Campanian Black-Gloss Guttus (Pouring Vessel)

Classical-Hellenistic
4th century BCE-3rd century BCE

3 15/16 x 3 15/16 x 4 27/32 in. (10 x 10 x 12.3 cm)

This object has the following keywords:

• black - UCL (Universal Color Language) standard color name identifying a range of blackish colors. More specifically, black is an achromatic color of maximum darkness, referring to objects having little or no hue owing to the absorption of almost all light in the visible spectrum. In the context of pigments, black is theoretically the mixture of all colors. In the context of colors of light, black is the absence of light.
• Campanian - Refers to a pottery style created primarily in Capua and Cumae in the region of Campania, Italy, beginning in the second quarter of the 4th century BCE. It is generally characterized by rather small vases of various shapes, including a distinctive bail amphora, and decoration is typically painted in Red-figure style with women's flesh added in white. Themes are usually funerary or mythological scenes, with female heads added as subsidiary decoration below the handles of hydriai and on the necks of amphorae. Certain details are peculiar only to this style, including distinctive helmets and a particular type of cuirass.
• ceramic glaze - Thin, opaque, vitreous coating that is applied to the surface of a ceramic body by painting, spraying, or dipping, in order to add color, texture, or water resistance to the object. The glaze is applied to the surface of a fired ceramic piece, and then the piece is refired at a temperature that vitrifies the glaze, but is lower than the original firing temperature. Ceramic glazes are usually mixtures of silicates, colorants, and flux.
• engobe - Slip glaze applied over a clay body to provide a smooth surface for further glazing or decoration, usually by dipping or brushing; contains color oxides as well as clay, feldspar, and silica.
• gutti - Ancient Greek vessels in a shape reminiscent of an oil lamp. They feature prominent spouts and seem to have been specialized containers designed for the refilling of oil lamps with a fresh supply of olive oil. Most lamps were made with a hole in the discus (the round sealed cover of the reservoir) so that the refilling did not need to disturb the wick that emerged from the spout.
• slip - Fine clay which, when mixed with water, results in a fluid with a creamlike consistency, used in casting, glazing, decorating, and repairing ceramic wares; in its natural state, it contains sufficient flux to be used for glazing and decorating without the need of additives. For ceramic glaze with a high content of slip, use "slip glaze."

This object is a member of the following portfolios: