Vase painting

“ The relation between the two is like that which obtains, in a painting, between color and line, on the one hand, and representation, on the other. When the first level of beauty is richly developed on its own account, it becomes ornament. In a Greek vase, for example, there is a beauty of symmetrical, well-proportioned shape, delicate coloring of surface, and decorative painting, which might be felt by people who knew nothing of its use; and, in addition, for those who have this knowledge, a beauty in the fine balance of parts in the adjustment of clay to its final cause. ”

“ Color, drawing, form, surface and texture present a compound of difficulties not to be completely overcome by the resources of the graver, the camera and the printer in colors. Only on the shelves of the museum can it be studied understandingly. It must speak for itself. The chromo undertakes to duplicate, with more or less success, the painting in oil or fresco, but the vase is a picture and something more. It is the joint product of the painter and the sculptor, and the substance whereon they bestow their labor has a special and varying beauty of its own. ”

“ Fine art made some of its earliest and most successful efforts in shaping the earthen vase, engraving and moulding patterns or figures on it, and painting it with pictures of gods and heroes, or scenes from myth or daily life, so that much of our knowledge of such nations as Etruscans and even Greeks is derived from the paintings on their vases, art-relics almost everlasting though so fragile. A great part of the pottery of the world is still of the first and simplest kind, mere baked clay (Italian terra cotta) without glaze like our flower-pots, and therefore porous. ”

“ It is enough to repeat that, within their several spheres, according to their several strengths and weaknesses, both sculpture and painting present the spirit to us only as the spirit shows itself immersed in things of sense. The light of a lamp enclosed within an alabaster vase is still lamplight, though shorn of lustre and toned to coloured softness. ”

“ White-Ground Vases The method of painting on a white ground, which was brought to such perfection in the fifth century, really requires a section to itself, its development being parallel to, yet different from, that of the painting in red on black. Its genealogy can be traced almost throughout the period of Greek vase-painting, beginning with the Ionian fabrics of Rhodes and Samos, through the more developed vases of Naukratis and Kyrene, until it was introduced at Athens in the latter part of the sixth century, perhaps, as we have seen (p. 385) , by Nikosthenes. ”

“ Fig. 328.—Porcelain Vase.
Painted in enamel colours.
The Père d’Entrecolles tells us the manner of painting vases in China, and how the different parts [Pg 289] of a landscape on one vase were intrusted to various hands according to their ability to paint special objects mechanically. He says: “One is employed solely to form the coloured circle which is seen round the border of the ware, a second traces the flowers in outline, which a third fills in with colour; another excels only in painting the water and the mountains, while the next is only competent to portray birds or animals.” ”

“ The extraordinarily rapid advance, both in artistic conception and in power of execution, during the preceding fifty years, fostered by the concurrent advance in sculpture and painting, hastened the vase-painter to his ruin. With the attainment of perfection in drawing, dexterity and grace are his sole aim, and in place of vigour and originality we meet with over-refinement and mannerisms, and florid pictorial compositions executed in a careless manner. ”

“ When the flowers, stems, and leaves are all in place, let them become thoroughly dry, then after painting the body of your vase with shades of blue, red, or olive, so applied that they give a clouded effect to the whole, color your flowers as nearly as you can like the natural ones of the same species, and the stems and leaves the proper shades of brown or green. ”

“ Beginners generally err here, if they have not sufficiently observed and studied nature. The vases or pots may be in terra-cotta, earthenware salt jars, or the little brown jars usually used for culinary purposes—these last are most inexpensive, and answer admirably. When the group is quite hard and dry, hold the flowers to the lighted candle separately, and quickly apply them to the vase, taking care that there is no moisture between them, for this will surely prevent their adhering. Leave the work to stand until it has become firmly fixed to the vase, and then begin the painting. ”

“ Others have more complete presentations of potteries, with men engaged in the different processes of vase manufacture, modelling, painting or supplying the kilns with newly-made wares.
The Painting of Vases.—We may distinguish three principal classes of painted pottery, of Which two admit of subdivision.
1. Primitive Greek vases with simple painted ornaments, chiefly linear and geometrical, laid directly on the clay with the brush. The colour employed is usually a yellowish or brownish red passing into black. The execution varies, but is often extremely coarse. ”

“ The painting is a thoroughly ugly and, from an artistic standpoint, worthless specimen that represents the very decadence of ceramic art [232] . The vase is a slender amphora with three zones of 125pictures; ours is the middle one. On the left a woman in chiton and mantle sits with head turned to the right, her left hand resting on a sceptre or staff and her right on her knee. She wears a necklace and on one arm a bracelet. Standing before her with outstretched right hand is a bearded male figure in short chiton and mantle, and a spear in his left ”

“ On the walls hang a variety of tools—hammers, files, a saw, etc.; also models of feet and heads, and little tablets representing sketches of whole men and animals.
No less interesting is the workshop of a vase painter, represented in Fig. 203. Here we see a youth seated in an armchair, with a large two-handled cup on his knee, which he is painting with the brush held in his right hand ”

“ The various objects for the decoration of a room should be so selected that no colour or design shall be repeated. If you have a living flower, a painting of flowers is not allowable. If you are using a round kettle, the water pitcher should be angular, A cup with a black glaze should not be associated with a tea-caddy of black lacquer. In placing a vase on an incense burner on the tokonoma, care should be taken not to put it in the exact centre, lest it divide the space into equal halves. ”

“ The Epos is the chief source of all vase-paintings from the earliest time to the decadence inclusive, and next comes Tragedy, as regards the later vases only; of the influence of other poetry on the formation of myths in vase-paintings there is no established example. (2) Vase-paintings are not illustrations, either of the Epos or of the Drama, and there is no intention of reproducing a story accurately ”

“ They see a vase, or a ewer, or a candlestick, of fantastic shape, covered with a thin, greenish-yellow glaze, the coloring not by any means brilliant, and the surface seemingly inlaid and incrusted with the innumerable details of a most elaborate ornamentation, made out in quiet browns, blacks, and sad neutral tints. Nothing is less striking to a casual or an ignorant observer—nothing in the whole range of decorative art so absolutely exquisite in design and effect to the cultivated appreciation of a connoisseur in Renaissance-work. ”

“ These regal draperies, in conjunction with a superb gilded bronze vase, with the design of two cupids in the act of an embrace, form what one would style art, whilst the contents of the vase, numbering a hundred or more delicate blossoms, all of one kind, yet varying in the hues of lilac, pink, groseille, and white, comprise the natural portion of the picture. The vase has more than brimful measure, as the flowers running over hide the heads of the saucy little "gods of love,"—a charming place to nestle, say they, where the wild blossoms revel in beauty. ”

“ Their variety is as wonderful as the wealth of their resources. One may turn{152} from a vase, representing the exercise of the most fearless and riotous fancy, to another in which the details are as realistic as the lizards of Palissy. Or, again, a vase which looks as though it might have been cut out of a precious stone, with no decoration but its inimitable color, may stand side by side with another covered with flowers so tenderly treated and delicately colored, that one is inclined to pronounce the painstaking Celestial the prince of artists. ”

“ Either forms were varied and became in themselves ornamental, or a superficial decoration was resorted to. The useful led to the beautiful, and their combination, as seen on the dinner-tables of our day, is the natural result of a universal process by which nations have advanced from rude and unskilful ignorance to art. The aboriginal American potter decorated his coarse vase with a few scratches made with a stick; his modern successor moulds his porcelain into graceful forms, and brings to its ornamentation a palette of bright colors, a trained hand, and a cultivated taste. ”

“ Accessory colours are, however, seldom found on the reverses of the vases, which are always drawn and painted with the greatest carelessness.
The drawing is entirely free, and in fact errs on the other side, becoming careless and faulty; the forms are soft, and the male figures often effeminate. An extreme facility of hand has indeed proved the ruin of the vase-painter. The love of the far-fetched betrays itself in variety of posture and elaborate foreshortening; and in the richly embroidered draperies and studied settings of some scenes the influence of the theatre is obviously to be traced. ”

“ A vase, with or without flowers, to add to the composition of your room, that is, to make "a good picture," must be placed so that its background sets it off. Let the Venetian glass vase holding one rose stand in such a position that your green curtain is its background, and not a photograph or other picture. One flower, carefully placed in a room, will have more real decorative value than dozens of costly roses strewn about in the wrong vases, against mottled, line-destroying backgrounds.
Flowers are always more beautiful in a plain vase, whether of glass, pottery, porcelain or silver. ”

“ Let us suppose that the artist wishes to paint a vase. A certain tint being selected for the ground, the color, or colors, which are to produce it are mixed in their relative proportions, according to the hints given above. A sufficient quantity should be prepared to paint the whole ground, especially if a mixed tint, which it would be difficult to reproduce in its exact proportions. ”

“ In panels on the base the potters of all ages are seen at work—Egyptian, Greek, and modern. Above these, on the body, are reliefs illustrative of the pottery of Peru, Italy, France, Spain, England, and other countries. As we turn it round, the advance of ceramic art is seen as in a diorama, and amidst the various scenes appears in relief the bust of the poet whose song inspired the work. The form of the vase is singular, simple, and severe, but well suited to the artist’s treatment of his subject. ”

“ There are vases which, while offering for our admiration a beauty which is eternal, are yet invested with a chameleon-like power of change. They never allow monotony to break their charm. It may consist of a mere color. Take the old turquoise-blue of China. The eye can scarcely catch the fleeting shades, to determine whether the vase is blue or green. While daylight lasts, the blue is dominant, but when the lamps are lit in the evening, the blue gives place to a green of greatly increased brilliancy. ”

“ Methods of handling oil color may be reduced to two general classes: (a) the paint is used thin, as a wash, on a prepared canvas, or (b) it is put on in thick opaque touches. In either case the aim is the same—to paint for depth, vibration, illusion of light and color. If brush strokes are to be left intact, each of them must have shape and meaning,—that is, line; if color is put on in a thin wash, then its value, gradation, hue and texture are the main points,—and these belong to structural harmony. Mural painting is the highest form of the art, demanding perfect mastery of Composition. ”

“ The artist put all his love into the vase, and he hoped that when it was done, he could obtain a Court position. He was very patient with the countless polishings, and one afternoon, when the air was sweet with the odour of the cherry blossoms, the last touches were put upon it. ”

“ For no one, I suppose, ever took his first batch of painted glass out of the kiln without disappointment and without wondering what use there is in such an art. For the painting when it went in was grey, and silvery, and sharp, and crisp, and firm, and brilliant. Now all is altered; all the relations of light and shade are altered; the sharpness of every brush-mark is gone, and everything is not only "washed out" to half its depth, but blurred at that. Even if you could get it, by a second painting, to look exactly as it was at first, you think: "What a waste of life! ”

“ The vase is painted white to show that it is as yet unglazed. A pair of calipers is hanging on the wall ready for use, to enable the potter to check the heights and widths of his products. To the right a youth is carefully carrying away a vase that has just been thrown, to dry. A similar vase is already standing on the other side of a column, drying in the open air or in a court. Both vases are painted white to indicate their unglazed condition. Next we see an old man walking leisurely with a stick. His dignified air is in strong contrast to the busy absorption of the workmen. ”