BIRCH'S "ANCIENT POTTERY." * WE welcome this new edition of
Dr. Birch's Ancient Pottery, for the two volumes of the original work, though a most valuable addition to archaeological literature, of which England is by no means prolific, were not without defects, lacking a systematic arrangement of the matter, and betraying in parts unequivocal traces of haste or carelessness. The learned author seemed to have been embarrassed by the abundant wealth of information at his command, and to have devoted too little time to preparing it for the digestion of the public. The present edition, condensed into a single volume of 600 pages, shows a manifest improvement in this respect, and we regret that a work of such value has not received earlier notice in our columns. Dr. Birch takes a most comprehensive view of his subject, treating of the fictile works of the principal nations of antiquity, oriental and classical, and not confining his observations to pottery strictly so called, but extending them to all works in clay, whether moulded or east, whether sun-dried or kiln-baked, unglazed, glazed, or enamelled ; bricks, tiles, architectural orna- ments, cylinders, sepulchral monuments, and representations of human and animal life.
In the first three chapters, which treat of Egyptian and Assyrian pottery, the learned Director of the Oriental Antiquities in the British Museum speaks ex cathedra.. Egypt takes the lead in point of antiquity, for there is a gulf of several centuries be- tween the Pyramids and the remains of Nineveh and Babylon. The earliest ware dates as far back as the Third and Fourths Dynasties, or between 3,000 or 2,000 B.C. From the period of the Sixth Dynasty, the art may be traced in its development by an unbroken series of monuments down to the time of the Roman Empire. Bricks seem to have preceded pots, and were made of the Nile mud, held together by chopped straw, as alluded to in Exodus. Pottery was more extensively used by the Egyptians than with us, so as in many instances to take the place of metal and of wood. The vases of Egypt, though not exhibiting the highly refined sense of the beautiful possessed by the Greeks, were by no means entirely destitute of it. The national taste was chiefly directed to working in metal, and the Egyptian works in terra-cotta were rather for domestic use than for decora- tion. The most beautiful ware of ancient Egypt was her porcelain, or rather, clay covered with a vitreous glaze, generally of a celestial blue, without the translucence and compactness of true porcelain, which was applied to many decorative purposes, and is still, says our author, "the admiration of all who view it, scarcely rivalled after thirty centuries of human experience."
The chapter on Assyrian and Babylonian pottery is full of interest. Although in form and use it bore a general resemblance to that of Egypt, it differed from it in one essential particular, that it was used to chronicle historical events, to preserve title- deeds, to register transfers of property, to note astronomical observations, records of such transactions being incised or stamped on cylinders, hexagonal prisms, or convex tablets of burnt clay. What the papyrus was to the Egyptians and Greeks, the terra- cotta cylinder or prism was to the Assyrians; and in this use of pottery the latter stood alone among the nations of antiquity.. How interesting this primaeval clay-cast literature is the recent discoveries of Mr. George Smith abundantly testify. Thus, as. Dr. Birch remarks, while the paper and parchment learning of the Byzantine and Alexandrian schools has almost disappeared after a few centuries, the granite pages of Egypt and the clay leaves of Assyria have escaped the ravages of time and the fury of barbarism.
The land that of old excelled the rest of the world in the fictile, as in all other arts, was Greece. Dr. Birch devotes more than half his work to the ceramic arts of that wonderful people, com- mencing with their statues and statuettes of terra-cotta, the former now very scarce, the latter found abundantly in sepulchres, and often of exquisite grace and beauty. But the vases form the chief glory of Hellenic ceramic art. Into this subject our author enters
• History of Ancient Pottery: Egyptian, Assyrian, Greek, Etruscan, and ROMU171. By
Samuel Birch, LLD., Be. A New and Revised Edition. London : Murray. 1873.
minutely and exhaustively, telling us the materials of which the vases were composed, and describing the various processes of manufacture, of painting, glazing, and burning, adopted by the potters and artists. -He proceeds to point out the various styles of art exhibited by these vases, classifying them according to their antiquity, and illustrating the distinctive styles. He next classifies them according to the subjects they bear, running through a long series of mythological representations, from the wars of the Gods with the Titans down to the orgies of Dionysos ; again through the numerous illustrations of the Heroic Cycle and of the Homeric legends, including ante-Homeric and post-Homeric subjects ; and finally, through the varied and interesting representations of the civil and religious life of the Greeks, the public games, the drama, war, and the chase, portrayed on the vases which have come down to us.
The earliest Greek vases Dr. Birch considers may be coeval with the dawn of Hellenic civilisation, or nine or ten centuries B.C. He traces the gradual development of the art through its earliest stages to its perfection in what he designates the "fine style," which, from its close resemblance to the sculptures of the Parthenon and other remains of the finest period of Greek art, must date from the second half of the fifth century B.C.; and then its decline through the various styles of the Decadence, till the art was totally lost in the second century B.C. This, to the general reader, will prove the most interesting portion of the volume, on the Horatian principle of
"Seguin:3 irritant animos demissa per auras Quam quo aunt mulls subjects fidelibus ;"
for the author does not here confine himself, as in some other chapters, to a bald statement of facts, but illustrates each style by plates and woodcuts taken from the vases, some of which are coloured after the originals. He further gives criteria for deter- mining the antiquity of Greek vases, which, as these range from the second century B.C. back through at least five centuries, appears no easy task. Some few vases, however, bear their own dates, and thus serve as landmarks in the consideration of this question. These are found among the Panathenaic vases of the Macedonian period, which generally show affected archaisms of style, but whose date is marked by the name of the Archon of Athens for the year in which they were awarded as prizes in the national games. The earliest of known dated vases was bestowed in the archonship of Polyzelus, or 367 B.C., and is in the British Museum, yet, strange to say, our author makes no mention of it, referring only to others of more recent date. And here we may express a wish that Dr. Birch had made throughout his work more frequent reference to objects in our National Museum, which would have rendered the book more valuable to his countrymen at least, who would study the pottery of the ancients in that great store- house of art-treasures. Surely, when describing some object in the British Museum, it would be well to mention its existence there, and it would be as easy to refer to the article itself, as to an illustration of it in Gerhard, Panofka, or De Witte, whose works are not so accessible to the British public as the vases themselves. On the very subject, for instance, which gave rise to these remarks, although he speaks of certain Panathenaic amphora in Continental Museums, and makes repeated reference to others we know to be in the British Museum, he omits all mention of these as existing in our national collection, which, as regards the number and interest of vases of this class, is second to none in Europe.
In treating of the decorations of Greek vases, Dr. Birch points out that though little varied and of extreme simplicity, the floral and other conventional ornaments were in exquisite harmony with the figures with which they were associated. The inscrip- tions on these vases are next eruditely discussed by our author, who devotes a chapter also to the various uses of Greek vases, showing by numerous illustrations—which, by the way, we recog- -nise as having done duty originally in Dennis's Etruria—the shapes adapted to the different purposes to which they were applied, and assigning to each shape the appellation most generally received. He closes his notices of Greek vases with a list of the numerous ancient sites on which they have been exhumed, and with a state- ment of the prices choice specimens have fetched in modern times, which, though sometimes by no means moderate, fall far short of the fabulous value set now-a-days on the productions of Sevres and Chelsea.
To the pottery of Etruria Dr. Birch devotes but a short chapter, for although the Etruscans executed magnificent statues in bronze, and displayed wonderful skill in engraving gems and in working gold-filigree, they never attained high excellence in the pot- ter's art. The vast majority of the painted vases dug up in central Italy were productions not of native, but of Greek art, and they are treated accordingly under that head. How they happened to find their way in such multitudes to Italy, and to have been em- ployed as sepulchral furniture by a people so distinct from the Greeks as were the Etruscans, is a question the reader will find ably discussed in chapter x. The genuine ware of Etruria was of a widely different kind; coarse and rude in manufacture, often clumsy and inelegant in shape, with uncouth figures and orna- ments in relief, of decidedly Oriental character, and often with strong Egyptian affinities. True, painted vases are sometimes found, manifestly of native production and with Etruscan in- scriptions, but they are always imitations of Greek designs, and generally illustrate Greek myths. The other remains of Etruscan ceramic art are sarcophagi and cinerary urns of terra-cotta, with figures in relief painted in primitive colours, sometimes still of astonishing brilliancy, and with the effigy of the deceased reclining on the lid. Perhaps the most wonderful specimen of Etruscan statuary in clay yet brought to light is to be seen in the British Museum, where a nude and loving pair are repre- sented on a banqueting-couch, their own sepulchre, the man recumbent, the woman leaning over him, and ministering to his wants. In this purely Etruscan group, there is no analogy to Greek art. All is thoroughly Oriental, and the countenances, especially in the facial angle, are very Tatar-like, favouring Mr. Isaac Taylor's theory of the Turanian origin of the Etruscans.
Our space will not allow us to notice the chapters on Roman, Celtic, and Teutonic pottery, but Dr. Birch's work is invaluable to students of ancient ceramic art in all its branches. In truth, for its comprehensive grasp and masterly treatment of the subject, and for its rare and profound erudition, it claims a place on the shelves of every scholar and antiquary.
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