Literature and Science.

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Qui te proponat, quique secundet, opus.
Fecerit arbitrium de te tandem urna; periclum
Magnum hoc-exsiliat calculus ater, abis!
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Ingenium, hospitibus semper, ut ante, ferum.
Ad vos confugio-securus quippe repulsæ est,
Qui vestram implorat pauper et hospes opem.

PART II.]

ANTIQUARIAN RESEARCHES.

On the Composition of ancient Earthen Vases,
commonly called Etruscan. By Professor
HANSMAN. Read before the Society of
Gottingen.

(Continued from p. 552.)

As the appearance of the coating of vases its fusion, it may be concluded, that proves the matter was either fusible of itself, or had been rendered so by intermixture with some other substance. Nor does it seem improbable, that in order to form this coating, a substance was applied, which either occurred in the different countries in which those vases were manufactured, easily procured by commerce.

or was

I instituted various experiments, with the view of determining this substance, which entirely failed, because I followed the common opinion, that the black coating of the antique vases was laid on and burned in, in the same way as the pigments are in the manufacture of our better sort of earthen ware. I applied various carbonaceous substances, vegetable as well as mineral, reduced to a sufficient degree of tenuity by levigation, either by themselves or by means of a fluid, or mixed with fusible substances, to vessels either dried in the air or baked; and these I exposed, after enclosing them in other vessels, to various degrees of heat in a pottery-furnace. These vessels, so coated, came, without exception, from the furnace, with red, yellow, or white colours, according to the quality of the clay, and I applied the different degrees of heat. liquid bitumen in other experiments, but with no better success.

When I had almost despaired of accomplishing my object, it occurred to me, that perhaps the method which is used for covering iron-work with a black coating might be equally applied to earthenware. The experiments in which I made use of mineral bitumen succeeded very well. I dissolved asphaltum in naphtha or mineral oil, and applied the solution, by means of a pencil, to earthen vessels, once baked and again heated; by which a black coating like varnish, intimately attached to the surface of the vessels, and precisely similar in appearance to the black coating of the ancient Grecian vases, was immediately produced. The degree of heat at which the solution is to be applied, should be such as is sufficient for melting the asphaltum. 1 exposed the vessels, after the coating was laid on, for some time to heat, by which the naphtha completely is evaporated, and the varnish dried. Liquid bitumen, applied in the same manner, gives a similar but less bright varnish. The solution of asphaltum by means of naphtha, is also preferable on this ac

count, that very different degrees of satu-
ration may be produced. A thin solution
affords a transparent varnish, by which dusky
colours are produced, passing more or less
into red, according to the different colour
of the clay. If the application of this so-
lution be repeated, very different varieties of
varnish may be produced, from a brown colour
to a perfect black. If a saturated solution
be applied, a dull black colour is produced

at once.

In the same way that the surface of vessels is covered over with varnish, various figures are painted upon it by means of a pencil. The paintings may be made more perfect, in proportion to the degree of heating which the vessel undergoes; for the varnish enters in this manner the sooner into the pores of the clay, and loses its fluidity, on which account the delineations are more distinct. But the more the vessels are heated, the more quickly must the paintings be applied.

As it is only the outside that requires to be covered with varnish or paintings, vessels may easily be heated for this purpose, by filling them with burning charcoal or hot embers. But, if vessels, having little depth, are to be painted within, they must be previously heated in a proper furnace, or among

hot cinders.

Although the black coating produced in this manner upon the surface of earthen vessels, agrees in many of its qualities with the varnish of the antique Grecian vases, and it is not improbable, that a similar substance, and a similar mode of painting, was used in their manufacture; yet the varnish prepared in the manner above described, differs from the ancient varnish in this respect, that it does not resist a very great degree of heat; nor have I as yet succeeded in my efforts to discover by what means the faculty of sustaining the power of an intense heat could be given to varnish prepared of asphaltum. However, it is evidently not impossible, that time may have done something in this respect, which art could not produce.

It is well known, that asphaltum and naphtha were among the substances known to the ancients, and that they were applied by them to various purposes. Pliny, in fact, relates, that inscriptions made with jet (gagates) upon earthen-ware, are not effaced. But from what we learn with regard to this gagates of Pliny, it is to be inferred, that it was not the jet of modern times, but asphaltum; which renders it probable, that the art of making a coating for earthen-vessels of that substance was

630

Antiquarian Researches.-Etruscan Vases.

known to the ancients. The varnish and
paintings, indeed, which occur in the se-
pulchral vases of the Greeks, do not seem
to have been applied by the Romans to
earthenware manufactures; for no traces of
them occur among the numerous remains of
Roman pottery
*. A covering, however, in
some respects similar to it, but consisting
of vegetable pitch, was used by the Romans
in their wine vessels, the preparation of
which is accurately described by Columella†.
I do not doubt, that a varnish made from
asphaltum in the manner above described,
and the mode of painting founded upon it,
to which the name of enamelling is applied,
might be used with advantage in modern
pottery, as for ornamenting vessels, cover-
ing tiles, &c.

Besides the black varnish, some other colours are seen in Grecian and Etruscan sepulchral vases; for example, white, yellowish white, red, brown, rarely bluish green or livid. In the vases, whose paint ings are made of the varnish itself, particular parts only of the paintings consist of these colours; for example, leaves, flowers, architectural ornaments, the drapery of figures, the wings of winged furies, horses, chariots, &c. In other vases, which are evidently covered with black varnish, certain ornaments are sometimes laid in upon it with other colours, especially white. The nature of these pigments is as follows:-1. They are, without exception, opaque, and belong to the paints, called in German Deckfarben. 2. They seem prepared either from earth or metallic oxides; for example, the white pigments from argil; the red from oxide of iron; the brown from oxide of iron, mixed with oxide of manganese. 3. They are not vitreous, but have an earthy aspect. 4. They are not intimately united with the baked clay; they fall off, and may easily be abraded; they are partly dissolved in acids §. 5. They are usually laid upon the black varnish, which appears evident enough when particles of the paint have fallen off, or are abraded, by which the black varnish is discovered. From these properties, it may be inferred, that the antique painted vases have not been baked in the same manner as our earthen-ware is, along with the pigments, but have had the pigments applied to them after being baked . We shall now, in the second place, speak of the mechanical method, in which the varnish and paintings have been applied.

Consult Brocchi, sulle Vernici usate dagli Antichi. Bibl. Ital. t. v1. p. 453, 463. + De Re Rustica. lib. XII. cap. 18. Hirt, in Boetticher's Vasengemälden. Bd. 1. Heft. 3. p. 27. Millingen, Peint. Ant. p. 5.

§ Hirt, in Boetticher's Vasengem. Bd. 1. Heft. 3. p. 27.

Grivaud. Ant. Gaul. et Rom. p. 125.

[xev.

All that I have observed with regard to this matter, during a diligent examination of Grecian and Etruscan vases, as well as all that has already been observed by others, agrees well with the opinion expressed above, regarding the composition of the varnish.

Some antiquaries have thought, that the paintings of Grecian vases have been perfected by the assistance of the moulds, to which our workmen gave the name of patrones*. Others have supposed, not that the whole paintings, but the ornaments, have been made in this way t. I cannot, however, give my assent to these opinions. If the figures or ornaments had been perfected by the aid of moulds, vases would undoubtedly be sometimes found in the same place, with the same paintings. But although similar representations are not unfrequently seen in different vases, there have never, in so far at least as I know, been found two vases, whose paintings correspond in every respect, which has already been remarked by Grivaud‡. If the ornaments which might have been made by means of moulds more easily than the more diversified and complex figures, be attentively examined, certain irregularities and slight blemishes will often be found, which would undoubtedly have been avoided, if moulds had been applied in the painting of vases.

From certain marks to be observed in the paintings and varnish of vases, it may be inferred that the black paint has not always been applied once only, but sometimes repeatedly. The first coating is not always accurately covered by the succeeding one; nor is it rare to find different shades of colour in the same vase. The parts of vases, not covered by the black vamish, very frequently are of a red colour, which is darker than the peculiar colour of baked clay, and has also a certain degree of lustre; properties which have probably been produced by a single application of a thin varnish.

In vases, whose figures are of a black colour, the outlines have first been drawn with a pencil, and the minor parts of the figures then filled up with paint; a mode of painting, which is plainly discernible, for example, in some Locrian vases §. In vases, which have red figures upon a black ground, a similar mode of painting is often observable. In them, the outlines of the figures are covered with diluted paint, and the filling-up of the black ground is then

Hamilton was of this opinion; but he afterwards thought otherwise. Boettiger's Vasengem. Bo. 1. Heft. 3. p. 46, 58. + Rossi, First Letter to M. Millingen. Peint. Ant. p. 6.

Jorio, Sul Met. d. Ant. nel dipingere i Vasi, p. 9.

§ Rossi, First Letter to M. Millingen. Peint. Ant. p. 10. Jorio. loc. cit.

per

PART II.]

Antiquarian Researches.-Etruscan Vases.

perfected. In some vases, the ground-
colour does not completely touch these out-
lines; in some others the ground-colour
passes over the outlines here and there;
sometimes connections of the outlines are
observed+; defects which clearly shew the
mode of painting. It may also be recognised
by the circumstance, that the black colour
is less intense in the places where the out-
lines have afterwards been covered by it than
in the other parts. According to the ob-
servation of Meyer, a first shading of the
paintings with a red pigment, is rarely seen §.
In some vases, it is obvious, that the out-
lines of the figures have been cut out with
some sharp instrument.
Instead of cut
lines, dotted ones sometimes occur. Jorio
has observed, that, in some vases, it is evi-
dent that the figures have been first painted
naked, and afterwards covered with the dra-
pery;-a mode of painting which was much
in use even in the time of Raphael.

In vases with red figures upon a black ground, the internal delineation of some parts of the figures being of a deep colour, have undoubtedly been made last. After the laying on of the black paint has been executed, other colours have sometimes been added to the paintings, as has already been noticed above. All the paintings of the ancient Grecian vases have been done with a very fine pencil. If the black varnish has in reality been made in the manner above described, the greatest quickness has been requisite in applying it, according to the experiments described by me; and, therefore, the nicest address in the workman. A blunder committed, if it could not be covered over, was irreparable. Although a wonderful steadiness and sureness of hand is manifest in the paintings of vases, yet blemishes produced by haste are not unfrequently seen.

We are, in the third place, to treat more especially of the operations required, after the application of the paints, for finishing the paintings.

We have shown above, that it is probable vases have not, after being first covered with a coating of varnish and other pigments, been again baked, like our modern glazed earthen-ware. Consequently, no further operations were necessary for finishing them. In some vases, however, engraved delineations occur, which penetrate through the black varnish, and present the claycolour of the base; in others, similar lines are seen, which pass through the pigments laid upon the black varnish, and lay the latter bare.

These ornaments, which are of rare oc

631

currence, could only have been produced, after the pigments had been applied, by means of a sharp stile.

In some vases, there occur letters either painted or cut out with a sharp instrument, which either exhibit the name of the painter, or notify the object of the painting.

The painted letters have been done in various ways*. 1. In the most ancient vases they are black, upon a red ground. 2. In more recent ones, the ground on which they are laid is cometimes white or red; or, 3. In the same manner as the figures, they are circumscribed by a black ground, and have the colour of burned clay. The engraved letters upon some of the more an cient vases are found either in the red ground, or in the black varnish.

6. Of the composition of those Vases which are entirely Black.-Among the antique vases dug up in Lower Italy, as well as in the districts of ancient Etruria, there occur some which have a black colour not only on the surface, but even internally, concerning the nature of which I have already spoken. In these vases, the fracture of the mass is earthy, and of a pure black colour. On minute inspection, not only black particles, with a pitchy lustre, but also sometimes argillaceous ones, of a yellowish colour, are seen from which it may be inferred that the vases have not been manufactured of black clay, but that some black heterogeneous matter has been added to the mass. The smooth surface of these vases has a certain lustre, similar to the black varnish of painted vases.

At first sight it might be thought that the black colour of the mass had been produced by oxide of manganese, in the same manner as in some of our earthen-ware manufacture, first made by Wedgwood; but this opinion is confuted by experiments made with a view to determine its nature.

The mass of these vessels has a distant resemblance to the famous Ipswich crucibles, which are formed of a mixture of clay and graphite, and but slightly baked. The graphite, however, gives the clay an iron-colour, and the surface of the vessel a metallic lustre; whereas, on the contrary, the external colour of those antique vases passes into pitchy, and the lustre is like that of varnish.

It is well known, that a black colour may be given to clay by means of charcoal vapour. Some sorts of earthen-ware receive a black colour from the vapours of mineral coal and charcoal-makers blacken their smoking pipes, by putting them into the pile. But that their black colour has not been given to these vases in a similar way, may be inferred from this, that they have been baked in a very small fire, and that the black colour is not equally diffused through the whole mass.

Jorio, loc. cit. p. 19.

Antiquarian Researches.-Etruscan Vases.

which gives the colour in the vases which are entirely black; and as the black have, without doubt, been manufactured in the same places with the painted ones; it becomes probable, that the problematical black varnish of the painted vases, also, has been produced in the manner above described, or in one very similar to it.

The examination of the black vases of Grecian and Etruscan origin, led me to explore the nature of the ancient sepulchral vases of the Germans; and I have observed, that, in many of them, there exists similarity to the former, not only with respect to figure and external circumstances, but also in the whole composition and fabric of the mass. The result of my investigations on this subject, I propose to publish at another time.

From these inquiries into the nature and composition of the vases, commonly called Etruscan, it follows:

1. That the manufacture of earthen vases appropriated to funeral occasions, had been widely propagated at a remote period of antiquity, with little deviation from a general plan, in so far as regards their principal cir