I’m not sure how much scholarship there is on the study of techniques used in ancient art, but I’d be interested to read something on the subject. I had technique on the brain after a visit to EMΣT, the National Museum of Contemporary Art, because of a fascinating exhibit by a resin artist. She encapsulated her possessions in human-shaped resin molds, which requires the artist to think backwards as the resin is poured on layer by layer. I find that knowing the process by which something was made, or trying to figure it out, helps me connect with a piece a lot more.
The first question that came up was spurred by Alex’s explanation of Vasiliki-ware, the main pottery style in Bronze Age Crete (see photo; credit to The British Museum). I knew I had seen the style of pottery before in a modern context. What I was thinking of is now called pit-firing. The process involves wrapping the ceramics in combustible materials (the type will cause different colours and designs) and firing it over a long time in a pit. The end result is a surprise. Though I haven’t found a tonne of evidence that agrees, I think that at least some of the Vasiliki-ware was fired using this technique, or a modified version that allowed for more human intervention and pattern-creation. It’s suggested that some of the designs require the touching of hot coals on the pottery to create specific patterns. If that’s the case, that raises another question: what tools did they use to do that? Come to think of it, I’ve never seen an ancient fire-poker, but why not? They must have manipulated fire a lot more than we do now.
My second observation was at the Benaki. A lot of the pottery involves the use of concentric circle shapes, which are often perfectly shaped. I’ve tried to draw a circle by hand before, and it’s really hard to do on a curved surface, so I don’t think it could have been done by hand. I noticed that most if not all the concentric circles had a pinhole or divot in the centre, which suggests to me that they were using some sort of compass or nail-string system to get the circles just right.
Obviously we have a lot of art from the ancient world, but I don’t think that people think enough about the tools necessary to create it. Maybe some of these “ritual tools” we see are actually used for the production of art. If there’s a tonne of art, then there should be a view of the ancient world that considers explanations for its production. It doesn’t just show up on its own!
Oh also– we went to Aegina and it was beautiful.
