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MIRAMIC STUDIO 
No. 24. Primiiivc Process. Precolombian pottery from Niveria (Peru). Painting 
with ocliros or clay. From tlie Bertlion collection, Paris. 
before the conquest. We find there the same thought, born 
among people of very different races, but, who, although they 
had neither the same customs, nor the same arts, nor the same 
means of execution, seem to have met in the same conception 
of the beautiful. 
Greek potters executed their admirable paintings with 
colors which in fact were vitrifiable, but were left mat with a 
peculiai' lustre which we do not find in our modern glazes and 
enamels. These colors, thus used, were much more effective 
for paintings than if they had had the facticious brilliancy due 
to a complete vitrification. However, Greeks knew the real 
enamels, the preparation of which they had found in Egypt, 
but it seems that they did not consider them as a necessary ad- 
dition to a craft which is in itself a powerful expression of 
artistic beauty. 
In South America potters do not seem to have found natural 
products capable of vitrification at the low temperature at 
which they burnt the ware. But they found colored clays, 
which, when finely ground and applied on raw, left on the 
surface of the pottery, after firing, a very resistant covering, 
capable of acquiring by rubbing a beautiful lustre resembling 
No. 2.5. Primitive process. Precolombian pottery from Nazca (Poni). 
Painting with clays or ochres. From the Berthon collection, Paris. 
exactly Greek colors. And thus South Americans adopted a 
decorative technique, which is so similar to that of the Greeks, 
that it was undoubtedly conceived in the same spirit. Greeks 
have reproduced on their vases scenes of every day life and 
mythological scenes. South Americans have mostly repro- 
duced symbols and allegorical figures, the meaning of which 
often escapes us. 
These curious paintings which reveal to us customs of far 
away times, should not serve as a model for our modern ceramic 
decoration. Nearly all attempts which have been made to 
revive some of the master pieces of the old arts, have failed, 
because artists have tried to copy them instead of being w- 
spired by them. 
Painting with clays, ochres, manganeses, may be used 
to-day, we will certainly owe many beautiful works to these 
old processes, when artists become familiar with this very 
special decoration. Many clayey, ochreous and manganifer- 
ous products are available, if one knows how to use them. 
No. 20. Priiniiice Process. 
Precolombian pottery from Nazca 
From the Berthon collection, 
(Perm. Paiming uiin clay.-i c 
