker hues (normally, it was not cleaned up in order
to restore its original colour) and, in conseąuence, dark-coloured vessels served as models in pottery-making.
30 J. BOARDMAN, “Silver is White,” RA 1987, p. 284; ZIMMERMANN, Beziehungen..., pp. 67f.
31 Cf. above.