THE COLORS OF CLAY. Special Techniques in Athenian Vases

THE COLORS OF CLAY

This catalogue documents a major exhibition at the Getty Villa—on view from June 8 through September 4, 2006—that was the first ever to focus on ancient Athenian terracotta vases made by techniques other than the well-known black- and red-figure styles. The exhibition comprised vases executed in bilingual, coral-red gloss, outline, Kerch-style, white ground, and Six's technique, as well as examples with added clay and gilding, and plastic vases and additions.

The Colors of Clay opens with an essay that integrates the diverse themes of the exhibition and sets them within the context of vase making in general; a second essay discusses conservation issues related to several of the techniques. A detailed discussion of the techniques featured in the exhibition precedes each section of the catalogue. More than a hundred vases from museums in the United States and Europe are described in depth.

Beth Cohen is an art historian who has published on classical Greek and Italian Renaissance art. Separate essays have been written by Marion True, Jeffrey Maish, Marie Svoboda, Susan Lansing-Maish, and Kenneth Lapatin, at the J. Paul Getty Museum; Joan Mertens, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; and Dyfri Williams, at the British Museum, London.