MAN’S QUEST FOR CIVILIZATION

POTTERY THROUGH TIME

Some of the oldest pottery has been found in Japan and China, dated to at least 16,000 and 20,000 years old respectively.

Pottery has also been of value as historical and literary records; ancient Assyrian and Babylonian writings have been inscribed upon clay tablets. Simple geometric patterns in monochrome, polychrome, or incised work are common to pottery of prehistoric and primitive cultures.

EARLY HISTORY

POTTERY FRAGMENT

A pottery

vessel's

fragment, date

back to 20,000

BP. They were

discovered in

Xianrendong

cave in Jiangxi,

China.

ANCIENT POTTERY

An Incipient

Jōmon pottery

vessel

reconstructed

from

fragments

(10,000-8,000

BC), Tokyo

National

Museum,

Japan

Assyrian and Babylonian writings

Cuneiform is a

system of writing first

developed by the

ancient Sumerians of

Mesopotamia

c. 3500-3000 BCE. It

is considered

the most significant

among the many

cultural contributions

of the Sumerians and

the greatest among

those of the

Sumerian city of

Uruk which advanced

the writing of

cuneiform c. 3200

BCE. 

By 1500 B.C. the use of glazes, such as the famous greens and blues, was known in Egypt. Especially noteworthy is the early Aegean pottery of the Minoan and Mycenaean periods with its curvilinear, painted decoration. In Assyria and Neo-Babylonia, painted and glazed bricks were in common use. The Ishtar gate in Babylon, with its ceramic reliefs, is an early example of the majolica technique.

Pottery of the Ancient Mediterranean

Egyptian

Lotus Chalice

(siliceous

faience) 22nd

Dynasty, 945-

715 BC

Louvre

Egyptian Glaze

Reconstruction of the Ishtar Gate

Babylon was a show-

place, so the

architects of the

time adorned the

facades of their

buildings with

painted glazed

bricks, with the

most grandiose

effects on the

magnificent

constructions lining

the wide Procession

Street, in the Ishtar

Gate itself, and the

palace of

Nebuchadrezzar.

Ishtar Gate Detail

Lion Detail

The Greek vases (800–300 B.C.), famous for symmetry of form and beauty of decoration, include red, black, and varicolored examples. The last were for tombs only, as the colors were painted, unfired, and easily marred. The red ware is decorated with black figures, or the ground is black and the figures shown red. Water, oil, and wine jars were numerous. Of the Greco-Roman wares, the Arretine or Samian, also a red ware, was molded after first being turned on the wheel to the size of the mold, which carried the decoration in intaglio.

Pottery of the Ancient Mediterranean

Classical Greek Pottery

Attributed to the

Marlay Painter

(Attic vase

painter, active ca.

450-ca. 420 b.c.)

Greek, Attic

Terracotta

Roman Red Gloss Pottery

A decorated

Arretine vase

(Form

Dragendorff 11)

Painted pottery of the Neolithic period has been found in China. By the 2d cent. B.C. the Early Han period had developed a green glaze which may have come from the Middle East. In the Sui period (A.D. 581–618) and the T'ang period (618–906), porcelain and porcelaneous ware (the envy of the Western world) began to be made and exported to Korea and Japan and to the Islamic world. Technical knowledge, however, was not exchanged, and Islam made no true porcelain.

Pottery of Asia

Neolithic Period in China

A basin cover for

a "coffin urn"

from the

Neolithic

Yangshao culture

(c. 5000 – c. 3000

BC), used for the

burial of a child,

from Shaanxi.

Tang Dynasty China

Two lead glazed

pitchers showing

whitish slip on

pale grey bodies.

Tang

Chinese Porcelain

Song Dynasty

celadon porcelain

with a fenghuang

spout, 10th

century, China.

Islamic pottery making was centered at Baghdad in the 10th cent. Blue and green clear glazes were used, and lusterware was first employed as an overglaze. Lusterware was highly developed under the Fatimites in Egypt (969–1171), and the technique continued in use at major pottery centers over the centuries that followed. During the 13th cent. Mongol domination of Persia brought renewed Chinese influence to Islamic pottery making. Fine examples of Hispano-Moorish pottery date from the 14th cent. Islamic architecture in the 15th cent. utilized ceramic tile in immense quantities, as on the Blue Mosque at Tabriz.

Pottery of Asia

Islamic Pottery

Islamic pottery.

10th-century dish

from East Persia

Islamic Art

Detail of the

"Baptistère de

Saint-Louis,"

13th-14th

century, Mamluk,

today in the

Louvre.

Islamic Art

Interior of Blue

Kabud Mosque -

Tabriz - Iranian

Azerbaijan - Iran

In Europe there was little pottery of great aesthetic importance before the 15th cent., except perhaps some German stonewares. Majolica was mainly developed in Italy and from there spread to Spain, France (where it was called faience), and to Holland (where it came to be known as delftware ). Majolica and stoneware were the main pottery forms in Europe until the advent (18th cent.) of porcelain.

Pottery of Europe

Pottery of Europe

Medieval

stoneware

pottery Siegburg

Germany 15th

century

Pottery of Europe

Beautiful J.

Holdcroft English

Majolica lily pond

design

rectangular

handled serving

tray. Holds

impressed J.

HOLDCROFT

marks to bottom.

19th century.

Pottery of Europe

Delftware was a

huge success and

by the 18th

century, there

were more than

30 companies

creating high-

quality pieces in

Delft, Holland.

Prehistoric pottery found in Peru, Mexico, and the SW United States reveals a high degree of skill in color, form, and decorative motifs. Baked-clay work by colonists in North America began in 1612 with the making of bricks and tiles in Virginia and Pennsylvania. In these states and among the Dutch settlers of New York, potteries were soon established. The first whiteware was made in 1684. A stoneware factory was opened in New York in 1735, and c.1750 the Jugtown pottery of North Carolina was first produced. Terra-cotta works were operating in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania after the middle of the 18th cent. Palatinate refugees produced slip-decorated and graffito earthenware, and their product formed the foundation of Shenandoah pottery.

Pottery of the Americas

Ancient Peruvian Pottery

Pre-Columbian

Peru,

Lambayeque

Blackware Dual

Spout Naymlap

Vessel

Ancient Mexican Pottery

Mimbres Classic

Black-on-white

bowl from the

Osborn site, Luna

County,

Southwest American Pottery

Throughout

prehistory in the

American

Southwest people

used clay for

many purposes-to

build structures,

to line cooking

hearths, to

plaster and

decorate ...

In Philadelphia fine china was made (1769) for the first time in America. The potteries of Bennington, Vt., which opened in 1793, were known especially for their stoneware jugs; a variety of stoneware was also produced in several locations in New York state. East Liverpool, Ohio, since 1839 one of the foremost centers of the industry, produced the first American Rockingham ware. Also widely produced in the United States were redware, ironstone, and yellowware. Another center, begun in 1852 at Trenton, N.J., made fine Belleek or eggshell china. The Centennial Exposition of 1876 in Philadelphia and the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago did much to awaken native consciousness of pottery as a form of art.

Pottery of the Americas

Early American China

Pitcher, Tucker

Factory

(Philadelphia,

1826-38)

Bennington Pottery

J. & E. Norton-

Bennington

Standing Deer -

1860

Rockingham Pottery

E. & W. Bennett

Rockingham

Ware,. American .

Belleek China

American art pottery flourished in the first half of the 20th cent., with works created by a variety of artisans, many of whom were employed by companies such as the Rookwood Pottery and Cincinnati Art Pottery. Much collected in the decades that followed, this art pottery was created in such styles as art nouveau, arts and crafts, and art deco. In addition, many of the major artists of the 20th cent. created exquisite ceramic works. Especially notable are those by Picasso, Matisse, and Miro. In spite of the continuing development of mass-production techniques and synthetic materials, the demand for hand-crafted ware of fine quality has not diminished. A variety of artisans make utilitarian objects as well as works of art using many methods of pottery production. Moreover, indigenous peoples, notably native Americans, continue to create a number of vessels adapted from traditional forms.

Modern Pottery

Rookwood Pottery

Example of one of

Rookwood’s many

glaze techniques

Cincinnati Art Pottery

Sample of a

variety of finished

pieces by

Cincinnati Art

Pottery

Pablo Picasso

Madura

Sculpture

Joan Miro

Stoneware -

1946

How can pottery capture a moment in history?

What does pottery tell us about the advancement of civilization?

Essential Questions