All you need to know about Greek Pottery

Greek pottery is the pottery of ancient Greeks that comprise a very large portion of the archaeological record of ancient Greece. It is important for both the intrinsic beauty of its form and decoration and for the light that it sheds on the development of Greek pictorial art. Since there are over 100,000 painted vases that have been recorded in the Corpus vacuum ant quorum, we can be sure that it has exerted a large influence on the understanding of Greek society.

Due to the fact that many thousand years have been passed and few or no Greek works in wood, textile, or even wall painting could survive, the fired clay pottery became the main source of information about how the Greek artists were able to solve the problems of representing three-dimensional objects and figures on either flat or curved surface. If you’re looking to unleash your creative side, don’t miss the chance to enroll in top free pottery courses online, where you can learn the art of ceramics at no cost.

Main Styles of Greek Pottery:

There were known to be four major pottery styles of ancient Greece which are.

• Geometric.
• Corinthian.
• Red-figure.
• And black-figure.
  So now we are going to give a short description of each of these four styles.

Geometric Pottery Style:

The geometric pottery style utilizes a wide range of geometric shapes and is known to be one of the earliest ceramic styles in ancient Greece dating 900 BC-700 BC.

Corinthian Pottery:

The Corinthian pottery is more like of an Asian style and it dates from roughly the 8th to 7th centuries BC. It is characterized by a light-yellow clay and a panted decoration that applies the technique of the black figure. Then final improvements are made by carving with a stylus. Furthermore, there are figurative patterns on the vases that are surrounded by colored spots and are characterized as the Corinthian pottery.

Red-Figure Pottery:

The red-figure pottery is such a type of Greek pottery that got flourished from the late 6th to the late 4th century BC. During this time, almost the majority of the important vases were preferred to be painted in either this style or the black-figure which we are about to explain below.

Black-Figure Pottery:

The black-figure pottery painting is also known to be the black-figure style or black-figure ceramic. The black-figure pottery was very common between the 7th and 5th centuries BC and these are the specimens dating as late as the 2nd century BC.

Why is ancient Greek Pottery black and orange?

There is a logical explanation behind it. When the vessel is fired in a kiln at a temperature of more than 800°C, the resultant oxidization turns the vase into a reddish-orange color. If explained more clearly, the black-figure vases can be achieved through a process in which the temperature inside the kiln is gone through a series of processes like oxidizing, reducing, and re-oxidizing. And during this re-oxidizing phase, all the ferric oxide that is inside the attic clay attains a bright red-to-orange color.
Similarly, when the temperature is raised to 950°C and the kiln’s vents are closed and greenwood is added for the removal of oxygen, the vessel as a result turns black.

Why is Greek Pottery so important?

Greek pottery possesses quite an importance and there are many reasons behind it. The most obvious one is that it tells you so much about the life that people in Athens and other ancient Greek cities lived. Pots as we all know come in a variety of sizes and shapes depending on their purpose. So This pottery was all about portraying scenes from daily life. These scenes sometimes reflect what the pot was used for. And this is how we get to understand a little about those ancient times. With that, there are many other reasons why this pottery is so important. Some of them have been listed down for you below.

This pottery provides important documentation for a wide range of aspects of ancient Greek life. This is through painted scenes that are especially on Attic Black and Red Figure vessels.
A large number of these painted scenes portray the myths and legends of the ancient Greeks. Not just that, taking these myths into consideration, we can also find an ancient interpretation of the stories and pictures of how the Greeks viewed their deities.

So you see, This is one special kind of pottery that depicts the ancient Greek culture. How they used to live, what each of the pots used to depict, how they were made, and other things. So, if you are interested in knowing about Greek pottery then this article is what you need to read from start to end. Read now and never stop learning. Whether you decide to enroll in a Free Online course with Certificates and study at your ease and pace or enroll in a Greek Pottery online courses where you have to follow a proper schedule.