DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1021#0291
SOME PHASES OF MYCENAEAN ART
239
and one that has left us an unparalleled wealth of examples.
Of Mycenaean pottery in its varied forms and Ceram!c
uses we have already spoken briefly.1 We have Art
now to consider it not on the plastic side, hut with regard
to its decoration. Into the
rather complex classifications
of Mycenaean vases we need
not go very far.2 Generally
speaking we may distinguish
two classes: namely, Mon-
ochrome and Polychrome
pottery. The Monochrome
pottery is that which either
retains the natural color of
the clay (red and yellow) or is
blackened by firing. It is, as
a rule, coarse and clumsy like
out commonest earthenware,
but sometimes of finer clay ms-m Jusfrom My<*">ae
with a smooth finish. The black ware especially is often
decorated with simple incised ornaments ; sometimes even
with a serpentine line of white about the neck. Monochrome
Pottery of this class is found at Troy, in the Vases
Aegean islands, at Tiryns, Mycenae, on the Acropolis of
Athens, at Thoricus, Eleusis, Aphidnae, Orchomenos in
Boeotia, in Thessaly, etc., but the abundance and variety
of finds point to Troy or the Aegean as the centres of pro-
duction. Indeed, some of the finer monochromes found on
1 See page 75 f.
2 The main authority is Furtwangler and Loschcke's Mykemsche Vasen:
Text and Atlas, with 430 examples. Of these we have selected several ex-
amples (Figs. 121-130), with reference primarily to design, only secondarily to
form. For an excellent but brief account, see Edward Robinson's Catalogue
of Greek, Etruscan and Roman Vases in the Boston Museum of the Fine Arts.
239
and one that has left us an unparalleled wealth of examples.
Of Mycenaean pottery in its varied forms and Ceram!c
uses we have already spoken briefly.1 We have Art
now to consider it not on the plastic side, hut with regard
to its decoration. Into the
rather complex classifications
of Mycenaean vases we need
not go very far.2 Generally
speaking we may distinguish
two classes: namely, Mon-
ochrome and Polychrome
pottery. The Monochrome
pottery is that which either
retains the natural color of
the clay (red and yellow) or is
blackened by firing. It is, as
a rule, coarse and clumsy like
out commonest earthenware,
but sometimes of finer clay ms-m Jusfrom My<*">ae
with a smooth finish. The black ware especially is often
decorated with simple incised ornaments ; sometimes even
with a serpentine line of white about the neck. Monochrome
Pottery of this class is found at Troy, in the Vases
Aegean islands, at Tiryns, Mycenae, on the Acropolis of
Athens, at Thoricus, Eleusis, Aphidnae, Orchomenos in
Boeotia, in Thessaly, etc., but the abundance and variety
of finds point to Troy or the Aegean as the centres of pro-
duction. Indeed, some of the finer monochromes found on
1 See page 75 f.
2 The main authority is Furtwangler and Loschcke's Mykemsche Vasen:
Text and Atlas, with 430 examples. Of these we have selected several ex-
amples (Figs. 121-130), with reference primarily to design, only secondarily to
form. For an excellent but brief account, see Edward Robinson's Catalogue
of Greek, Etruscan and Roman Vases in the Boston Museum of the Fine Arts.