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The following 33 pages are in this category, out of 33 total. This list may not reflect recent changes (learn more).
1. Ancient Roman pottery – Pottery was produced in enormous quantities in ancient Rome, mostly for utilitarian purposes. It is found all over the former Roman Empire and beyond, fine wares were serving vessels or tableware used for more formal dining, and are usually of more decorative and elegant appearance. For example, dozens of different types of British coarse and fine wares were produced locally and it is clear from the quantities found that fine pottery was used very widely in both social and geographic terms. The more expensive pottery tended to use relief decoration, usually moulded, rather than colour, especially in the Eastern Empire, local traditions continued, hybridizing with Roman styles to varying extents. From the 3rd century the quality of fine pottery steadily declined, partly because of economic and political disturbances and these are not normally classified under the heading pottery by archaeologists, but the terracottas and lamps will be included in this article. Pottery is a key material in the dating and interpretation of archaeological sites from the Neolithic period onwards, in the Roman period, ceramics were produced and used in enormous quantities, and the literature on the subject, in numerous languages, is very extensive. These vessels have fine, fairly hard and well-fired buff to pink fabrics, however the definition of all these terms has varied and evolved over the many generations during which the material has been studied. Technically, red-gloss wares have much in common with earlier Greek painted pottery, African Red Slip ware belonged to the same tradition, and continued to be made much later than Italian and Gaulish sigillata, right through to the Islamic conquest. ARS in turn influenced the production of Phocaean red slip, which is common in the Eastern Mediterranean and also appeared occasionally as far west as Southern France and Britain. Most of these wares were widely distributed and produced on an industrial scale, the names of many potters and factory-owners are known from the potters marks frequently applied to fine wares, and can be highly informative. However, the interpretation of name-stamps can be more complex than it appears at first sight, theoretically, a decorated vessel might bear the mould-makers name, that of the bowl-maker or finisher, and the brand-name of the factory in the decoration. The use of labour in the Italian workshops is unproven. The site of La Graufesenque in South Gaul, near Millau, has extensively studied and excavated. Its products had a wide distribution in the later 1st century AD. In 1895, the German scholar Hans Dragendorff produced a classification of shapes in Roman red gloss pottery that is still used. Other numbering systems used with Italian and Gaulish sigillata include those of Déchelette, Knorr, Curle, Walters, Loeschcke, Ritterling and Ludowici, to name, details could also be added by hand with a stylus. When the decoration was complete in intaglio on the interior, the mould was dried and fired in the usual way, the details varied according to the form. The completed bowl could then be slipped, dried again, relief-decoration of tall vases or jars was usually achieved by using moulded appliqué motifs and/or barbotine decoration
2. African red slip ware – It is distinguished by a thick-orange red slip over a slightly granular fabric. Interior surfaces are covered, while the exterior can be only partially slipped. By the 3rd century AD, African red slip appears on sites throughout the Mediterranean and it was the most widely distributed representative of the sigillata tradition in the late-Roman period, and occasional imports have been found as far afield as Britain in the 5th-6th centuries. African red slip ware was widely distributed in the 5th century but after that time the volume of production. From about the 4th century, competent copies of the fabric and forms were made in several other regions, including Asia Minor. Over the long period of production, there was obviously much change, both Italian and Gaulish plain forms influenced ARS in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD, but over time a distinctive ARS repertoire developed. There was a range of dishes and bowls, many with rouletted or stamped decoration. A wide range of bowls, dishes and flagons were made in ARS, instead, appliqué motifs were frequently used where decoration in relief was required, separately made and applied to the vessel before drying and firing. Similar forms and fabrics were made for local distribution in Egypt. Surface decoration of ARS is relatively simple during the first three centuries of production, with occasional rouletting, barbotine motifs and some appliqué being typical, in the 4th century applied decoration becomes common. By the 5th century stamped central motifs such as animals, crosses, paralleling developments in other visual media, gladatorial scenes and references to pagan mythology come to be replaced by Christian figures. In the last phase of production, surface treatment consists of light spiral burnishing on some plates, in 1972 John Hayes published a type series running from form 1 to 200, with forms 112-120 remaining unused. In addition to previous work, Hayes made use of Waages work in both Antioch and the Athenian Agora, as well as Lamboglias in Ventimiglia. Michael Fulfords publication of the British excavations at Avenue du Président Habib Bourguiba, carandinis typology, published in Enciclopedia dellarte antica classica e orientale, is also important. Michael Mackensen offers an alternate typology for later forms based on his work in northern Tunisia, michel Bonifay has also collected previous scholarship alongside his own observations. London, British School at Rome Hayes, John, die spätantiken Sigillata- und Lampentöpfereien von el Mahrine, Studien zur nordafrikanischen Feinkeramik des 4. Roman Pottery in Britain, London, B. T. Batsford ISBN 0-7134-7412-2 African Red Slip in Greek, Roman and Byzantine Pottery at Ilion North African Red-Slipped Ware from Potsherd, Atlas of Roman Pottery
3. Amphora – An amphora is a type of container of a characteristic shape and size, descending from at least as early as the Neolithic Period. Amphorae were used in vast numbers for the transport and storage of various products and they are most often ceramic, but examples in metals and other materials have been found. The amphora complements the large container, the pithos, which makes available capacities between one-half and two and one-half tons. In contrast, the amphora holds under a half-ton, typically less than 100 pounds, the bodies of the two types have similar shapes. Where the pithos may have small loops or lugs for fastening a rope harness. The necks of pithoi are wide for scooping or bucket access, the necks of amphorae are narrow for pouring by a person holding it by the bottom and a handle. The handles might not be present, the size may require two or three handlers to lift. For the most part, however, an amphora was tableware, or sat close to the table, was intended to be seen, stoppers of perishable materials, which have rarely survived, were used to seal the contents. Two principal types of amphorae existed, the amphora, in which the neck and body meet at a sharp angle. Neck amphorae were used in the early history of ancient Greece. Most were produced with a base to allow upright storage by embedding in soft ground. The base facilitated transport by ship, where the amphorae were packed upright or on their sides in as many as five staggered layers. If upright, the bases probably were held by some sort of rack, heather and reeds might be used as packing around the vases. Racks could be used in kitchens and shops, the base also concentrated deposits from liquids with suspended solid particles, such as olive oil and wines. Amphorae are of use to maritime archaeologists, as they often indicate the age of a shipwreck. They are occasionally so well preserved that the content is still present, providing information on foodstuffs. Amphorae were too cheap and plentiful to return to their origin-point and so, amphora is a Greco-Roman word developing in ancient Greek during the Bronze Age. The Romans acquired it during the Hellenization that occurred in the Roman Republic, cato is the first known literary person to use it
4. Antefix – An antefix is a vertical block which terminates the covering tiles of the roof of a tiled roof. In grand buildings the face of each stone ante-fix was richly carved, in less grand buildings moulded ceramic ante-fixae, usually terracotta, might be decorated with figures or other ornament, especially in the Roman period. By this time they were found on large buildings, including private houses. From Latin antefixa, pl. of antefixum, something fastened in front, from antefixus, fastened in front, ante-, ante- and fixus, fastened, past participle of figere, to fasten. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh. Media related to Antefixes at Wikimedia Commons
5. Barbotine – Barbotine is the French for ceramic slip, or a mixture of clay and water used for moulding or decorating pottery. In English the term is used for two different techniques, though in both cases mainly for historical works. In the first, common from the Ancient World onwards, the barbotine is piped onto the object rather as cakes are decorated with icing, using a quill, horn, or other kind of nozzle. The slip would normally be in a colour to the rest of the vessel, and forms a pattern, or inscription. This is normally called slip-trailing in English today, but barbotine remains common in archaeology, the second technique is a term for slipcasting, couler en barbotine in French. Barbotine pottery is used for 19th-century French and American pottery with added slipcast decoration. Slip or barbotine is cast in moulds to form three-dimensional decorative sections which when dried out are added to the main vessel, typically, these might be flowers, fruit, or small animals. The first barbotine technique in pottery styling was in use in the ancient world, the Egyptians were known to have used barbotine design. The second sense of the term entered English via French potteries such as Sèvres and the Haviland Company of Limoges, the term Barbotine ware also describes the American art pottery that emulated the Haviland pottery. Minoan pottery Samian ware Roman jug from the British Museum
6. Campana reliefs – Campana reliefs are Ancient Roman terracotta reliefs made from the middle of the first century BC until the first half of the second century AD. They are named after the Italian collector Giampietro Campana, who first published these reliefs and they were produced in unknown quantities of copies from moulds and served as decoration for temples as well as public and private buildings, as cheaper imitations of carved stone friezes. They originated in the tiled roofs of the Etruscan temples. A wide variety of motifs from mythology and religion featured on the reliefs as well as images of everyday Roman life, landscapes, originally they were painted in colour, of which only traces of this occasionally remain. They were mainly produced in the region of Latium around the city of Rome, today examples are found in almost all major museums of Roman art worldwide. The first collector to make the items of interest was marchese Giampietro Campana. His influence and contemporary reputation in archaeology was so great that he was named a member of the Instituto di corrispondenza archeologica. He published his collection in 1842 in Antiche opere in plastica, thus the tiles became known as Campana reliefs. Afterwards Campana was sentenced to imprisonment for embezzlement, in 1858 he lost his membership in the Istituto di corrispondenza archeologica and his collection was pawned. The terracotta reliefs owned by him are now in the Louvre in Paris, the British Museum in London, other collectors, such as August Kestner, also collected the reliefs and fragments of them in greater numbers. Today examples are found in most larger collections of Roman archaeological finds, though the majority of the reliefs are in Italian museums, despite Campanas research, for a long time the reliefs were rather neglected. They were viewed as handicrafts, thus inherently inferior, and not art and this was the first attempt to organise and classify the reliefs according to the emerging principles of Art history. The two authors first distinguished the main types, discussed their use and considered their development, style, thereafter, apart from the publication of new finds, interest flagged for more than fifty years. In 1968 Adolf Heinrich Borbeins thesis Campanareliefs, typologische und Stilkritische Untersuchungen brought these archaeological finds to wider attention. In his work, Borbein was able to establish the development of the Campana reliefs from their origins among Etruscan-Italiote terracotta tiles and he also dealt with the use of motifs and templates derived from other media and pointed out that the artisans thereby produced creative new works. The quality of the ceramic product depended principally on the quality, particular importance attached to the tempering, when the clay had various additives mixed in, sand, chopped straw, crushed brick, or even volcanic pozzolan. These additives minimised the contraction of the tile as it dried so that it retained its shape and these additives can be recognised as little red, brown, or black flecks, especially noticeable when crushed brick is used. The tiles were not individually made as unique artworks but as series, from an original relief a mould in the shape of a negative was produced
7. Giampietro Campana – Giampietro Campana, created marchese di Cavelli, was an Italian art collector who assembled one of the nineteenth centurys greatest collection of Greek and Roman sculpture and antiquities. The part of his collection of Hellenistic and Roman gold jewellery conserved in the Musée du Louvre warranted an exhibition devoted to it in 2005-06. He was a collector of early Italian paintings, the so-called primitives of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. And like many collectors of his generation, he coveted Italian maiolica of the 15th and 16th centuries. In 1835 he was made a cavaliere of the Order of the Golden Spur by Pope Gregory XVI in gratitude for the loans that the reorganized Monte di Pietà had been able to make to the Vatican. Campagnas first archaeological excavations were undertaken in 1829 at Frascati, where the family had the use of properties belonging to the Camera Apostolica and he also collected Italian paintings, forming a notable collection of the so-called primitives of the 14th and 15th centuries. His obtained prominent positions with the administration and was placed in charge of the excavations at Ostia. Giovanni in Laterano, it had been beautified and its range extended in a classicising manner that seemed to one lady visitor a temple of old Rome, with well-proportioned columns. Its curving drive was shaded with some of the first Eucalyptus in Rome, annexed to the villa was the tiny ancient Church of Santa Maria Imperatrice. The two sections of the grounds were connected by a private tunnel beneath via Santi Quattro Coronati. In 1851 Campana married the Englishwoman Emily Rowles, whose family had connections to Prince Louis Napoleon, soon Napoleon III, because of his cultural merits, he was given the title of marchese di Cavelli by Ferdinand II of Naples. John Lateran, among the guests was Ludwig of Bavaria, the Campana reliefs were more easily viewed, as they were at the Monte di Pietà. The head of the horned Bacchus, and a gold fibula with an Etruscan inscription, equal, if they do not surpass, one of the most remarkable objects in this collection is a superb Scarabæus in sardonyx, representing Cadmus destroying the Dragon. The collection of Etruscan vases is also very fine, several presenting historical scenes, with Greek, there are several fine specimens of Etruscan helmets, with delicate wreaths of gold foliage placed upon them. The collection of glass and enamels is most interesting, consisting of elegant tazze of blue, white, the series of Etruscan vases, not only from Etruria proper, but from Magna Grecia, is rich and extensive. In 2001 Susanna Sarti published an attempt to trace the current location of the listed items, in a stunning reversal of his private fortunes, he pawned his antique jewels, and successively other parts of the collection. He was accused, arrested in November 1857 and convicted of embezzlement from the funds in his care. After a dramatic trial he was condemned to twenty years prison which was commuted to exile and his collection was sequestered by the Pontifical State
8. Corpus vasorum antiquorum – Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum is an international research project for ceramic documentation of the classical area. CVA is the first and oldest research project of the Union Académique Internationale, the first project meeting was organized by Edmond Pottier in Paris in 1919. The final decision was to publish a catalogue of ancient Greek vases. He was also the publisher of the first fascicle for the Louvre in 1922, at that time six countries were part of the project. Today the project covers a compendium of more than 100,000 vases located in collections of 26 participating countries, at present day only public collections located in museums are added to the catalogue. Every participating country is responsible for its own scope, while the Union Académique Internationale in Brussels has the patronage traditionally led by a French scientist. Currently in charge is Juliette de La Genière, the CVA publishes Greek and Italian ceramics of the classical period between the seventh millennium B. C. and the late Antiquity. The publications are divided into fascicles by country and museum, by the end of 2007 a total of 350 volumes consisting of 40,000 fascicles were published. One of the largest amounts of publications was done in Germany,84 volumes and 3 supplements, since 2004 all textual descriptions and images are freely accessible as a web-based database. Languages allowed for publication are English, French, German and Italian, further publication rules have to be fulfilled. This often requires a restoration of the actual objects, for example, fragments have to be distinctively different from restored parts. For older restorations this is not the case. The documentation of a vessel is done in several steps, first the vessel is described in its overall condition followed by an iconographic interpretation. If possible an artist or a workshop will be determined, integral parts of the documentation are photographs and hand-drawings depending on the condition of the vessel and the projects budget. The Austrian commission used for the first-time of the CVA a 3D-Scanner for documentation of vessel shapes, a follow-up project using 3D-Acquisition has been granted. The last step of the documentation is a chronologic classification, art in Ancient Greece Pottery of ancient Greece Colloque International sur le Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, compte rendu réd. par Charles Dugas. Summary guide to Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, compiled by Thomas H. Carpenter, kurtz, A corpus of ancient vases
9. Hans Dragendorff – Hans Dragendorff was a Baltic German scholar who introduced the first classification system for the type of Ancient Roman pottery known as Samian ware or Terra sigillata, in 1896, using type numbers. His scheme was based on the forms the vessels took and although it has since been augmented and refined by others. Dragendorff studied in Dorpat, Berlin and Bonn with Georg Loeschcke, 1911-1922 he was secretary general of the DAI. In 1922, he got a chair in Freiburg, a post he held until 1933. for an obituary, see Nachrichtenblatt für Deutsche Vorzeit 17,1941, Hans Dragendorff Biography Potsherd Searchable database by Dragendorff and other classification systems. Works by or about Hans Dragendorff at Internet Archive
