tour 21 of 21
Enlightenment: Art and Civilization
Pair of vases painted in the encaustic technique
The shape of these vases imitates the ancient
Greek kantharos, a type
of goblet used as a drinking cup. The hand-painted acanthus and
husk decoration is based on motifs found on Greek vases in the
collection of Sir William
Hamilton which were published by Baron
d'Hancarville from 1767. The motifs remained popular for
many decades as decoration on Wedgwood products, which were
instrumental in promoting the classical revival style in the late
eighteenth century.
The
vases are made of 'black basalt', a fine-grained
stoneware perfected by Josiah Wedgwood I (1730-95) in the 1760s.
Wedgwood marketed products in this style as the
'Etruscan' range and then as
'basalt' ware in the first factory catalogue of
1773. The Wedgwood factory produced ornamental objects in this
range, including vases, plaques, busts, medallions and cameos and
intaglios, usually decorated in the classical style and highly
polished.
Wedgwood's
patent for the encaustic decorative technique seen on these vases
dates from November 1769. The process involved painting in matt
colours onto the fired basalt body, usually to imitate Greek
red-figured vases. To achieve the 'Etruscan
colours' that the 1773 catalogue describes, the fluxing
agent was omitted so that the colours were 'burnt in,
smooth and durable but without any glassy
lustre'.