Glossary Pottery and vessels
Matt paint
Also called: matt-painted
Paint that fires to a dull, non-glossy finish, used on most Cypriot painted pottery from the Bronze Age into the Iron Age.
Cypriot painted wares were decorated with iron- and manganese-rich pigments that fire to red, brown or black with a flat surface. Aegean potters used a very fine clay paint that fires to a glossy sheen, so the finish of the paint is one of the quickest ways to separate imported Mycenaean pots from Cypriot ones.
The distinction matters for White Painted Wheelmade III, the Aegean-style pottery made on the island in the 13th and 12th centuries BCE. It is defined as wheelmade, in a light fabric, with matt paint, which keeps it apart from the lustrous-painted Mycenaean imports it resembles.
Related terms
- Slip
A thin coat of fine clay mixed with water, brushed or dipped over a pot before firing to give it a smoother surface and a different colour.
- Fine ware
Pottery made with care from well-prepared clay, with thin walls and finished or decorated surfaces, mainly for serving, drinking and display.
- Wheelmade
Shaped on a rotating potter's wheel, either thrown from a lump of clay or built by hand and then finished on a turning device.