Greek Art: from Oxford to Portugal and Back Again [1 ed.] 9781784915872

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Greek Art From Oxford to Portugal and Back Again

Rui Morais with a Foreword Greek by Art Delfim Leão Tribute to Maria Helena Da Rocha-Pereira From Oxford to Portugal and Back Again

Greek Art From Oxford to Portugal and Back Again

Rui Morais with a Foreword by Delfim Leão Tribute to Maria Helena Da Rocha-Pereira

Archaeopress Archaeology

Archaeopress Publishing Ltd Gordon House 276 Banbury Road Oxford OX2 7ED

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ISBN 978 1 78491 586 5 ISBN 978 1 78491 587 2 (e-Pdf)

© Archaeopress and Rui Morais 2017 Cover image: Neck-amphora attributed to the Red-Line Painter (collection Manuel de Lancastre, Portugal)

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Contents

List of Figures����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ii Foreword: Maria Helena da Rocha-Pereira: the Suitable Kairos Back Again������� v Delfim Leão The Transmission of Iconographic Designs and Decorative Compositions 1. Prolegomena ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 1 2. The Transmission of Iconographic Designs and Decorative Compositions in The Greek World����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 8 3. Graecia capta ferum victorem cepit et artes intulit agresti Latio ����������������������������� 24 4. Case Studies ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 34 Bibliography���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 55

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List of Figures Figure 1: Ostraka with the portrait of Senenmut. New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Accession Number: 36.3.252).�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 3 Figure 2: Ostraka that depicts a recurring group of hieroglyphs (ca. 1479–1458 BC). New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Accession Number: 23.3.4).������������������������������������������ 4 Figure 3: Egyptian wooden drawing board from the 18th Dynasty. London. British Museum.�� 5 Figure 4: Fragment of an animal on papyrus in a grid pattern, ca. 1479-1069 BC������������������������� 6 Figure 5: Painted wooden tablet from Pitsa depicting a sacrificial procession. Athens, National Museum.����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 9 Figure 6: Ceramic plaque with warriors. Athens. National Archaeological Museum (Accession Number: 9018901).����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 10 Figure 7: Terracotta funerary plaque. New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Accession Number: 54.11.5).�������������������������������������� 11 Figure 8: Terracotta funerary plaque. Antiquities market.������������������������������������������������������������� 12 Figure 9-10: Corinthian terracotta plaques (about 600-575) depicting workers in a Clay Pit and potter’s workshop, from Penteskophia near Corinth. Berlin, Pergamon Museum, and Paris, Louvre.����������������������������������������������������������������� 12 Figure 11-12: Two terracotta plaques from the 6th century BC Votive offerings in the sanctuary of the Nymphe. Athens, Acropolis Museum.�������������������������������������������������������������������� 13 Figure 13: Terracotta plaque or metope with representation of a fully-armed hoplite. Late Archaic period. Athens, Acropolis Museum.��������������������������������������������������������������������� 14 Figure 14 a-b: Attic red-figure kylix depicting a bronzesmith’s workshop, early 5th century BC It is the name vase of the Attic vase painter known conventionally as the Foundry Painter. Berlin, Staatliche Museen.������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 15 Figure 15: Attic red-figure lekythos (ca 435–425 BC) from the Klügmann Painter with Musa reading a volume scroll. Paris, Louvre (Accession Number: CA2220).������������������������������ 16 Figure 16: Tomb of Lefkadia with two-floor façade. Watercolour drawing.����������������������������������� 17 Figure 17 a-b: Marble. Roman copy of a bronze Greek original by Myron (ca. 470 BC) portraying ‘Athena and the satyr Marsyas’, according to John Boardman.������������������������������������� 18 Figure 18: Attic red-figured oinochoe by the Codrus Painter (ca. 450-425 BC). Berlin, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Antikensammlung (Accession Number: F2418).��������������������������������� 19 Figure 19 a-c: Coin from the reigns of Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius, 40s or 50s of the 2nd century to about 175. London, British Museum (Accession Number: 1929, 0515.181).� 19 Figure 20-21: Two neck-amphorae attributed to the Red-line Painter from the collections of Gómez-Moreno (Spain) and Manuel de Lancastre (Portugal).��������������������������������������� 21 Figure 22-23: Two neck-amphorae attributed to the Red-line Painter. Rome, Museo Nazionale di Villa Giulia.����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 23 Figure 24: Drawing on papyrus with Orpheus among animals. London, Victoria and Albert Museum (Accession Number: 15-1946).�������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 25 Figure 25: The Heracles Papyrus (Oxford, Sackler Library, Oxyrhynchus Pap. 2331), a fragment of a 3rd-century Greek manuscript of a poem about the Labours of Heracles.���������� 26 Figure 26. Fragment of a scroll papyrus with Amor and Psyche (ca. 2nd century AD). Florence, Istituto Papirologico G. Vitelli (Accession Number: PSI 919).�������������������������������������������� 26 Figure 27: Roman portrait fresco of a young man with a papyrus scroll, 1st century AD. Herculaneum. ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 27 Figure 28: Wall-painting with Andromeda and Perseus, perhaps after Nikias. House of Dioscorides at Pompeii. Naples, Museo Archeologico Nazionale.��������������������������������� 29 Figure 29: Alexander Mosaic, depicting the Battle of Issus in 333 BC between Alexander the Great and Darius III of Persia. House of the Faun at Pompeii. Naples, Museo Archeologico Nazionale.������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 30 Figure 30: The Gemma Augustea (sardonyx cameo). Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum.����������� 31

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Figure 31: Marble relief, vicinity of Sirmium (Pannonia).����������������������������������������������������������������� 31 Figure 32: Tabula portraying Hercules’ fight against the lion of Nemea. Barcelona, Montserrat Monastery Museum.������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 33 Figure 33: Statue group of the Three Graces. Roman, Imperial period (2nd century AD); copy of a Greek work from the 2nd century BC. The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Accession Number: 2010.260).����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 35 Figure 34: Sculpture of the Three Graces on the back of a marble statue of Aphrodite of Aphrodisias. Museu Regional D. Leonor (Beja, Portugal).����������������������������������������������� 36 Figure 35-36: The Three Graces: Roman marble relief (2nd century AD). New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Accession Number: L.2013.17); Wall-painting from Pompeii. Naples, Museo Archeologico Nazionale.����������������������������������������������������������� 37 Figure 37 a-b: Roman marble sarcophagus. Probably ex Villa Carpegna, Antiquities market.����� 38 Figure 38: Roman mosaic from Spain, Barcino.���������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 39 Figure 39-41: A second-century Roman haematite gem depicting the Three Graces and a Gorgon Medusa. Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum; Roman gold medallion. Found in Turkey, Antiquities market; Roman lamp from Museo di Sabratha.����������������������������� 39 Figure 42-43: Roman Imperial Pb tessera 1st century AD and coin from Cilicia (Tarsus). Maximinus I (238-244 AD), Ref: SNG Levante 1096 - one of the finest known examples.�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 40 Figure 44: Marmoreal plaque of tavern. Berlin, Antikensammlung.����������������������������������������������� 41 Figure 46: Ficoroni Cista with Dionysus between two satyrs from the 4th century BC Rome, Museo Nazionale Romano Villa Giulia.������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 42 Figure 45: Bronze group of men in a circle from Olympia. Athens, National Archaeological Museum (Accession Number: X 6236).���������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 42 Figure 47: Praenestine Cista with engravings of the Dioscuri and the Judgment of Paris from the 4th century BC Princeton, University Art Museum.�������������������������������������������������������� 43 Figure 48: Nude ‘Ludovisi’ Dionysus and Ampelos (ca. 160-180 AD). Rome, Palazzo Altemps.��� 44 Figure 49: Sculptural group with drunken Dionysus supported by Ampelos. North of Spain. Museo Arqueolóxico Provincial de Ourense.�������������������������������������������������������������������� 45 Figure 50 a-b: Sarcophagus. Boston, Museum of Fine Arts (Accession Number: 1972.650).�������������� 46 Figure 51-52: Roman rectangular oscillum in marble with Nude Dionysus and Ampelos (3rd century AD). Antiquities market; Roman mosaic from the Antioch, House of the Drunken Dionysos (ca. 4th century AD). Turkey, Antakya Museum (Accession Number: 861).����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 47 Figure 53: Roman lamp from Carthage (Deneauve VIII B).��������������������������������������������������������������� 47 Figure 54-55: The principal versions of Cnidian Aphrodite: ‘Colonna’ and Belvedere, Rome.������ 48 Figure 56-57: Statue-portrait of the ‘Venere Capitolina’ type. Naples, Museo Archeologico Nazionale; statue of a matron (possibly Marcia Furnilla) in the guise of Venus, from a villa near Lago Albano, in Italy. Copenhagen, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek.����������������������� 49 Figure 58: Burial inscription with relief depicting a Venus of the Capitolina type. Rome, Museo Nazionale Romano.��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 50 Figure 59: Funerary stele from the North of Portugal, Penafiel.������������������������������������������������������ 51 Figure 60-62: Coin minted at Cnidus when the original Aphrodite was already more than half a millennium old; Roman small ivory, ca. 2nd century AD, Antiquities market; Roman bronze, 1st-2nd century AD, Antiquities market.������������������������������������������������������������ 52 Figure 63-65: Roman terracotta representing the Venus Pudica (beginning of the 3rd century AD). Antiquities market; Fragment of a Roman lamp discus from the 2nd and 3rd century. Seville, nowadays in Mérida, Museo Nacional de Arte Romano (Accession Number: 19617); Miniature sculpture in glass from the Eastern Mediterranean or Italy, probably 2nd century AD (Accession Number: 55.I.84).������������������������������������������� 53

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Foreword Maria Helena da Rocha-Pereira: the Suitable Kairos Back Again It has recently become popular to celebrate major works from the past, whose real impact on society and among scholars has been particularly significant, not in terms of the strict impact factor popularised by bibliometrics, but rather because they have inspired and stimulated in-depth analysis and given momentous contributions to science in specific areas of expertise. If we were to choose, among Classicists in Portugal, the scholar who most perfectly corresponds to this special degree of excellence, the first choice would fall naturally upon Maria Helena da Rocha-Pereira. This choice, while undoubtedly unanimous, does raise some challenges. It would be no simple task to select the most distinctive work of Rocha-Pereira’s career, precisely because she has been, for almost seven decades of intensive work, such a special and coherent example of fruitful production. In these perilous circumstances, a kairos may be particularly helpful and provide a natural candidate for a reference work: it was 55 years ago that the volume Greek Vases in Portugal (Coimbra: 1962) was published for the first time. This work represented, first and foremost, a clear intellectual product of RochaPereira’s intense connections with Oxford. In fact, she herself makes this very clear in the opening preface of the work, which is worth remembering at this moment (pp. v-vi): In 1950-1951, during my first sojourn as a recognized student in the University of Oxford, I was lucky enough to attend Prof. Sir John Beazley’s lectures on Greek Vases. Anybody who has been granted this privileged knows how stimulating contact with this most famous scholar can be. I will, therefore, only state a few facts which may be of interest to readers of this book: when I went to Oxford again, in the Michaelmas Term, 1954, I had already collected most of the material for my first paper on the subject (afterwards published in Humanitas vii-viii); then in March and April 1959, after I had gained access to other collections, I worked under Prof. Beazley’s supervision. This part of my studies appeared soon afterwards in Humanitas xi-xii and Archivo Español de Arqueología xxxi. A few months later I encountered new material, which I discussed in a paper included in Conimbriga i. I then resolved to collect all the papers in a single volume which would contain a study of the vases in chronological order, and not, as formerly, according to their whereabouts.

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This is, therefore, what the reader will find here, together with two further vases and a fragment, which are now published for the first time. It is my pleasant task to acknowledge help of various kinds towards the completion of this book. Nobody who reads it will need to be told how much the author owes to Prof. Beazley’s generous advice, though any blemishes that may have been left are certainly not his. I am also indebted to Prof. A. D. Trendall, of Canberra University, Australia, for some valuable suggestions; to Prof. B. Ashmole, of Oxford University, for a photograph; to Dr. Dietrich von Bothmer, of the Metropolitan Museum in New York, for indicating a reference; and to Mr. J. M. Bairrão Oleiro, of Coimbra University, for some bibliographical references and for introducing me to new material. This book is also a decisive turning point in one of the areas she cherished most during her life, as can be clearly perceived in the volume of her collected papers on ancient art, which has just been published by the Coimbra University Press and Calouste Gubenkian Foundation: Arte Antiga (Coimbra and Lisbon: 2017). Greek Vases in Portugal was, ultimately, the seminal work responsible for introducing, in scientific terms, Greek art studies to the Portuguese speaking countries and the first to make the works meanwhile produced truly international. If we were to select a second work, Rocha-Pereira herself would probably suggest the two-volume edition of Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio (Bibliotheca Scriptorum Graecorum et Romanorum Teubneriana, Leipzig: 1973 and 1977). To a very high degree, this other major work ends by expressing her same devotion to ancient art, as well as to religious questions. As a closing note, it may be worth mentioning a small story that she often liked to tell colleagues and students. At a time when the Internet and digital computing were simply labile and distant concepts, two renowned scholars told Rocha-Pereira how particularly useful they had found the indexes she had prepared for her edition of Pausanias and how often they used them: one was Walter Burkert; the other was precisely Sir John Boardman. It is now time to return to them again. Delfim Leão Coimbra, March 2017

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The Transmission of Iconographic Designs and Decorative Compositions1 1. Prolegomena One of the most fascinating topics in the study of ancient art is related to artistic practices and models, through the transmission of iconographic designs and decorative compositions. At the genesis of the creative process we have the prototype, archetype or model that is frequently replicated on different types of mediums, repeating not only their general lines or specific details, but also spread apart in space and time. This phenomenon, although well known, has not drawn the attention it deserves on the part of scholars of ancient art. One of the most common questions raised is related to whether artists and craftsmen made direct copies of certain decorative motifs and whether they used pattern books to do so. But as stated by J. Tamm,2 ‘the term ‘copy’ must be used very loosely because only part would copy the original, sometimes only approaching the ‘figure-sketch’ suggestion, and we have also to consider the new additions, in a more fully worked out scheme’, and ‘these decisions may have been based purely on artistic motives, dependent upon the taste and vision of the artist, or patron, or both’. The concept of copy as intentional, deliberate replica based on a model, whether for aesthetic, ideological or taste reasons, was well-known in the Greco-Roman world. Terms such as mimema (imitation), apographon (copy), and exemplum (model) bear witness to the widely acknowledged and often used practice. The theoretical definition of the concept varies according to the greater or lesser 1 2

I wish to thank Miss Carla Augusto for reading and revising my English manuscript. J. Tamm (2007) 9.

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Greek Art: From Oxford to Portugal and Back Again

similitude to the original: true or exact copy, close copy, imitation, eclectic borrowing, etc. This conceptual variability depends naturally on the stylistic inspirations of the time, as well as trends and/or taste phenomena which inevitably influenced the copies. We know that some workshops made exact copies of originals using casting techniques and models (in Greek typos, in Latin forma), based on drawings and sketches of the originals, as well as of true copies. The most commonly used material in this procedure was plaster (Gr. gypsos), easily available and highly regarded in the ancient world. This is why the specialist craftsman in charge of making plaster casts was called gypsemplastes by the Greeks and gypsarius by the Romans. Although we know the artisans’ workshops used these casts, for example, in the Lysippos’ workshop, the earliest examples of this mechanical system date from late in the Hellenistic period (ca. 170-130 BC), such as the wellknown cases of Delos and Pergamum. The work of these copyist artisans was, however, more regular in the Roman imperial period, influencing the most varied artistic genres (sculpture, painting, metalworking, etc.) and other crafts. They thus perpetuated the consolidated artistic tradition from the Greek production centres (Athens and Corinth), Asia Minor (Sidon, Synnada, Aphrodisias), Africa (Caesarea, Cyrene) and, of course, Italy. The discovery of plaster fragments near Baiae in the Bay of Naples, waste material from a sculpting workshop operating at the end of the 1st century AD, bears witness to this mode of production in a copyists’ workshop in the Roman era.3 Epigraphic evidence provides the names of sculptors from Aphrodisias, artistic centre of Caria in Asia Minor, who were renowned in the Roman and Italic markets, especially in the time of Hadrian, due to production of copies, a well-documented tradition in Hadrian’s villa. Less known are the copies of paintings. At the end of the Hellenistic period, the fame of the greatest Greek painters of the 5th and 4th centuries BC, Polygnotus, Zeuxis, Parrhasius, Nikias, Apelles, was such that monarchs attempted to acquire the originals, especially of easel paintings. Given the cost of the originals, a good copy would suffice. About 140 BC, Attalus II of Pergamum sent three painters to Delphi, Kalos, Gaudotus and Asklepiades, to copy paintings for the royal collections. The Romans’ passion for easel paintings (pinakes in Greek, tabulae in Latin) was equalled by their passion for statues and precious objects. Countless original paintings were transferred to Rome. This tradition was particularly popular in the early imperial period: a copy of a famous fresco depicting the ‘Battle of Mantinea’, painted by Euphranor at the Stoa of Zeus Eleutherios in Athens (mid4th century BC), was commissioned by Hadrian for the Mantinea gymnasium. 3

J. Boardman (1985) 18.

1. Prolegomena

3

Apart from copies of originals, the transmission of iconographic designs and decorative compositions dates back at last to the first Civilizations. The mediums used could be painted on papyrus vignettes,4 on leather or in sketches painted on ostraka.5 On a limestone ostrakon found in the tomb of Senenmut in Deir el-Bahri, dating from the New Kingdom (ca. 1470 BC), the artist sketched this architect’s and dignitary’s face in black, using a squared grid, ruled in red, which served as a pattern book to reproduce the drawing at the intended scale [fig. 1].6

Figure 1: Ostraka with the portrait of Senenmut. New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Accession Number: 36.3.252). 4 For example, the vignettes accompanying the chapters of the ‘Book of the Dead’, and many of the scenes on papyrus scrolls which accompanied texts, showing simple drawings or profusely coloured complex compositions. 5 The ostraka from the time of Ramses, most of which found at Deir el-Medina, depict a wide variety of themes, ranging from fragments with simple sketches to veritable miniature works of art, some of which used as working models. 6 R. Freed (2001) 336.

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Greek Art: From Oxford to Portugal and Back Again

Figure 2: Ostraka that depicts a recurring group of hieroglyphs (ca. 1479–1458 BC). New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Accession Number: 23.3.4).

On another ostrakon also found at Deir el-Bahri, one can see a sketch that depicts a frequently occurring group of hieroglyphs: Ankh (symbol of life), Djed (symbol of stability), and Was (symbol of power), that appear on many Egyptian reliefs. Once again the grid lines allowed the artist to draw the hieroglyphs at the scale required [fig. 2]. This type of model was replicated on different mediums, such as the case of a rectangular wooden drawing board covered with a thin layer of plaster, dated ca. 1479-1425 BC, found at Thebes in the Temple of Isis (Deir el-Medina) and today held at the British Museum [fig. 3]. A seated figure of Pharaoh Thutmose III has been drawn on the left side of the drawing, and hieroglyphs on the right side, depicting a quail chick and seven clumsily drawn versions of a forearm with an outstretched hand. This illustration is very interesting for a number of reasons. It represents a unit of measure, very

1. Prolegomena

5

Figure 3: Egyptian wooden drawing board from the 18th Dynasty. London. British Museum.

possibly the royal cubit (Mahe) between 523 to 525 mm, subdivided into 7 palms of 4 digits each, for a 28-part measure in total,7 and a small sketch identifiable as a loaf of bread impressed with the imprint of fingers. The squared grid, ruled in red, on the left side of the board (the grid was deliberately erased on the right side) indicates this is a preparatory drawing.8 These sketches on red-lined grids were important aids to the Egyptians, ordering harmoniously and accurately the scenes they intended to illustrate.9 The existence of models and preparatory drawings should be framed within a utilitarian conception and strict observance of theological precepts, dating back at least to the dawn of the dynastic period. It was a time when the Egyptians improved their surveying techniques and, consequently, became more familiar with geometry and arithmetic calculations. In the Old Kingdom, the rigid canon Evidence of this unit is known in architecture, at least from the time the stepped Pyramid of Djoser was built circa 2.700 BC (J.P. Lauer (1931) 59). 8 L. Manniche (1987) 14. 9 According to Pliny (Natural History XXXV, 5), the Egyptians created paintings by tracing the shadow of human figures projected on the walls of tombs. 7

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Greek Art: From Oxford to Portugal and Back Again

with standard measures was taken at the human scale (finger, fist, elbow), following rigid frames of composition, serving to replicate figurative works of art (sculpture, painting, embossing) of different sizes, from the most colossal of figures to the most diminutive. This canon of proportions was a strictly mathematical rule, derived from the need to fix unambiguous and absolute modes of representation of reality, in accordance with cosmic order, the mayet/ma’at.10 As would be expected, we also know of papyrus scrolls inscribed with this grid pattern, as exemplified in this fragment representing an animal, dated from ca. 1479-1069 BC, depicting a scene from the Book of the Dead [fig. 4]. Another papyrus fragment (not illustrated), now held at the Antikensammlung Ägyptisches Museum und Papyrussammlung, in Berlin, and dated from the Ptolemaic period (2nd-1st century BC), contains an interesting preparatory sketch of a sphinx. Figure 4: Fragment of an animal on papyrus in a grid pattern, ca. 1479-1069 BC

Lise Manniche, in his work ‘City of the Dead. Thebes in Egypt’, refers to the use of pattern books. The following paragraphs appropriately sum up the issue we have been discussing:11

Knowledge of proportions is mentioned on a well-known limestone stele (dating 2000 BC) found at Abydos and today held at the Louvre. On it, the master craftsman, scribe, and sculptor Irtysen (or Iryrusen), who lived in 11th Dynasty, recorded a biographical account in which he boasted of his multiple skills: ‘…Moreover I am a craftsman who excels at his art and has a superior level of knowledge; I know how to estimate dimensions, recut and fit until an element is in place…’. G. Andreu; M. H. Rutschowscaya and C. Ziegler (1997). 11 L. Manniche (1987) 14-15. 10

1. Prolegomena

7

‘Pattern books for paintings have not survived, but scrolls with architectural drawings are known. The evidence for their existence is more than suggested by the curious case of Wensu and Paheri. Wensu was scribe of the accounts of grain at Thebes; Peheri was an important official in the town of el-Kâb, some fifty-five miles south of Thebes. Wensu had his tomb cut in the rocks at Dra’ Abu el-Naga’ and decorated with a number of conventional scenes in the best style of the mid-Eighteenth dynasty painting. Paheri naturally chose to have his tomb made in the cliffs near his native town of el-Kâb. Apart from the fact that Paheri’s duties also included supervision of granaries far beyond the district of Thebes, there is nothing to suggest that the two men had anything to do with each other, were it not for the curious fact that certain scenes in their tombs are absolutely identical. That Paheri’s tomb is carved in relief and that of Wensu is painted shall not concern us here; it only goes to show how closely related the two techniques were. The only way in which the design so many miles apart could be so similar is by copying a common source. The contemporary royal tombs of Tuthmosis III and Amenophis II show beyond doubt that the painter had consulted a scroll of papyrus while he worked. Not only has the decoration in these two royal tombs the unmistakable characteristics of sketchy papyrus design; but the text was damaged, notably at the beginning of the scroll which was the most vulnerable when the scroll was stored. The scribe who copied the text left blanks where his scroll was broken, or he wrote ‘found damaged’.

2. The Transmission of Iconographic Designs and Decorative Compositions in The Greek World It is unknown at this stage whether this form of transmission of designs was widely accepted in the Greek world. We do know that the oriental influence is manifest in their artistic expressions, particularly on their pottery, in the socalled Orientalising period.12 The influences of Ancient Civilisations on Greek sculpture seems to reinforce this idea: similarly to the Egyptians, the first attempts at sculpture by the Greeks were carved in wood, known as xoana and, later, made in stone, of male and female figures, called Kouroi and Korai.13 But it is possible that, as John Boardman14 argues, this relationship became more important in the Hellenistic period, after the founding of Alexandria. This issue is practically unheard of regarding Ancient Greece, although a few mediums have been found which may have facilitated the transmission of iconographic designs and decorative compositions. These are small tablets (pinakes), votive in nature, placed in sanctuaries or deposited in burial chambers which, from the 6th century BC, were to substitute the more elaborate ones According to A. E. Barclay (2013) 144, ‘although it is true that a Near Eastern flavour dominated the art of 7th century BC Greece, this was not so much a period of ‘Orientalisation’, which suggests an indiscriminate flow and adoption of ideas from the east, as it was a period of experimentation. Craftsmen in different, but not all, regions of the Greek world were selectively adopting and adapting different elements from several sources, including the vast, ready-made Near Eastern artistic corpus’. 13 This correlation seems to have had wide acceptance in Antiquity. Diodorus Siculus (IV, 96), in the 1st century BC, refers to Daedalus as a great sculptor and highlights a journey the artist made to Egypt to learn about their work concepts and techniques. This relationship is not always accepted but, as Alan Johnson contends (1993) 52, ‘the influence of Egyptian large-scale stone figures, both in the use of a grid and in monumental size, is clear, though the Greek figures are nude and make do without the back pillar support used in Egypt’. 14 J. Boardman (2014) 10. 12

8

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9

Figure 5: Painted wooden tablet from Pitsa depicting a sacrificial procession. Athens, National Museum.

placed on the walls of the rectangular tombs. These tablets, usually in terracotta, could also be made in ivory, marble, metal or wood. The best surviving examples in wood are four panels found in a cave in Pitsa, near Corinth, dating from the 6th century BC The most well-preserved panel, measuring about 30 cm, perhaps the most ancient, depicts a sacrificial procession, revealing a style of painting that is quite similar to that found on some Attic black-figure vases [fig. 5]. The contrast in colour, in white, red and black, is similar to the Corinthian vases of this period.15 The marble pinakes were individually engraved, while those in bronze would be moulded repeatedly, a technique known as lost wax casting. The most common, though, were those in terracotta. Normally, they were pierced by holes cut into each corner, or two at the top, or at the centre top and bottom. Sometimes, they had as many as three or four holes at the top, and they were cut large to hold iron nails rather than thongs. As John Boardman says,16 this proves that these 15 16

A. Johnston (1993) 69-70, nº 64. J. Boardman (1955) 54.

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Figure 6: Ceramic plaque with warriors. Athens. National Archaeological Museum (Accession Number: 9018901).

tablets were sometimes fastened to flat walls, presumably in the rectangular mud-brick tombs. Some, however, have small holes and could only have taken thongs, used as offerings which we know could be hung in this fashion.17 The way in which they were placed can be seen in paintings on Greek vases, showing them hung on temple walls, on trees in the sanctuary grounds, or even on the divinity’s cult image. The Roman architect Vitruvius mentions pinakes could be found in the cells of temples and could be owned by private owners. .

The terracotta pieces were produced in the same workshops as the Greek vases, and their authorship can sometimes be identified, such as those held at the Berlin Museum, attributed to Exekias.18 One of the earliest examples dates from the geometric period (7th century BC), found at the Poseidon sanctuary at Cape Sounion. It depicts the back part of a ship (a penteconter?) with five hoplites at the bridge and a helmsman [fig. 6]. They are, however, more common from the 6th century BC The Metropolitan Museum holds a pinax dated circa 520-510 BC, depicting a prothesis (laying out of the dead) and a chariot race [fig. 7].

17 18

J. Boardman (2014) 54. J. Boardman (1955) 63-66.

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11

Figure 7: Terracotta funerary plaque. New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Accession Number: 54.11.5).

Others are simply found in the antiques market, such as this example dated ca. 510 BC, once part of a private collection, depicting again a funeral scene, mentioned in a publication by J. Boardman, Painted Funerary Plaques19 and in the Beazley Archive (nº. 11557), [fig. 8]. The most well-known pinakes are those depicting pottery activities, from the process of clay extraction to the turning and baking phase. They are illustrated here by two examples found in Penteskophia, near Corinth [figs. 9-10]. Other still are votive in nature, such as those from the sanctuary of the Nymphe on the slopes of the Acropolis and today on exhibit at the new Museum20 [figs. 11-12]. An interesting pinax (or metope), a rare example of great painting from the Late Archaic period, was found at the Acropolis, depicting a fully-armed hoplite 19 20

J. Boardman (1955) 61, nº 22. P. Valavanis (2014) 25, figs. 30-31.

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Figure 8: Terracotta funerary plaque. Antiquities market.

Figure 9-10: Corinthian terracotta plaques (about 600-575) depicting workers in a Clay Pit and potter’s workshop, from Penteskophia near Corinth. Berlin, Pergamon Museum, and Paris, Louvre.

2. The Transmission of Iconographic Designs and Decorative Compositions

13

Figure 11-12: Two terracotta plaques from the 6th century BC Votive offerings in the sanctuary of the Nymphe. Athens, Acropolis Museum.

running to the left,21 probably the work of Euthymides, ca. 510-500 BC It bore the inscription: ‘Megakles is handsome’ (‘Megakles kalos’), but the name was scratched out and substituted by ‘Glaukytes’, probably following Megakles’ ostracism in 486 BC [fig. 13]. A very interesting vase found in Vulci and today held at the Staatliche Museen (nº 2294; arv 400, I) in Berlin, attributed to the Foundry Painter, portrays a bronzesmith’s workshop in full activity. Besides depicting a forge and tools used in the workshop, one can see on the left side of the wall imagens of Athena and Hephaestus, patron of the craft, and four tablets hung on a bucranium, one of which is in front of Hephaestus’s bust. These tablets, possibly placed for apotropaic effect (against disgrace, illness, or any other type of evils), reveal affinities with the terracotta plaques mentioned previously [fig. 14a-b]. The existence of these and other models, in different types of mediums, in terracotta, stone, plaster, wood, metal, papyrus, lather, ivory or fabric, are testaments, direct or indirect, to the transmission of iconographic designs and decorative compositions. Gisela M. A. Ritcher notes that ‘in the building accounts of the Parthenon are recorded the wages paid to the sculptors (perhaps ten) of the pediments in the year 434-433. Surely such sculptors, however able, must have worked from a design created by a single artist. That no such sketches and models have survived is natural, for they would have been executed in wax or perishable clay (as in customary nowadays and was in the Renaissance), or drawn on equally perishable papyrus’ [fig. 15]. 21

P. Valavanis (2014) 57, figs. 91.

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Figure 13: Terracotta plaque or metope with representation of a fully-armed hoplite. Late Archaic period. Athens, Acropolis Museum.

2. The Transmission of Iconographic Designs and Decorative Compositions

Figure 14 a-b: Attic red-figure kylix depicting a bronzesmith’s workshop, early 5th century BC It is the name vase of the Attic vase painter known conventionally as the Foundry Painter. Berlin, Staatliche Museen.

15

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Figure 15: Attic red-figure lekythos (ca 435–425 BC) from the Klügmann Painter with Musa reading a volume scroll. Paris, Louvre (Accession Number: CA2220).

We will briefly mention some cases to exemplify the phenomenon, beginning with a well-known example in architecture: the tombs of Lefkadia in Northern Greece dated from the 4th century BC [fig. 16]. This is the largest known Macedonian tomb decorated with ornaments in relief and painted decoration and the only one with a two-floor façade.22 The metopes on the façade bear a painted decoration which replicates those of the south wall metopes of the Parthenon portraying the mythical battle of the 22

R. R. R. Smith (1993) 170-172, nº 161.

2. The Transmission of Iconographic Designs and Decorative Compositions

17

Figure 16: Tomb of Lefkadia with two-floor façade. Watercolour drawing.

Lapiths and Centaurs.23 Apart from the clear interest this copy conveys, we can question which type of model was used to replicate these representations, at a moment in time and in a geographical space far removed from the original. Copies based on models are also suggested in the sculptural themes found on Greek vases. This seems to be the case of some vases attributed to the Andokides Painter, which apparently served as inspiration to the architectural sculptures of the North Frieze of the Siphnian Treasury.24 23 24

E. M. Moormann (1998) 15.

Brunilde S. Ridgway (1987) 81.

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In other cases, this phenomenon is even more evident: the sculptural group that represents the goddess Athena and the satyr Marsyas25 are versions of a famous bronze sculptural group dated 450-440 BC, attributed to the Greek sculptor Myron,26 replicated in an Attic red-figure oinochoe by the Codrus Painter (ca. 450-425 BC), along with rare Athenian bronze coins27 from the reigns of Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius [figs. 17 a-b, 18, 19 a-b], and on a marble vase in Athens (not illustrated).28 But are these examples testaments to cross-influences between sculptors and vase-painters? Probably not. As John Boardman contends, the affinities can be related to the reproduction of epic themes and representations carrying political allusions. Brunilde S. Ridgway,29 even if admitting the existence of pattern books (‘although Boardman does not think they existed’), disagrees there are correlations between sculptors and vase-painters, not only due to

Figure 17 a-b: Marble. Roman copy of a bronze Greek original by Myron (ca. 470 BC) portraying ‘Athena and the satyr Marsyas’, according to John Boardman.

The statue finds its closest parallel in the surviving statues of the ‘Athena-Marsyas group’, the best examples today in the Liebieghaus in Frankfurt, in the Paris Louvre, and Lateran Museum in Rome. 26 Thanks to a mention from Pliny the Elder referring to a ‘… satyr in admiration before Athena and their flute’ (Natural History XXXIV.57) and by Pausanias, when he refers that he had seen on the Acropolis in Athens ‘…a statue of Athena striking Marsyas, the Seilenos, for taking up the flutes that the goddess wished to be cast away for good’ (Periegesis 1, 24, 1), (apud G. M. A. Richter (1950) 209-210). 27 Decade 40 or 50 of the 2nd century to about 175, see RPCOnline 3438 and SNGCop 351. 28 G. M. A. Richter (1950) 209-210; J. Boardman (1985) fig. 61 and 64. 29 Brunilde S. Ridgway (1987) 85-87. 25

2. The Transmission of Iconographic Designs and Decorative Compositions

Figure 18: Attic red-figured oinochoe by the Codrus Painter (ca. 450-425 BC). Berlin, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Antikensammlung (Accession Number: F2418).

a

Figure 19 a-c: Coin from the reigns of Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius, 40s or 50s of the 2nd century to about 175. London, British Museum (Accession Number: 1929, 0515.181).

b

c

19

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chronological differences and in the rendering of costume and folds but also because they were produced for different purposes and circles. If the correlation between Greek sculptors and vase-painters seems to lack consistency, what can we say of other artists who were both sculptors and painters? Little is known of them, although several sources mention the names of artists who practiced this double activity,30 such as Euphranor, Polygnotos and Endoios.31 The reference to Theodorus as one of the most important gem engravers is also quite interesting, as we know that this artist was the architect of one of the greatest Ionic temples of all time, and a sculptor remembered for his bronze works. According to John Boardman,32 this artistic relationship is more common than it may seem. Phidias, one of the greatest masters of Greek sculpture, was also a painter, and still remembered as a miniaturist of some famous gemstones - a cicada, a fly and a bee - imitated in classical gems. Even though we may admit the examples mentioned do not bear witness to a correlation between artists and, consequently, the systematic transmission of iconographic designs and decorative compositions among the different crafts, we cannot neglect to highlight that in a few cases the affinities in design suggest the existence of pattern books in the workshops, but whose medium is unknown. This seems to the case of several Greek vases associated to the Red-line Painter’s workshop. We illustrate our idea with two type-A neck-amphorae, dated ca. 510-475 BC, belonging to the collections of Gómez-Moreno33 and Manuel de Lancastre.34 The same design can be seen on the B side of these amphorae: two Athenian heroes, Peleus and Heracles, depicted as naked young men, with short hair and in the same position [figs. 20-21]. The first amphora depicts Peleus’ abduction of Thetis, with a Nereid running quickly with her head thrown back. On the second vase, the motif is different, portraying Heracles’ capture of the Cretan Bull. Two more examples of the same type can be found in the CVA of the Museo Nazionale di Villa Giulia35 (and which we think belong to the same painter), Brunilde S. Ridgway (1987) 85. We also know Zeuxis made painted vases that were still highly regarded in the Roman period (R. Morais; A. María Adroher (2016) 15). 32 J. Boardman (1970) 18. 33 R. Morais (2016) 125-129. 34 M. H. Rocha-Pereira (2007) 86-87. 35 CVA Italy 1, Tav. 10, nº 1-4. 30 31

2. The Transmission of Iconographic Designs and Decorative Compositions

Figure 20-21: Two neck-amphorae attributed to the Red-line Painter from the collections of Gómez-Moreno (Spain) and Manuel de Lancastre (Portugal).

21

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portraying another of Heracles’ labours, his fight against the Nemean lion. As we can see, the design is the same, different only in the absence of Iolaus from one of the vases [figs. 22-23]. According to the catalogue’s description, these vases, called ‘gemelos’, were found in the same tomb, certainly indicating they were made at the same time and in the same workshop. These examples suggest the existence of pattern books used in the workshops. They do not seem to be only fruit of the artist’s ability to replicate designs from memory and based on skill. We cannot forget that the same vase could be painted on by several artists, masters and young apprentices, who would replicate the desired themes. There is a high number of vases by the Red-line Painter, about 120, found particularly throughout Italy (Etruria, Sicily, Po River Valley) and the Black Sea. Although not among the most renowned of artists, some of his vases reveal high artistic value, which leads us to assume they were made by him and the others by artists in his workshop who copied the works based on sketches.36 An indirect but fundamental testimony that corroborates the existence of ‘pattern books’ in the Greek world are the pinakes made of the most diverse materials (metals, wood, stone). These were used as cartographic maps37 or as moving or fixed parts in certain places of a city.38 According to Agathemerus, the first cartographic map was fixed by Anaximander of Miletus, Thales’s disciple, ‘the first one to have the audacity to inscribe (grapsai) the inhabited earth on a pinax, combining written text with pictures’.39 Later, as Herodotus tells us,40 maps multiplied. The story told by this historian about the embassy of Aristagoras of Miletus to Sparta (in 499 BC)41 reveals that the maps began to acquire an instrumental value: so as to persuade the King of Sparta, Cleomenes I, to intervene militarily in Ionia to save the city of Miletus from the Persian threat, the ambassador carries with him ‘a bronze pinax in which the circumference of the whole earth, the whole sea and all the rivers were engraved.’ The ambassador does not carry a letter or memory that exposes the political situation of the Ionic city and the possible military solutions, but rather a cartographic pinax in support of diplomatic communication and as an instrument of information and persuasion.42 E. J. Holmberg (1990) 8. Later they were included in the illustration of books (Plutarch, Live of Theseus, I, 1; apud C. Jacob (1990) 252).

36 37 38 39 40 41 42

Plutarch, Live of Themistocles, V, 4). apud C. Jacob (1990) 252. Agathemerus, A Sketch of Geography in Epitome I, 1; apud C. Jacob (1990) 245. Herodotus IV, 36. Herodotus IV, 49.

C. Jacob (1990) 251-254.

2. The Transmission of Iconographic Designs and Decorative Compositions

Figure 22-23: Two neck-amphorae attributed to the Red-line Painter. Rome, Museo Nazionale di Villa Giulia.

23

3. Graecia capta ferum victorem cepit et artes intulit agresti Latio This lapidary phrase by Horatio43 serves to mark the moment of greater Hellenisation of Rome from the 2nd century BC onwards. We have to recognise that this phenomenon, rather than imitation, was a creative assimilation that extended and intensified not as an imposed model, but as an assimilated form in continuous expansion, which is interpreted by some as ‘Oriental lust’.44 If the mediums used in the Greek world are unknown, the same cannot be said of the Roman world. Written sources mention the existence of manuals in the form of papyrus scrolls (stemmata, imagines) which served as model and inspiration for the artists.45 Salvatori Settis46 gives us an interesting example of a papyrus found in Cairo, which mentions a certain Attic, a sort of artistic advisor to Cicero, who, during his stay in Athens between 68 and 65 BC, would look for ‘books’ and statues to serve as inspiration to decorate the orator’s villa in Tusculum. Although rare, some copies of designs on papyrus scrolls have survived, such as the one portraying ‘Orpheus among animals’, dated from the 4th century, and today held at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London47 [fig. 24].

Horace, Epistles II, 1.156. According to Livy 39.6, ‘The beginnings of foreign luxury were brought to Rome by the army of Asia. These soldiers were responsible for the first importation of bronze couches, costly upholstery, tapestries and other textiles, and pedestal tables and sideboards, then the height of fashion (…)’. The same idea is found in Sallust, Bellum Catilinae 11. 5-6: ‘That lovely country [Asia Minor] and its pleasures soon softened the soldiers’ warlike spirits. This was where Roman soldiers first learned to make love, to be drunk, to enjoy statues, and pictures, and embossed plate. They stole them from private houses and public buildings; they plundered temples and polluted everything, sacred and secular’ (apud Z. H. Archibald 2013, 23, note 1). 45 O. Brendel (1982) 147; J. R. Clarke (2001 and 2003). 46 S. Settis (1982) 184; 198, n. 57. 47 S. Settis (1982) 183. 43 44

24

3. Graecia capta ferum victorem cepit et artes intulit agresti Latio

25

Figure 24: Drawing on papyrus with Orpheus among animals. London, Victoria and Albert Museum (Accession Number: 15-1946).

Following older traditions, papyri can contain text and images, even if only in the form of rough sketches. One of the few surviving scraps of classical literary illustration on papyrus, known as The Heracles Papyrus, is a fragment of a 3rd-century Greek manuscript of a poem about the Labours of Heracles. This fragment, found at Oxyrhynchus (Pap. 2331), contains three unframed coloured line drawings of the first of the Labours, the killing of the Nemean Lion, set within the columns of cursive text48 [fig. 25]. 48

K. Weitzmann (1977); J. Huskinson (1993) 327, nº 327.

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Figure 25: The Heracles Papyrus (Oxford, Sackler Library, Oxyrhynchus Pap. 2331), a fragment of a 3rd-century Greek manuscript of a poem about the Labours of Heracles.

Figure 26. Fragment of a scroll papyrus with Amor and Psyche (ca. 2nd century AD). Florence, Istituto Papirologico G. Vitelli (Accession Number: PSI 919).

3. Graecia capta ferum victorem cepit et artes intulit agresti Latio

27

Another fragment of papyrus, perhaps from the 2nd century AD, depicts the encounter between Amor and Psyche, probably part of a scroll bearing only illustrations, without associated text49 [fig. 26]. In addition to the papyrus scrolls, other types of mediums with drawings or schematic representations could be used: ostraka, lead sheets, parchment rolls or in codex format,50 and even other rarer and more precious products, such as linen books51 and ivory tablets52 [fig. 27].

Figure 27: Roman portrait fresco of a young man with a papyrus scroll, 1st century AD. Herculaneum. G. Cavallo (1989) 718. Between the 1st and 4th centuries AD, the vellum codex gradually replaced the scrolls of vellum or papyrus. 51 G. Cavallo (1989) 703. 52 G. Cavallo (1991) 171. 49 50

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Several literary sources mention furthermore small tablets (tabellae) hung on walls, which can be seen on some murals. These paintings are often derived from wood paintings attributed by the sources53 to great masters of Classical and Hellenistic painting. They would be exhibited in rich private collections (more than in public ones), known as pinakothekai.54 The existence of several copies versing the same theme, with one or another variation, leads us to think of common sources comprised, as we have mentioned previously, of replicas on papyrus scrolls or small tablets, veritable image albums,55 similar to some extent to the stemmata of illustrated medieval codices.56 It is quite common to find in Pompeii identical paintings made probably by the same author, copied from Alexandrian drawings the artists of the time knew well.57 During his exile in the Black Sea, Ovid mentions the word tabella in a letter sent to the Emperor Augustus, to refer to a small painting (parva tabella) depicting sexual positions, very common in the homes of the wealthy upper classes.58 In his The Art of Love, Ovid says rather ironically that women invented positions which went far beyond those represented in these small paintings. Suetonius59 mentions that Tiberius, in his retreat at Capri, ‘had several chambers set round with pictures and statues in the most suggestive attitudes, and furnished with the books of Elephantis, that none might want a pattern for the execution of any project that was prescribed him’. This type of illustration certainly corresponded to illustrated manuals and ‘encyclopaedic catalogues’ with figurae veneris, already well-known in the Hellenistic period.60 Even if we admit that most of the mural paintings are not replicas of Greek originals, several examples seem to derive from original models, such as the painting found in the peristyle of the House of the Dioscuri, in Pompeii, which portrays Perseus with winged sandals, saving Andromeda from being sacrificed. It is thought that this painting is indeed a replica of the celebrated original by Nikias, from the 4th century BC [fig. 28]. Another good example of the existence of illustrated manuals can be seen in the art of mosaics. We know the workshops had agents in charge of proposing sets of designs and themes to clients, as well as the price, the time of delivery and Pliny, Natural History XXXV. E. M. Moormann (1998) 21-22. 55 E. M. Moormann (1998) 21. 56 O. Brendel (1982) 147. 57 E. S. P. Ricotti (1995) 54. 58 J. R. Clarke (2001) 91-92, 277. 59 Suetonius, Life of Tiberius III and XLIII (translated by M. D. Alexander Thomson 2013). 60 O. Brendel (1970) 63-64; J. R. Clarke (2001) 34, 92-93, 246; (2003) 29. 53 54

3. Graecia capta ferum victorem cepit et artes intulit agresti Latio

Figure 28: Wall-painting with Andromeda and Perseus, perhaps after Nikias. House of Dioscorides at Pompeii. Naples, Museo Archeologico Nazionale.

29

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Figure 29: Alexander Mosaic, depicting the Battle of Issus in 333 BC between Alexander the Great and Darius III of Persia. House of the Faun at Pompeii. Naples, Museo Archeologico Nazionale.

contract. Fruit of a long iconographic tradition, the artists/artisans, travelling frequently, thus counted on the sketches and drawings they had available. One of the most well-known cases relates to a Roman floor mosaic from Pompeii (originally located in the exedra with two columns that separated the peristyles of the House of the Faun), probably depicting the Battle of Issus and which may reproduce a painting of Alexander and Darius III of Persia by Philoxenus of Eretria61 [fig. 29]. A truly unique case are the close similarities to the scenes represented on the famous Gemma Augustea [fig. 30], with a marble relief from a private collection, probably found near Sirmium, in Pannonia [fig. 31]. Despite stylistic and compositional similarities, the differences between these two works are notable, not only due to the materials from which they are made, their size and execution, but also due to chronological differences. The Gemma Augustea, a cameo in sardonyx and a masterpiece of the art from the end of the Augustan period,62 contrasts with this relief in marble, produced in a provincial environment, probably between 320 and 326 BC Ivana Popović puts forward two hypotheses: the artisan either saw the cameo or a sketch of it.63 G. Ritcher (1994) 282. Maybe shortly before 14 AD (P. Stewart 2008, 121-123). 63 The copy of the Gemma Augustea appears at a time when gems from the Julius-Claudius period 61 62

3. Graecia capta ferum victorem cepit et artes intulit agresti Latio

Figure 30: The Gemma Augustea (sardonyx cameo). Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum.

Figure 31: Marble relief, vicinity of Sirmium (Pannonia).

31

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The communicative culture of images is often also manifested in small objects, frequently associated to ‘minor art’, especially those alluding to ritual, mythological and evocative themes, such as in the case of gems, coins, spintriae,64 glass, metal and pottery.65 Similarly to small objects, textile canvases and clothing (jackets, shawls, etc.) were perfect vehicles for the transmission of decorative themes and motifs.66 These pieces, dating from the 3rd to 8th centuries, and mostly found in Egypt, correspond to medallions (orbiculi, tabulae) and decorated bands (clavi).67 A fragment of a slate, today held at the Museo del Monasterio de Montserrat (Barcelona), shows the same motif as the papyrus referred to in fig. 25, which depicts the famous scene of Hercules’ fight against the Nemean lion [fig. 32].

had become very popular and were used as motives of imperial propaganda, the so-called imitatio Augusti, during the time of Constantine (I. Popović 2011, 359-364). 64 The similarities between these small metal pieces and mural paintings are well documented (Clarke 2011, 248, 274, 278). 65 Particularly noteworthy are the terracotta oil lamps which, due to their low cost and extensive distribution throughout the empire, served to spread distinct and varied iconographic lexicons. Similarly to the mosaics, the diffusion of the most popular scenes and motifs represented on the lamps’ discuses can only be understood if we think of the existence of drawing and pattern books in the workshops that produced them (M. Vejas 1966, 83; A. Morillo Cerdán 1999, 164). 66 However, these motifs were replicated from drawings (‘pattern books’), copied over and over again in different crafts, as we have already mentioned, in the art of mosaics, in painting or in the decoration of small objects, such as oil lamp discuses (E. Besciani 1993, 958). 67 The historical evolution of Egypt from the Alexandrian period favoured the introduction of classical iconography, creating a highly varied thematic catalogue: gods of the Olympus, heroes, several personifications and allegories, as well as characters and themes from tragedies by classical authors and pastoral representations inspired by bucolic poetry.

3. Graecia capta ferum victorem cepit et artes intulit agresti Latio

Figure 32: Tabula portraying Hercules’ fight against the lion of Nemea. Barcelona, Montserrat Monastery Museum.

33

4. Case Studies To illustrate this chapter, we have chosen three case studies, although there are others we could refer to and other themes consecrated in Classical Antiquity, replicated countless times on several types of medium. As Otto Brendel68 mentions, a copy implies the use of a specific model, usually ancient; the variations indicate the continuous influence of a still active iconographic legacy. We will start with a sculptural group depicting ‘The Three Graces’ (Euphrosyne, Aglaia and Thalia), generally portrayed in the nude, gently embracing each other. It is a Roman copy in marble from the 2nd century AD, today in the New York Metropolitan Museum,69 which emulates the famous marble group of Cyrene from the 2nd century BC [fig. 33]. In a rare marble specimen found in Beja (Beringel, Portugal), currently held at the Museu Regional D. Leonor (Beja, Portugal), the Three Graces are represented on the back of a version of Aphrodite of Aphrodisias.70 This sculpture, the only one of its type in the Iberian Peninsula, was very likely imported from Rome and must have been part of a private cult, in rural context [fig. 34]. In the Roman period, this group was replicated countless times and on different mediums, including textiles.71 They serve to exemplify sculptural reliefs in marble, murals, sarcophaguses, mosaics,72 and small objects, such as the gold medallion, gem and oil lamp discus illustrated here [figs. 35-36, 37a-b, 38-41].

O. Brendel (1982) 148. P. Zanker (2016) 99, fig. 130. 70 V. de Souza (1990) 9-10, nº 2; (2002) 247, fig. 2. 71 L. Rodríguez Peinado (2011) 345. 72 There are several Roman mosaics with this theme, among which the mosaics today at the Museo Nazionale di Napoli, found in Pompeii at the ‘Giardino della Casa di Apollo’, and at the Museum of Narlıkuyu (Mersin), in Turkey. 68 69

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35

Figure 33: Statue group of the Three Graces. Roman, Imperial period (2nd century AD); copy of a Greek work from the 2nd century BC. The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Accession Number: 2010.260).

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Figure 34: Sculpture of the Three Graces on the back of a marble statue of Aphrodite of Aphrodisias. Museu Regional D. Leonor (Beja, Portugal).

4. Case Studies

Figure 35-36: The Three Graces: Roman marble relief (2nd century AD). New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Accession Number: L.2013.17); Wall-painting from Pompeii. Naples, Museo Archeologico Nazionale.

37

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Figure 37 a-b: Roman marble sarcophagus. Probably ex Villa Carpegna, Antiquities market.

4. Case Studies

Figure 38: Roman mosaic from Spain, Barcino.

Figure 39-41: A second-century Roman haematite gem depicting the Three Graces and a Gorgon Medusa. Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum; Roman gold medallion. Found in Turkey, Antiquities market; Roman lamp from Museo di Sabratha.

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This theme is also represented on tesserae from the 1st century and, especially, on the back of coins minted in the eastern pars of the empire (between 138-161 and 251-253) when they became fairly common at a number of provincial mints in Cilicia and Thrace73 [fig. 42-43].

Figure 42-43: Roman Imperial Pb tessera 1st century AD and coin from Cilicia (Tarsus). Maximinus I (238-244 AD), Ref: SNG Levante 1096 - one of the finest known examples.

They can also be found with some frequency on coins from other provincial cities, such as Marcianopolis (in Moesia Inferior), Decapolis (in Syria), and Nicaea (in Bithynia). Mark A. Staal (2004).

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41

Figure 44: Marmoreal plaque of tavern. Berlin, Antikensammlung.

It should, however, be noted that in some cases these representations were used in an ambiguous manner, losing their original meaning, as the case of this marble plaque which may have hung in a tavern or brothel74 [fig. 44]. The embrace among the Three Graces is a conventional gesture to express good fortune, harmony, enchantment, gratitude, and family prosperity. This conventional gesture is found on other types of representations, male as well, exemplified here by a bronze group of men in a circle from Olympia (probably from the 9th century BC) and two Roman cistae found at Praeneste (from the 4th century BC), with characters derived from Greek and Etruscan mythology [fig. 45-47]. 74

P. Zanker (2012) 100-101, fig. 82.

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Figure 45: Bronze group of men in a circle from Olympia. Athens, National Archaeological Museum (Accession Number: X 6236).

Figure 46: Ficoroni Cista with Dionysus between two satyrs from the 4th century BC Rome, Museo Nazionale Romano Villa Giulia.

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Figure 47: Praenestine Cista with engravings of the Dioscuri and the Judgment of Paris from the 4th century BC Princeton, University Art Museum.

The second example is also well-known and reproduced from Hellenistic models: the ‘Ludovisi’ sculptural group, depicting an inebriated Dionysus held up by the satyr Ampelos, replicated countless times on different mediums [fig. 48]. This theme is depicted on another sculptural group found in the north of Spain, today at the Ourense Museum. The piece is made of white marble (very degraded) and was found in the town of A Muradella (Mourazos, in the municipality of Verín), probably coming from a uilla dating from the 3rd century found nearby. A. García y Bellido75 contends it is a rendering of a bronze model, because of the manner in which the trunk forces the satyr’s position. He further believes it is inspired in a relief or painting, because of the unprecise rendering of the piece’s 75

A. García y Bellido (1969) 27ss.

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Figure 48: Nude ‘Ludovisi’ Dionysus and Ampelos (ca. 160-180 AD). Rome, Palazzo Altemps.

4. Case Studies

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Figure 49: Sculptural group with drunken Dionysus supported by Ampelos. North of Spain. Museo Arqueolóxico Provincial de Ourense.

hind part. In his turn, A. Balil,76 based on these hypotheses, contends the piece had lost the organic sense of the original model, as we can see in the anatomical disproportion between the hands and bodies and the unrealistic rendering of the legs and arms, the latter too short. According to Balil, this piece comes from an Hispanic workshop and may have been imported to Gallecia as a trade exchange. We should imagine that other works of art of this type had existed in the homes of the wealthier residents of the cities and villae of the conventus, eager to share the official aesthetics [fig. 49]. 76

A. Balil (1978) 147-157.

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Figure 50 a-b: Sarcophagus. Boston, Museum of Fine Arts (Accession Number: 1972.650).

Like the previous theme, this motif can be found on other mediums, here illustrated on a sarcophagus, a sculptural relief (oscillum), and a mosaic [figs. 50 a-b, 51-52], as well as small objects, in this case, a North African lamp [fig. 53].

4. Case Studies

Figure 51-52: Roman rectangular oscillum in marble with Nude Dionysus and Ampelos (3rd century AD). Antiquities market; Roman mosaic from the Antioch, House of the Drunken Dionysos (ca. 4th century AD). Turkey, Antakya Museum (Accession Number: 861).

Figure 53: Roman lamp from Carthage (Deneauve VIII B).

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The last case study is another well-known theme from Classical art: the nude renderings of the goddess Aphrodite, whose torso is uncovered and the gesture of covering her breast with the opposite hand while the other one holds the fold of her garment at her waist. This theme, replicated from the famous sculpture by Praxiteles, was the object of innumerable copies from the 1st century.

Figure 54-55: The principal versions of Cnidian Aphrodite: ‘Colonna’ and Belvedere, Rome.

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49

Although many follow the original closely [figs. 54-55] there are some variations, such as the one known as the Capitoline Venus, today found at the National Museum in Naples77 [fig. 56]. Others represent Roman matrons, usually posthumous dedications from their husbands78 [fig. 57]. In this case,

Figure 56-57: Statue-portrait of the ‘Venere Capitolina’ type. Naples, Museo Archeologico Nazionale; statue of a matron (possibly Marcia Furnilla) in the guise of Venus, from a villa near Lago Albano, in Italy. Copenhagen, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek. 77 78

M. Bear and J. Henderson (2001) 127, fig. 88; P. Zanker (2002) 204, fig. 158. P. Stewart (2008) 98-100, fig. 23.

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the ‘sculpture-portraits of Venus’ combine the realistic representation of the matron with a standardised goddess body, associating her to the immortal goddess and highlighting her physical beauty, maturity and fertility, as well as her dignity and modesty.79 Similar representations are found on the relief-statues of funerary steles, as can be seen on this example found in Rome80 [fig. 58], and another recently found in Northern Portugal, in the parish of Capela, Penafiel [fig. 59]. This latter piece does not follow the original canons. The front part of the stele is decorated

Figure 58: Burial inscription with relief depicting a Venus of the Capitolina type. Rome, Museo Nazionale Romano. 79 80

P. Stewart (2008) 98-100. P. Zanker (2002) 100-101, fig. 81.

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Figure 59: Funerary stele from the North of Portugal, Penafiel.

with a rough portrayal of the goddess and includes an inscription in the part corresponding to her tunic, where we can still read DIM/PATERN/AEPOSTA.81 This model was copied innumerable times and in different mediums, here illustrated by coins, ivory, bronze and terracotta pieces, lamps and a rare example of Roman miniature sculpture in glass, probably cast by the ‘lost wax’ technique82 [fig. 60-65]. 81 82

T. Soeiro (2013) 312-315. A similar figurine in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (D. Whitehouse 1988, p. 20).

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Figure 60-62: Coin minted at Cnidus when the original Aphrodite was already more than half a millennium old; Roman small ivory, ca. 2nd century AD, Antiquities market; Roman bronze, 1st2nd century AD, Antiquities market.

4. Case Studies

Figure 63-65: Roman terracotta representing the Venus Pudica (beginning of the 3rd century AD). Antiquities market; Fragment of a Roman lamp discus from the 2nd and 3rd century. Seville, nowadays in Mérida, Museo Nacional de Arte Romano (Accession Number: 19617); Miniature sculpture in glass from the Eastern Mediterranean or Italy, probably 2nd century AD (Accession Number: 55.I.84).

53

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As we have mentioned previously, these are only a few successful examples of some themes replicated countless times on different types of mediums. But this phenomenon did not end with the fall of the Roman Empire in the west. The artistic language, the iconographic koine, endures on into Byzantine art and the art of Medieval Europe, even though following naturally a language shaped by the themes and images of the Christian religion. The theme of the migration and circulation of images, subject to certain coordinates and the complexities of historical times, manifests in an anachronistic manner, lost in the collective memory. As Aby Warburg states in his work Mnemosyne Atlas, ‘No labyrinth, no Minotaur can devour the entire memory of antiquity’.

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