FIGURINES FOR LIFE AND ETERNITY1 Fi iele wks FIGURINES FOR LIFE AND ETERNITY THE MUSEE DU LOUVRE’S COLLECTION OF GREEK FIGURINES Directed by Violaine JeammeThe technique of tanagra coroplasts. From local craft to “global industry” Arthur Muller The wide variety of objects in the Louvre’s col- lections and of those displayed in the exhibition make it possible to illustrate all the techniques used by Boeotian craftsmen, from the earliest phase of the Archaic period to the end of the Hel- lenistic age. Coroplasty is a craft pertaining to both sculpture and pottery, and the Boeotian coroplasts (the makers of figurines) used the whole range of modelling and moulding tech- niques to produce an impressive quantity of as- tonishingly varied statuettes. Considered froma modern point of view, the manufacturing pro- cedures employed can be defined as both arti- sanal and industrial. All the objects were made from clay which, when mixed with water be- comes so malleable that it can be shaped in a va- Tiety of ways. Clay loses 6 to 12 % of its volume (shrinkage} during the drying and firing process, and since it is fired at a relatively low tempera- ture - between 750° and gso” - it becomes irre- versibly hard and takes on a homogeneous light brown colour, sometimes verging on orange. Unique figurines: techniques used during the archaic period From the sub-Geometric to the beginning of the Classical period, most Boeotian works were unique pieces produced in a vast range of size and quality. To avoid all risk of damage during firing, the larger objects had to be hollow; the body was thrown on the wheel like a vase, and the separate additional parts such as the head and arms were modelled, or occasionally, as in the case of faces, moulded. This technique, well attested in most regions of the Greek world, was already used in Boeotia as early as the eighth century BC, in particular for the bell: shaped female statuettes (cat. no. 2), and it con: tinued to be employed (cat. no. 5) until the first half of the sixth century? Smaller objects, which were solid and modelled in their entirety, could be fired without any problem®. The bodies were small or reduced to 100 a flat board, with more or less developed arms and very schematic heads (“mouse-face” or “bird-face” profile), often topped by a polos adorned with a sort of coiling “snail”. The stand: ing female figures flare out at the bottom to make them stable (cat. nos. 9, 10, 11); the seated figures on the other hand are kept in balance with a support which takes the form of a stool or throne (cat. no. 7). The rich jewellery adorning the figurines was modelled separately by hand and stuck on with barborine before firing, whereas moulding was adopted more and more for the faces*, The details of these standardised forms became increasingly precise throughout the long Archaic period Both the hollow wheel-made objects and the solid, modelled figurines were decorated be- fore firing, according to the so-called “black glaze” technique used on vases during the same period. The chromatic range was in conse- quence fairly limited, but the decorative motifs ‘were sometimes astonishingly precise (cat. nos. 7, 9). These figurines clearly reveal that during this period the activity of coroplasts was indis sociable from that of potters. The technique of modelling the entire figure (with the exception of some faces) continued to be used in the first quarter of the fifth century for an abundant series of figurines illustrating scenes from everyday lifes (cat. nos. 17 to 26). This technique nurtured a fresh, naive ap proach with nothing stereotyped about it. Al- though the figurines continued to be fashioned in the traditional way, a new technique was henceforth adopted for the final operations; the colours were now applied after the objects were fired (matt colours), with the result that they became more varied and lively - but also more fragile (see chapter VII). Mass produced figurines Handmade figurines and those made on the potter's wheel could sometimes be very similar,but they were always unique objects fashioned in an artisanal way. It was only when terracot- tas began to be moulded that production be came repetitive - almost industrial, necessitat- ing production tools, ie. the moulds. The latter were obtained by taking one or more clay im pressions from a positive - a modelled statuette known as the prototype. The modelling of this prototype was in fact the only stage in the pro- duction process that remained really creative. The clay impressions or moulds, which could be either single or multiple, were fired. They were then lined with a thin layer of clay. Where nec- essary, the different pieces of a mould were as sembled. The clay was then rapidly removed from the moulds, and the exercise could be im: mediately repeated. The positives thus obtained were left to dry and then fired; firing posed no problems since the figurines were hollow and had thin walls. Moulds were well fired, so they did not deteriorate, although they could break or become clogged up; consequently hundreds of replicas exactly identical to the prototype could now be produced, Fashioning henceforth ceased to be the affair of a specialist, potter or modeller, but could be carried out by any un- skilled worker in the pottery workshop® The Creation of prototypes on the other hand re- mained in the hands of a few modeller-sculp- tors, who were not only capable of inventing new shapes but also of producing an endless range of variations around one unique theme This technique was known in the Orient as. early as the third millennium. It was probably in the seventh century, in Samos - a major cen- tre for the importation of objects from all parts of the East, where potters and bronze workers carried out multiple experiments’ - that it was reinvented, initially just for producing faces, the most difficult part to model, and then for complete figurines, front and back. The tech nique, which was both simple to carry out and very productive, subsequently spread very rap- idly throughout Greece during the sixth cen- tury, and its adoption can probably be inter- preted as the technical response to the consid- erable increase in demand for cheap votive offerings, which accompanied the development of sanctuaries during the Archaic period? Due to some strange conservatism, in Boeotia, moulding was only used for making the faces of figurines, and it was not until the beginning of the fifth century that it became common there, initially for making figures that copied the more technically advanced works of Rhodes, Corinth and Athens’. With just a few exceptions, it was the only technique employed during the following centuries. During most of the Classical period, the mould- ing practised in Boeotia was of a simple kind. As for protomes, only the front part of the stat- uette was entirely cast - very often together with its high base - from a simple (one-piece) mould; there were no projecting parts and the back was closed by a smooth modelled slab which had a rectangular opening cut into it. The purpose of this opening was two-fold: first, it enabled the craftsman to place one or two fin- gers inside the figurine in order to consolidate the joins between the back and the front, and secondly it acted as a vent hole to allow air to escape during the firing process. During the fourth century, Boeotian coroplasts adopted more sophisticated methods which had already been employed elsewhere for a long time”. They included the frequent but not systematic use of a two-piece mould (fig. 32a et b); the latter consisted of two pieces joined to- gether like two haves of a shell and made pos- sible the production of figurines with a detailed back - either grossly fashioned or in some cases as precisely detailed as the front of the figure (eg. cat. no. gs). Another new technique con- sisted of moulding separately the main part of. the figure (the body) and the added parts (all projecting parts): the body, head, arms and oc-casionally the legs, wings, protruding drapery, bases and different accessories could thus be cast separately from two-piece or one-piece moulds and assembled before firing (eg. cat. no. iss). These new methods made possible the mass-production of figurines which now be- came veritable reduced works in the round, and especially facilitated the introduction of variety into the production of a same type, thanks to the use of different combinations, es- pecially of heads and bodies (eg. cat. nos. 128 to 220). Another way of reducing the mechanical and repetitive aspect of the production con- sisted of personalising the figurines before they were fired, by providing them with moulded or modelled adjuncts (such as crowns and head- gear), or by remodelling certain parts, for ex- ample the hairstyles, In the Hellenistic period, the vents became fairly small and, depending on the craftsmen, were rectangular, round or oval in shape; the figurines were presented on bases reduced to simple plaques that were added separately. They were painted in very vivid colours which were applied after firing, over a white preparation; these colours were very fragile and rarely survived Technical modes of the diffusion This manufacturing technique had a direct two: fold impact on the diffusion of the figurines: first, the high degree of productivity meant that it was easy to release marketable surpluses; secondly, the production tools themselves, ie the moulds, which had been taken in several copies from the same prototype, were also mar- ketable and exported, with the result that the same type was often produced in several dif- ferent sites. In addition there was another much more com- plex phenomenon inherent to the moulding technique: derived production”. It was indeed easy to take a mould from a figurine that had it- self been cast from a mould, ie. to take a new mould, or several moulds, from the figurine, just as a mould had originally been taken from the prototype (remoulding process). These new moulds are known as second generation moulds and the derivative figurines which were cast from them are called second generation fig- urines. New moulds could be taken from the first derivative figurines, and in turn third gen- eration figurines cast from these new moulds. The process could thus be repeated several times. However, due to the shrinking of the clay during the drying and firing of derivative moulds and derivative figurines, each new gen- eration was 10 to 20% smaller, and of reduced quality when compared with the preceding generation. Eighth or ninth generation fig- urines became in consequence barely recog- nisable. It seems however that Boeotian work- shops did not use this process to excess, as sometimes happened elsewhere. It was also possible to transform a moulded figurine by modelling it before it was fired, for example by adding a coat to a peplophoros: in this way it be- came a secondary prototype, from which new moulds could be taken and used to mass pro- duce a new version of a given type. The ensemble of objects, including all genera- tions and versions derived mechanically from the same prototype, form a series. In theory, a series can lead to an astonishing multiplica- tion of both products (figurines) and production tools (moulds) (fig. 33). Above all it should be noted that the derived figurines and new ver- sions were made both in the atelier that created the prototype, as well as in other workshops of the same region or in other regions: a given type could thus be produced at the same mo- ment, in different generations and versions, on several sites that were very near, or very far from each other. These different kinds of diffusion - which, dur- ing the Hellenistic period often acted in com- bination with one another - are illustrated in aor© Mahan att ttt ttt Fig. 32a and b Mould ovenance and re Tanaj 00 B ir du he L 1 been di late, and it hat lied “figurine patri h th r ly becau mould corresp pieces of t I > understa Fig. 33 hat Id easilthe exhibition through concrete examples. The first concerns a type represented in many mu- seums. The filiation schema for this type of fig urine still needs to be determined in detail®. It already seems established that the 7 examples conserved at the Louvre, and which come from Boeotia, can be divided into two generations, n and n+1; there are 3 parallel moulds for the sec- ond generation, depending on whether the head is an added part, and whether the back is smooth or detailed™ (cat. 79-81). The Graeco-Ro- man museum of Alexandria possesses a locally- produced copy of this same generation n+1, cast from a fourth mould, as well as a mould and one cast of generation n+2. We see here how a Tanagran creation gave birth to a series, which was first developed in Boeotia, then in Alexandria, and probably in other places as well. In addition we have imitation-recreations of the same type, obtained by modelling a new prototype inspired by an imported figurine In this case there was no mechanical relation at all between the new prototype and the imported figurine. This phenomenon is illustrated by two objects found in Cyrenaica®s (cat. no. 82) The second example brings together in the same filiation schema figurines conserved at the Louvre and at Thasos, and enables us to re- constitute the complex history of the travels and metamorphosis of a banal Hellenistic type of a “Tanagra” (fig. 34)". This type was created and produced over at least three generations in Boeotia” (cat. nos. 76-78). It spread to Thasos, where it was transformed by means of a sec- ondary prototype into a praying figure, and ‘was subsequently produced over two attested generations in at least 14 copies. It also spread to Myrina, where a locally-produced copy was integrated into a group which probably had a funerary meaning” (cat. 153). In both cases we do not know the exact modes of diffusion that led to these types being pro- duced so far from where they had been cre- ated: was it the result of a trade in figurines, with the figurines being remoulded in the cen- tres where they were imported, or a trade in moulds, or possibly the consequence of crafts- men who travelled with their production tools? Whatever the case, apart from the imitation- copies which could be more or less precise and which reveal the savoir-faire of certain mod- ellers, it is the combination of different ways of diffusion made possible by the moulding tech- niques which explains the extraordinary and very rapid diffusion of the style, one which, al- though known as Tanagra, was in fact created in Athens at the beginning of the Hellenistic pe- riod. Thus coroplasty changed from a craft art into a veritable art industry, with multiple cen- tres throughout the whole of the Ancient Greek world.