The History of Greek Vases [1 ed.] 0500237808, 9780500237809

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Board in

ek pottei

orians of

itary on the scend

subtle am

t k literati

10 other ai visual exp .ible to obi th. and ev< eek vases

lames & Hi

oject "is a

d art. and d|

y other ancit

issical discipl

ere he sketel

.piore many

uitful. He des


J t0 ar°Und 700 BC;

around 475 Bc-clas3'01!'

Seometric means orientalizing, late

ECi arCbaic'late seventh

century to

'ate lourth to first ce^uriesBc'lu11'' P°UI"tb centuries> Hellenistic shapes-thesp c • conventional names for vase chapters, but the' "

u ^

35 W'H be shoWn in later

given rough date! in h!* termS famillar ln a'l the books. I have taken as more tha 'aterchapter. Bur I in

m

\ ^

Captions but they

should not be

&

f° re'at'veP'ac'ng, another

matter for a

any way misieadinn ° g-

be'leVe that t,le>'are far from

the truth or

Runnings

Th q %ure-decorated potter^^ U3S Peoples,yetita0esL , Bc>

12

a period not con«vi ^ Cre

C'eC°rated

Pottery and especially not shared by many other ancient Bronze ASe' d°wn

"n Bl's

to around 1100 ^°°h because after it there was

1. Late Minoan 'pilgrim flask'from Palaikastro (Crete). 16th c. BC. H. 28cm. (Heraklion)

2. Late Mycenaean crater from Marion (Cyprus). This style is best represented in Cyprus. 14th c. BC.

H. 41.9cm. (London

1911.4-28.1)

3. Sub-Mycenaean stirrup vase,

or oil, from Athens. The top is a

False

spout' supporting the two

tirrup handles, llth c. BC.

Kerameikos)

effectively a new beginning in the craft. The non-Greek Mmoans of Crete had made colourful and highly decorative wares [A The Mycenaean Greek potters of the mainland learnt from them, but were generally more restrained. Most of the decoration was abstract, floral or marine, with little by way of other animal or human subjects except with the later Mycenaeans [sfj. At all times there was production of storage vases: the stirrup vases with narrow spouts for oil are the most characteristic [js], and huge

13

pithoi, like barrels, for bulk storage of solids or liquids, painte, i plain, most familiar from thestorerooms ofKnossos. The xMinoa i palace economies encouraged such usage since they control!,'| distribution of major commodities. However, with the decline the palaces in the twelfth century BC , which seemsaccompanied 1 a decline in population and even some measure of change in composition (more Greek-speakers from the north, it may be) 11 more elaborate pottery, as well as other more sophisticated arts disappear from all Greece. The pattern of life was now of fewer, smaller communities. Thepohtical pattern was one dictated by geography, and then: as­ perity of the towns by the relative poverty of the land, much

it

forested and unfit for either pasture or agriculture, and with no major mineral resources. It is hardly surprising that Greece v. as never bonded into one nation, except as the result of pressure fr, outside, and then only superficially, from Macedon, then Rome e unity was one of language and religion only, but on occasion •>»i could be supremely binding. No wonder they were always rea y to travel. At the start of our period there had been some pans,on tn the form of groups who had travelled east across the Aegean as some had short,y ^ (() ^ ^ ^ most i n°Un t0 °r °CCUpied hy Greeks in Bronze Age. The ™ mportant of these set,,ed in Ionia and the Dodecanese, on sdZdT

h°re iS,andS

mutat

°f

Turkey,

mea" U"aWareneSS' h—•

"ithislands.1"1 notsimnb

SUCh

"

!>S'®ns

renewec' interest

in pottery as a major and

^

itS countryside villages,

Sunium in the south TV Attica; which i« v .A1IS

^r

Athenian' T

A

*^

otters expre

should not be

U

T

°

'

We,t' Marath°n C°UntryS,de

matched, as well

)E

USED

th°Ugh

t,K

^

the north east>

(chora) was

e*ant t0 dle c'ty> and

implied by demandanri '°' °Ur " 3nd geography. t his renewal is •

'

C

'Attic'81""^

ities of fine

ofcom-

Sma" C°Umry 3nd 3CrOSS 3 sea studded

lending to E^T"

AT

'

EAST

Ae lattCr

extensive AS

often

*S

kept f°r

AS

for the early period it

Pth c. ec. (London market) 7. Detail of women mourning,

om the neck of an Attic geoletric amphora. About 700 BC. "Jew York 10.210.8)

S. Detail of warriors, from the pck of an Attic geometric riphora; the shields have white-

linted devices. About 700 BC.

openhagen, Ny Carlsberg I N .87)

23

[»]• The most

^

sigIlificant eyidence for

dl^h^'T^^^^^e-markingvases' dec rat d u.th funeral scene, The Attic potter has moved out of SrirC

Pr°d;CtIOn mt° S°metMng

— -uly

mentsofpotteryMIsyaySSSerV,nSm0rethan

Places, such as Corinth

eece'

usually deemed sufficient [so^TlT^' too, but they are storao-PnVk • ~

'the shipwreck of an Attic ctoe.late •- (Mur^•ch 8696) ^oochoe. from 187. About

SCC'U^0US^ executed, are some

large vases

and amphorae that marked rich Athe'S h""6'8' ^ Crat6rS h Atheman ra ferently decorated.This S ves, and they are difas the model for aU Greekb'h " ^ 434"0t take Athens Political geographvofG " av,our and taste in this craft. The

states, never as large as eml>tacing e"oe

* crater, from •betowthe 'dnd wtieefs "ecece. with -rater. See ;?^ers*Jeand r- H 4 7.3cm.

USUal require-

Thadopted though there were

k

was

9. Dra

mo„u.

^

shaPe'with

several townships'withCenaean

in Attica was pmbablv'th

ArS°s

"any small

and its Argolid which

but

°ften

°n' I"™* " state

was distinctive, with

mm

°e,a'nStra'ts. The pottery of each

Paries bu, with the state' stv ^ «tjle in the townshW

Vanati°n

*^ Were local

Br°ad

,dandSOf^Cvclades,

p:S

hilarities of

rmtanCe' BOe°tla' --

nA^?ePOlitiCal*ratio„

s

Zi3"nZZ^fbthe Arg0lid We find .ha"l.0fmenandhorsosr

2,| no t r

°fdly C°mp0Sed

la^

pat-

motlfs

and

'0 suggest water;«• wavy

patterns

""ft and 'thirsty'»Th Jt0 H°mer Argos was a land The elements of decoration fGpow

•

simple formulae, but in combination, as on [22j, come close to making real' pictures. Cretan vases are almost all pattern; Boeotian have some oddly disorganized geometric figures [23J; the islands long favour high-necked forms [24], It is probable that the majority of these larger pots were not grave-markers; indeed they might have been for domestic use before becoming coffins, often for children or for cremated remains, and their decoration seems not to be determined by their ultimate use.10 Euboea remains an important centre for the craft, and it is in these years that

Euboean

states explore

both

western

and

eastern

Mediterranean shores: the opening phases of the colonizing movement and of developing trade with non-Greek states. Politically and commercially Euboea is more important in this period than Athens, which seems busy but introspective. The Cesnola crater [25], found in Cyprus, is prime Euboean work, but even more important are the pendent-semicircle skyphoi [26j which retain a form ofprotogeometric decoration down to around 750 BC, and are markers for Euboean exploration in the east, the

results of which we now address.11 25

of a Boeotian geometric ' showing the laying-out of ran, with mourners and re. SeefGl/Pfig. 106. 700 BC. (Louvre CA639)

tail from a Theran

nc

^Phora, from Thera.

vp fig-

94, whole vase,

•h c. BC. (Copenhagen NM 1)

)oean

geometric crater (the

1 Crater), a

from Cyprus. The

tree in the centre panel

mental motif. After mid-

c-

H. 1.15m. (New York 1-965)

-uboean sub-protogeometric from Lefkandi. About 800 BC. 7cm. (Eretria, Lefk S59/2)

«-

rrri""'

message for us of p-i

•

S

J"

the history of a cr!ft 7ro7* course quite different f • east and Egypt ho -

Pottery>

tha" Just a"°ther

t"

r°m

•

y US m the

tlme °" Gr6ek

' °f

°lder

have

chapter i,

^ bega" t0 take :

cultures of

the neai

r i * » « - » - •- * » -

alN)UI to me, Villa Giulia 22679)

be re-identified as Greek myth. Gradually, pottery became a field for scenes that were more than statements of cult or husbandry,

31

and offered both generic and specific myth and divine subjects It became for the Greeks, in other words, a medium for communica n of narrative, as well as a visual commentary on their life and lr "^"history was central to their attitudes I • lif d life and worship, their pottery becomes for us a source of evidence

o en more detailed than any surviving texts, and certainly rela­

ting far more closely to the experience of the ordinary people he eastern floral

patterns never quite broke the Greek

artist s dedication to geometry, but they did inspire some originaI vanauons on eastern themes,

interlaces of lotus and palmettj

Tfl" srtry of the,r °wn'and

iater d-'ei°ped

ealt ltet th CreatI°nS WMCh "time 6Ven fo"nd *** east again to their sources, transmuted. On seventh-centurs w;rm

P°;iery th7 Changes manif"sted

ZsoT Z ofZ

this ^ ^ 3re ChaIlenged t0 di— gree " may have bee" a matter of the infiu-

Eas Gri?1"™ d''T" S°UrCeS' ^ have fe foe7

themselves in different

/

n"

tHS appUeS malnly

^

lesser extent alfirst^ Athln^."^ perflmeldW LTSifo Corinthian T

7 TJ-

3nd Y

C°"nth

seems to

^^ »

3

^the Smafet'flasks fOT th65e attraCt^ the new decoration ™ ^ deC°rati°n °f the ^"ally

S^lrhr ~ the k°tyle ^ As a -"It Corinthian the first to to ,r°t0C°nnthlan') tends to be miniaturizing and is techrfiquewh h^UCe

bnely incised

figures — the 'blaclffigure'

z T°more deepiy committed to the easte™

fries of a„l:i;; in- The Chigi vase of th

m°n°tOn0US ammal-frieze

animals, even with smallnT6"111

style soon set

™ ^ S°m6 °f

g SC6neS painted in red and white on the broad hi, L ,r the ma'" fr.ezes use of red ldt0 T^ the polychromv to o T*mtroduces m unfamiliar element of

also on larg-er w

^^

achieved from

about this time

Corinthianrinspired. Thlchi ^ ^ ^ deC°rati°n ofbuildings, all conception of vase Hp them r50.5"l-

tk

• •

^ '

1

demonstrates

n° physical

a far finer

divisions between

approachingeachotli(attimtop) MT ^ ^ p^'Thls ls afa'rly large vase compared with the arvh,11 • -the tallest about 4Cm°Th °Ug ^'ndividual friezes are shallow samestyleis seen even more delicately ""the tiny oil vase J "d vases, some of which are enhanced with moulded

31. Protocorinthian aryballos, the 'Macmillan aryballos', by the same painter as [30], from Thebes. Moulded lion-head spout. The main frieze is a hoplite rank breaking up in battle; below it, riders, and a hare hunt. Drawn out in EGVP fig. 176. Mid-7thc. BC. H. 6.8cm. (London 1889.4-18.1) 32. Protocorinthian olpe. After mid-7th c. BC. H. 34cm. (Munich 8764)

animal or human heads at their tops. This is almost the potter/painter as jeweller [3/j. The majority of the production, however, is dedicated to animals \32J. The new technique and decoration were soon influential, but other pot-painters, especially in Athens and the Cyclades islands, saved their most elaborate work for larger vases. So we have already a divergence of interests among Greek potters and paint­ ers, with Athens retaining something of the monumentality of its geometric, Corinth the delicacy and precision of its earlier prod­ ucts. In the islands the geometric styles died hard, but before the mid-seventh century Athens and the Cycladic island schools were producing large vases, known to us principally from cemeteries, decorated with big-figure subjects. These were usually drawn in outline, not incised silhouette as in Corinth, and sometimes with some modest colour contrast through use of diluted or pigmented clay slips. The subjects are divine and mythological, the florals more unruly than the neat Corinthian interlaces. Athenian potters had moved warily into the new fashion, at first combining geometry with a little more linear detail and even incision ~33~. The most characteristic of the Trotoattic' oriental­ izing vases of Athens are of the mid-seventh century and earlier, in the so-called Black and White style, with big mythological sub­ jects [54],18 This was not, of course, the only style for pottery dec­ oration and there was specialization for grave goods, it seems, in smaller shapes [55].19 Several of the Cyclades islands seem each 33

33. Early Protoattic amphora. Relief 'snakes' at lip, shoulder and

to have had their own style [55, 57], sometimes very short-lived,

handles, for a funeral vase. A little

as if the creation of a single potter or his family. It is not easy to

black figure incision on the

place them and most are known from examples which had been

manes. Another view, EGVP fig. 189. Early 7th c. BC. H. 80cm.

taken to the central, sacred island of Delos, either for dedication

(Paris, Louvre CA2985)

there, or as grave goods, which were all dug up in the sixth century

34.1,2. Protoattic 'Black and

BC

and conveniently redeposited together in a pit on the nearby

White' amphora, from Eleusis,

island Rheneia. The latest of the styles, running into the sixth

where it served as a child's coffin.

century, is from Paros: long called 'Melian' for the prolific finds on

On the neck Odysseus and two companions blind the giant Polyphemos, who clutches the inebriating cup. The frieze on the body has the decapitated gorgon,

the island of Melos — a reflection on the many mistakes of attribuTo thC P3St' n0t aP °f Which may yet have been uncovered [55].20 Crete has several different workshops; it is a large island. tl0n

her two sisters pursuing Perseus,

At Knossos the favourite grave vase was big and ovoid. As early as

who has her head (the missing

the late ninth century there had been a brief experiment with

part), with Athena protecting him.

orientalizing patterns (the 'Protogeometric B' style) while all

Pre-mid-7th c. BC. H. 1.42m. (Eleusis)

around was geometric. And from the early seventh century there is a small group of polychrome vases with flowers and birds in

35. Group of Protoattic vases, the contents of an offering ditch

reds, blues and blacks on a white slip [55], Crete seems to have

beside a burial in Athens. Apart

been more exposed than most of Greece to the direct effect of

from the kotyle (second left) the shapes are somewhat bizarre, funeral furniture. Mid-7th c. BC. (Kerameikos)

immigrant craftsmen, from Syria and Cyprus, and its oriental­ izing patterns are less stereotyped than those of the mainland [59].21 The East Greek world, Ionia and its islands, with Dorian Rhodes in the Dodecanese, took yet another line.22 The geometric style lingered to the mid-century, by which time a different animal-frieze decoration was being adopted. This is known as the Wild Goat Style', defined by its commonest actor shown in friezes walking or grazing, but with other orientalizing animals and monsters, often set heraldically either side of elaborate floral com­ positions of volutes and palmettes. The favourite shape for the best 35

36. Parian CMelian') amphora, from Melos. A fight over armour watched by women, on the neck. On the body Apollo and two women (Muses?) in a chariot drawn by winged horses, greeted by his archer sister Artemis, with a stag. Detail in EGVP fig. 250. After mid-7th c. BC. H. 97cm. (Athens 3961) 37. Cycladic jug (Parian?) with a griffin-head as neck, from Aegina. Mid-7thc. BC. H. 41.5cm. (London A547)

38. Drawing of a Cretan polychrome grave pithos from Knossos. The colours are red, blue and black on white. Early 7th c. sc. H. 53cm. (Heraklion Fortetsa 1383)

39. Pattern from a Cretan flask from Knossos. Pre-mid-7th c. BC. (Heraklion)

40. Milesian Wild Goatoinochoe, the Marseilles'or'Levy oinochoe'. Late 7th c. BC. H. 39.5cm. (Paris, Louvre CA350)

decoration here is the broad jug (oinochoe, wine-pourer') [40], while the drinking cups (bird bowls) clung to geometric pattern L 41J for over a century. The decorative style of both cups and jugs

seems to represent a common style in the eastern Aegean, and it is proving none too easy to distinguish sources though new finds and location by clay analysis are now resolving many doubts. For long most of the Wild Goat vases were called Rhodian because Rhodes had proved the first prolific source in excavation ~42~], Exceptions to the rule of animal decoration are very few but can be

U- North Ionian 'bird bowl', •ate 7th c. BC. W. 14cm. Oxford 1928.313)

37

"• Dish from Camirus (Rhodes) x>ut 600 BC.W. 32cm. (Paris >uvre A352)

Plate from Camirus (Rhodes)

nelaos fighting Hector over the V of Euphorbos. Outline style

imuch colour but the bird-

:on is

b'ack figure. About

'BC" W- 38.5cm. (London 0.4-4.1)

of P^uction^SS cLTl?!tstUS

h3Ve PrOV6d maj0r CentreS

guished following in the sixth century™

Va"antS

^ *

^e^efavouredshapTbir^Stt6 ^

derived from the J ^

^ P°ttery

diStm"

^

StjleS which were Partly

eastern sources, inchd"" ^WiAQr^Piu%from other, forms.83 From around 3S

ar°Und the

S°me

6X0tlC

abstractions

of

animal

century the Greeks were

44. Western Greek crater, signed

by Aristonothos, from Caere. A

founding colonies in South Italy and Sicily, in an important enter­

warship (left) fights a merchant

prise to settle and trade. These were individual ventures, not cor­

ship (with marines on board).

porate. The colonists took their pottery with them and stimulated

3ther side with the blinding of

3olyphemos,

Wd-7th c.

EGl/P fig. 282.

BC. H. 36cm.

Rome, Conservatori)

a demand for more of the same from their mother cities, or from carriers of the few wares very widely popular with Greeks (mainly Corinthian), but many also started to make their own decorated vases.24 These copy homeland styles, but many soon deviate and produce distinguished versions, though never too far from what­ ever was current and fashionable in the homeland

They

even have some influence locally, as in Etruria. And there are other effects far from home, where the western waters were being 39

explored by Phoenicians at the same time and beside the Greeks Thus, there areeastern shapes of dish made on Ischia, in the B, of Naples, where there was the first Greek western settlement; s me are plain, as for easterners, but some are decorated as Greek ryometnc and must have served the Greeks. And in west

n

Phoenician trading posts, in south Spain, west Sicily and at Carthage, Greek cups and their decoration are locally produc ed many perhaps for such Greek residents as there might have b< since they would not have suited most easterners as The potter's role had clearly much changed from being a pro­ ducer o uhktarian ware, for storage or cooking, to purveyor • .f pictorial objects which might win foreign markets and entertain eTd r " ' KUyerS at h0me °r abr°ad- MoSt Wares never tra, died beyond their home towns, except with the occasional emi­ grant or visitor. Connth was among the first to have her pottery settle 6f u marit1"6'1 ' pot

rTh

r ^

thC eXPeCted C°rinthian areas of

^

rP"Se in

famed 1 contain^F

W3S

bee" Part

°"ly tbe flaSks

CU'tieS

°?

°n

inures, or

°n the Corinthia«s' the

°f the

qtraUty of their attracti°n - per-

that trave"ed.

Larger or

6 JUSS a"d CUPS' 3lS° traVe'led for use but not as

careless^ Z

1

"0t

°r m°re

ma"erS 38

"lay h3Ve

oZ ,h ~ T

tern

°ther

mUCh

^ ^ 'argo to treat °f PaCk'"« a"d transport reflect on

trade P°"ery WaS indeeti

becoming a real trade

sublte i f TSt t0 a"y merchaM a"d "0t simP'y a source of 3nd h'S famU> ook a:f°r ^ "Set will be th work The""

T

' m 3 'ater Ch3pter' but jt affects our view of tbe roles of potter and painter.

bemg Pr°dUCed Md 0f

ear,y:rU,"eS °f the

CraftSm™

^ to appear on the pots as

scenes'and from dif" ferent motiZTZ8 n3ming figUreSthe es, o vv uch pride is more probable than advertising.

Relief and Plain Pottery mhgrrrthtrdaSSeSOfPOtteryt0beCOnsideredbeforecontint,a prod-t of this period oi F™:r°mrf y they were al

'

JerZn0 ° " mg pa Jr

'hick-walled and decorated in relief. If ' " W3S

"Za ^

^^ W3S

»d ^ paint has routed by impress-

6 ^ Wh'Ch

surface Smne h """ ^ th»* the CreteTs a mal 'J m°ddled a"d" figures upon them, but the most imaS°UrCe

^ 6Ighth t0 Sixth centuries

"

elsewhere in the Cvci"T Z been found on the island of Tenos, 3 es -46~' a"d in Boeotia [4T\; the link is not 40

45. Relief vase from Crete. A winged goddess between sphinxes; and panels with horsemen, all from the same mould. Mid-7th c. BC. H. 1.25m. (Jerusalem, Israel Museum) 46.1,2. Relief vase, from Mykonos. The neck has the Trojan Horse; the body, panels with scenes of slaughter at the Sack of Troy (as the detail). Early 7th c. BC. H. 1.34m. (Mykonos 2240) 47. Detail from the neck of a relief vase, from Boeotia. Perseus, with his magic cap and bag slung from his arm, looks away from the petrifying Medusa as he decapitates her. She has a horsebody-she mated with Poseidon as a horse. Mid-7th c. BC. (Paris, Louvre CA795)

41

49. Fragment of a relief vase, from

Chios. A merman swims holding an octopus. Late 6th c. BC.

H. 20cm. (Chios

1431)

ear but might be a migrant potter. They are decorated with elabrate figure scenes of cult and myth which seem outs.de the usual pertory 0f the painted vases of their day - In the sixth century e more ambitious vases from Sparta seem to be close copies of a vases to judge from details of their shape [4S], although metal vases of any size did not attract all-over figure decoration, is can o ten be seen to be the potter's additive.89 There are reDre

eS°f the genre a11 over Greece (as [4S]).30

mark r T * We ne H "0t neCeSSarily fr°m

All seem to

a ^al ^ er P°" establishments.

the US"al

of ant °fremTemberthatPOtSWeren0ttheonl>rfiredclayobJects r°°^ t'^eS' arch'tectural members (meto \ A 3r^e for unn

'I ^

the SIXth century

architectural decoration

^ ^in demand,

intrudeT and with the latter we so on t e work of the coroplast making clay figures, ^

some small, some up to life size.31 These too are unlikely to have formed part of the ordinary potter's business, though many are seen to be painted by the regular pot-painter, and kilns and work­ shops were probably shared. For special commissions, as for a 50. Attic oil amphora, from Marmari (Cyprus). H. about 65 cm. (Nicosia 1961/viii-18/2)

51. Series of 6th- to 5th-century

temple, new kilns were probably constructed at the building sites. Storage and carriage vases, for liquid (oil or wine) or solids, become important by the end of the geometric period, and a class of nearly spherical vases with narrow mouths made in Athens and

BC wine amphorae, made in

Euboea are important indicators of early trade in their contents,

Chios, from Athens. (Athens,

usually, it seems, oil

Agora)

The wine and oil trade especially

became a major source of profit in Greek lands, and by the sixth century there are already distinctive local shapes being created for their carriage |_57j. These are generally ovoid, but unlike the long-established eastern form (which is normally neckless and with smaller loop handles), becoming more conical with time, needing therefore to be supported on a base, when not stacked on their sides for transport. They soon become the commonest finds from domestic sites and shipwrecks, right through the Roman period. Many local varieties from the fourth century on have stamps on their handles, indicating source or date. The pots are of high quality for the job they had to do, and in Egypt some were kept to serve for water storage, and even imported empty. Not all parts of the ancient world were blessed with such good clay or potting skills as the Greeks enjoyed.33 Only the earliest of these amphorae have some decoration, and of the simplest. These too are likely to have been from specialist potteries.

43

Black Figure in Corinth and Athens

We return to the expiring orientalizing styles in pottery decora turn of the later seventh century, where the interests in myth nar rattve and the demands of an animal-frieze style continued to compete. In other respects Greece of the years since the protege o metric period had become steadily more populous, and signs of reduced population which have been suspected in some plat such as seventh-century Athens, may simply be a misreading; of the incomplete evidence. At least one of the reasons for brisk c, omzing on distant shores, in the west and later round the Black Sea, must have been a surplus and often ambitious population T • relationship of a city with its countryside (chord) and often with other dependent towns and villages had become better defined

s

well as its independence from its neighbours despite their shared religious and material culture. The Greek polis, that overworked term for the Greek city-state beloved of taxonomic historians and me arc aeo ogists, had arrived, though variety was as evident as harlTT

°f

W3lk Va™ty

co mt 7n enfo "3 ° rCeCe WaS

Hfe and

P°litics'

there could

But

SUCh 3 SmaU C0Untr* eve"

'hough the a common threat

bardy percePtible until

crher rmeKreC°gnitl0n °f Wh3t W3S a"d was not Greek, and erne ta other than the shared language and religion emerged. The Jfeis as much as anything, defined by what it is not: totally unlike econom

a0'1?' S°me °f'haW gi°"

current PaZ tSkPerP°Wer gods In r

^

(ASSy™'

ln g00dS

°r

managed thelr ow"

P°Utically deP»dent

on the ^rsia) and

Babyl°"ia-

Service t0 sometimes

alien states and

Onlv the Pre,t W3S nOTer 3 ma"er of trib"te, just local taxes, well nor ."J6™'311 C1"es seem comparable, or those on the less Te Gre

^

as well a skferati

nXPlainS mUCh ab°Ut their political

h f

ailos he S

^ eaStem

rerial StyleS 3,1,1 pr0pasanda' and evolving in an

the r ' I68' S°i.Cial

and

invention could still count

3nd P0UtiCal Cha"ges lrft

rWnShlPS UnCha^d.

laZ town

"dependence of

development development of their arts, undisturbed by con-

for something. ^ md'Vldual taste

J v" n

Tha

r

tionTfol r Corinth rem .,e™Se^eS

"

the economy of

^ther with whatever local

bee" f°r P°ttery

needs, the potters in

TIaUy th°Se Whh trade

Athenians m 44

ln a

colonial conneccommercially interesting situation. f pottery °

-

*—

, ?reece> eve" to Athens. It seems that the ay have been prompted by this success to emulate

52. Decoration of an amphora by the Nessos Painter. About

600 BC.

H. of frieze 35cm. (Berlin

1961.7)

Corinth, but the first intimation of this is the painters' acceptance of the Corinthian black figure technique, and with it the animalfrieze style of decoration. Athenians, however, retained an interest in decorating large vases - too large perhaps for the fine incising technique of black figure to appear to its best effect, so there was a tendency to double lines in the drawing for emphasis 752].34 There was little or no market for big decorated vases, yet some began to get around the Greek world by about 600 BC, despite the fact that Athens had no colonies of her own. Presumably quality told, with customers and so with carriers. The Corinthians' vases were long wedded to the animal-frieze style for the bulk of the production, but there was an increasing use of mythological subjects to decorate major areas.35 The backs of vases and secondary friezes might be left to the animals, just as in the seventh century the bigger vases in the rest of Greece had their backs left plain or covered with squiggles. The animal-frieze vases are often competent and colourful ~33~, but easily degener­ ate into weary processions of elongated bodies, economizing in the

3-

Corinthian oinochoe. Early

TH C-

BC. (Charterhouse School)

43

54. Corinthian crater. Heracles rescues Hesione from a sea monster (ketos). The monster head seems inspired by a fossil monster head such as are found in Aegean cliffs. Pre-mid-6th c. BC. (Boston 63.420) 55. Corinthian amphora. Heroic battles; no identified occasion, as often on Corinthian vases, though ail figures are named. Before mid6th c. BC. H. 35cm (Copenhagen NM 13531)

56. Corinthian cup. Suicide of Ajax, impaled on his sword (contrast [82,267,268]). Watching are Diomedes, Odysseus, Phoinix, Nestor, Agamemnon, Teukros and (the Lesser) Ajax. Early 6th c. BC. W. 20.3cm. (Basel BS1404)

time taken to draw heads.36 The figure scenes include a good range of subjects with no very distinct pattern of choice emerging [54, 204, 233J.37 Several, such as the chariot scenes, and even on the larger and more elegant craters, seem generic [55[38 rather than depicting specific mythical or human occasions. All shapes are decorated, the larger ones used at the drinking party being favoured for export, with some large cups, where myth often dis­ places the animals [56[39 There is still a brisk production of oilfilled

aryballoi and alabastra for female and male (athletic)

cosmetics. Most of thesesmall vases are very plainly decorated, and

57. Corinthian aryballos. Heracles ys the Hydra, with the help of

|0|aos; Athena, behind, holds a ask (for the Hydra's poison-blood

Heracles will tip his it is too small for afreshmentl). About 600 BC Basel BS425)

wth which

3rrows;

47

are met by the hundred (some Boeotian graves contained dozens each), but there are exceptions with elaborate figure generally larger and often flat-bottomed

decoration,

[57,294'

In the first half of the sixth century it would be easy, too easy to tell the story of the craft in Greece in terms of a trade war between Corinth and Athens, each vying to attract the prime attention of carriers and customers. This may be to adopt too sophisticated an approach to the role of pottery as a trade item and to its appeal, but it was obviously a crucial factor for the potters themselves. Most obvious is the way Athenian potter/painters take more note of Corinth, copying some shapes (cups and craters) together with their decoration, and even observing to some degree their colour schemes. Corinth too begins to adopt a reddish background to the finer figure

scenes and some think that this is in

imitation of Attic, though it seems just as likely to be an aesthetic choice, giving a better colour range beside the usual black, deeper red and white on the figures, and more necessary when the clay itself was almost white, unlike the Attic pink/red. Meanwhile, in Athens, the more colourful schemes of Corinth were adopted and copied, notably for a ware which was deliberately aimed at an export market, in Etruria. These are the so-called Tyrrhenian amphorae which combine a popular Attic shape of neck amphora with a Corinthian scheme, well liked in Etruria, of gaudy myth and animal friezes [55,59,263^ There is no little speculation about some activity by Corinthian potters in Athens, possibly encou m ge p

) the reforms of the lawgiver Solon, who was said to have

moted the immigration of craftsmen. When names on vases me more plentiful we shall see that the Athenian potters' er was probably well staffed by immigrant Greeks, metics

i oi) and even slaves, who lived beside the citizens but .

^ ^ r*£>hts. We can see from the evidence of other arts too at t ie archaic craftsman could be vagabond. angely, figU1

e

decoration on Corinthian vases stops around

sixth century. It is very hard to see this as a result of any yp

? 58. Attic Tyrrhenian amphora, by the Timiades Painter, from Vulci. Heracles attacks the Amazon Andromache. Pre-mid-6th c. BC. H-39.4cm.

(Boston 98.916)

letical tiade w ar, since the quality of production was at a

g

export remained brisk long afterwards. There was no

J

epidemic in the potters' quarter, unless it was confined to S"1Ce

P0ts S°

011

being made in quantity, and exported,

) are plain and very simply decorated, without figures, n y, more Greeks were making their own decorated vases, an m a broadly cor.nthianizing style, but not enough to freeze ou t ports. I cannot credit a change of heart or manner of orint lan life to account for the demise of the figure-decorated

'• Attic Tyrrhenian amphora

-tail), by the Kyllenios Painter,

vases. In the next generation the city was important in the devel­

m Caere. The birth of Athena!

opment of panel painting, to judge from references in later-

lergingfrom the head of Zeus,

authors, but all the pot-painters could not have suddenly defected

10 is attended by the goddesses

childbirth, the Eileithyiai. At the

to a senior craft, while Athenian vases are increasingly imported.43

t: Dionysos, Hephaistoswith

Clay is still painted with figure scenes, as on miniature clay altars

; wood axe and a crippled foot,

d Hermes announces'I am

;rmes of Kyllene'. Pre-mid-6th

BC. (Berlin 1704)

• Corinthian miniature clay

ir, from Skione (north Greece).

3tyr. Late 6th c. BC.

11.5cm, (Harvard 60.491)

• Attic standed dinos by

ihilos. The main scene is of the

dding of Peleus and Thetis (as

[62,64]), with divine guests. )ut575 BC. H. 71cm.

ndon 1971.11-i.d

L60],43 and there was a continuing demand for Corinthian terra­ cotta revetments for buildings, but the latter called for other and minor painting skills. Possibly a combination of the causes men­ tioned, and of others we cannot even guess, was the reason, but if anyone was toprofit from the change, it was the Athenian potter. Most Athenian vases down to around 570 BC bear the stamp of Coiinth to varying degrees, copying shapes and decoration but

2- Attic crater, by Kleitias and

rgotimos, from Chiusi. The

y

m

to the point at which there can be doubt about where

iezes show: hunt of the

alydonian Boar; chariot race at

ie

h vi r

Games for Patroklos'funeral-

V|ne

guests arrive for the

'eddingofPeieusand Thetis (as

p

1(6]]); Achilles pursues Troilos

fin- -

id Polyxena outside the walls of oy (at right); on the foot,

F

'gmies fight cranes. See 3,64,202]. About 575 BC. 66cm. (Florence 4209)

?lade

1 animal friezes>

i" work by the painter Sophilos

' 'eac^ng the way in his more ambitious work, by the t-u' °ne °* t'1G Pa'nters °f cups with komast (dancer)

.

711 scenes'ont and back, and minimal animal display. v °ne °f

Etruria^TlT m

Srowing interest in myth scenes,

6,1 3 Pottei'-and-painter partnership, Kleitias and . go imos, started making big craters decorated with several

FIT

p

*

rheie is 3

.

their

WOrks h3S

^62~64' 2°2^'

61G Uere ot^er

Where' n"T V

named for

—cd complete - the its finder,

and found in

snch which we know only from frag-

V""*1VaSe chariot racing,

Y 5th c. BC. H. 65cm.

'Mbu 77.AE.9) Panathenaic amphora by the In Painter,

from Vulci. The

J. with runners approaching

fuming post. Early 5thc.Bc.

w York, Callimanopoulos; a Castle Ash by)

* be d r

t0 *°ur tb centuries most e^crs

, un

of their painters can be recog-

"n their craft, and their work on other shapes can

Half tin, vases with known proveniences have been in

Attica, but they also travelled, not necessarily with the

1Ce tbe vases themselves and certainly their contents / . prime oil) were valuable. This provokes questions of the poss-

° 3 seconc|hand market for decorated pottery, which we shall pursue in Chapter 4. 'an figure could produce masterpieces such as the seventh-century ru; • . y g'case and many fine later craters. These are m a different mode from the best of the Athenian, starting with blarlTfi ^

g°lng °n t0 tHe beSinning of

caref. 11^ ^ mathe

3

black do figure 5S

teChniCa11^ excellent:

? aillned and executedlC\h reC1S1°n' 3nd the

the fifth century. Attic

the potting and shape are

the

details pared to almost

Paint is fired

composit'6 Pan^ C°mes to mean

to an excellent

more than the frieze for

76.1,2,3. Panathenaic amphora, of the Kuban Group, from Taucheira (Tocra, Cyrenaica). The

The figure decoration ranges from the miniaturist to the mon­ umental, from the tiny figures on the new, long-stemmed Little

shield device is of the statue group

Master cups, to panel amphorae with figures often up to 25cm

of the Tyrannicides in Athens

high. Some names deserve mention. A painter who signs himself

{GSCP figs. 3-9). The athlete and trainer from the reverse show how

ho Lydos, the Lydian, must have come from the East Greek area but

the black figure technique adapts

was trained and worked in the Athenian tradition, sometimes

to the more realistic drawing of the

close to Kleitian standards [77], sometimes still practising the

day. Late 5th c. BC. H. 57cm. (London B605)

looser animal style.51 Amasis may have come from much the same area, well in touch with Egypt (whence his name was derived, for

77. Attic column crater by Lydos. Hephaistos returning to Olympus

whatever reason), and makes his own contribution to the develop­

in the company of satyrs and

ing Athenian tradition with finesse and what we judge to be no

maenads, handling snakes,

little humour [[68, 69, 78, 79j.

grapes and wineskins.

and seems to represent archaic art in vase painting coming of age,

Mid-6thc.BC. H. 56.5cm. (NewYork31.ll.ll)

52

Exekias is made of sterner stuff,

and aspiring to more than mere decoration and nai rath e [_80—82,

198,203,509].53 He is innovative in his subject matter and, in some features of figure drawing, able to impart a degree of pathos into 61

78. Attic 'eye cup' bytheAmasis

Winter. An 'eye-siren'. After mid-

5th c.

BC. (Boston 10.651)

scenes, the most obvious being his choice of the moment or \|ax

'9. Attic amphora bytheAmasis

•aimer. Dionysos with men and

/omen (not satyrs and maenads),

he women's flesh is outlined, not

ainted white. After mid-6th c. BC.

• 44cm. (Basel KA420)

preparing his suicide rather than the bloody impalement (as

T6 U"migrant

potters and

flying

birds

painters from Corinth and

CM^'ThT thfhands can be recognised on Attic Boeotia

TU'

common b

" °n ®oeotian corinthianizing shapes in

"T*" °f

atticizinv bl TiT

d°m

**

™st have been quite

S° dearly documented.M

»•-*

There was -•

ted in production in north Greece.59

•

91. Boeotian lekane. Later 6th c. BC. W. 38.6cm.

(Columbia, Miss., 59.71)

92. Boeotian kantharos.

Other side, EGVP fig. 442.

Mid-6th c. BC. H. 18.8cm.

(Munich 419; inv. 6010)

93. Euboean amphora, from

Eretria. The wedding procession

of Peleus and Thetis. Mid-6th c. BC.

(Athens 12076+16184)

69

94. Chian chalice, from Taucheira. Mid-6th c.

BC.

H. 17.7cm. (Tocra 785)

95. Interior of a Chian chalice

1

•

96. Samian head kantharos.

EGVP fig. 330 Mid-6th c. BC. H. 21.4cm.

Other views,

going through a troubled period politically,

e was

by Lydians, then (after the 540s BC) Persians, but

nevertheless making important contributions to the store of

from Pitane (Aeolis). White and

red on black. Mid-6th c. BC. (Istanbul)

^,ree(

ominate first

t

ma,n'y in areas

o"'er than pottery decoration

in

architecture with the Ionic order, and in sculpture. Chios produced a hne ware, almost eggshell thin, covered by a thick white slip to ake the painting which could be highly coloured, and specializing a ocal shape, the chalice [94, 95]. It was the only East Greek

(Munich 2014)

tre that took much notice of the type of myth scenes that were 2ZT?°rimh a"d

Athe"S-and ma> have been

no little influ-

y a ong Anatolian tradition in wall painting, not yet tised h r ma,mland Un„

wid

wd,

'! '

°U

GreeCe S° far 38 We know

Their artists prac-

drawing, with colour, and black figure,

rV'

k'1 eXOtk aPPearance

;

;!;tIOn thr0USh0Ut tha

and the

of the vases guaranteed them a

Greek world, abetted by the

thi k r 6:; "1"1^ °f CWan traders- Th

importing, among

'0Ca' - a«d htrther distribution

which was not conspicuously receptive.61 ' • ne'gblKHir island, has a different record, and

Little Ma t ™ "S'Xth

Ce"tUr>'

Produced a series of miniaturist

The detail lookslTwa^'^ T ^ ^ ^ ^ gUre but m fact the thin lines are reserved in ,k •„ 7o

S'

ouette>

not incised, a laborious technique but

97. Samian(?) cup, from Italy. \ man between two vines. On

ane (left) a bird is flying to feed

its chicks in the nest, being

approached by a snake and a

ocust; on the other a heron

aerches. Mid-6th c. BC.

W. 23cm. (Paris, Louvre F68)

98. Milesian 'Fikellura' amphora,

:rom

Fikellura (Rhodes). After

nid-6th c. BC. H. 34cm. (London

1864.10-7.156)

99. Milesian 'Fikellura' amphora, rom Rhodes. After mid-6th c. BC. iRhodes)

71

100. Clazomenian amphora from Tell Defenneh (Egypt). The source is a rich one for the class

IonTntith0M'letUS'0ne of the ™st powerful of the mainland the WiW Goat st^ d*d

probably the site of a Greek mercenary station overrun by the Persians in 525 BC. After mid-6th c. BC. H. 53.6cm (London 1888.2-8.71a) 101. Rhodian situla from Tell Defenneh (see [200]). A winged

the vases on m'"!"!

an early find of

fre^-field ^°ped'niainly for

amphorae and hydriai, friezes and spirals

with some fine with florals an I 6

1 °mpasitlons' elegant

«

^ the reserv-ed lines 1 have just

Smyrna and n

K'

'U>'1,1 °n

merman holds snakes. After

t,le mainland.

around

• * .

m.d-6th c. sc. H. 53.6cm (London 1888.2-8 1)

hard, but from the

Ca"ed Fikellura

animals in spn

r-

lnge'ed

«

T

beside the outline-drawn

figure), were applied for the d fig"re

^ eVe" S°me ^

mques, outline Wildcat '" lids. Of hie clll

h'1 teChn'qUe' Here to° the tech~

dec ..zes

sometimes on varied ground lines, and for the first time on a , ase a compos,t,on m which the figures

are placed up and down ti •• field

['«].» Many of these scenes are of epic subjects ^ are thematically associated with the Persian Wars

such as

Amazonomachies [«* I3I, iaSQ. They give us virtually our only insight mto the myth and image-making attitudes of th, new democracy which had found itself a leader of that part of the C • reek world still threatened by Persia. The novel compositions surely imitate those ofthe wall paintings, but need not have copied them losely; there will be more to say about this shortly. This break from the regime of the simple frieze, where the figures

see, , to

parade in file before a black curtain, had important implications later in the century.90 in r, ^ biI3Ck 3nd Whlte aspect oi most vasepainting was avoided none technique which provided a white ground for the painting, 6PanCl'°r Wal,'Paintin^ The white ground had bee,mg 11r" en used tor some later black figure, provoking some problems in

.tinguishing the added white used for female flesh, which was ommou y th abandoned_ md some sex_.dent.ty black fi

^

^ Ca"te

occalnTr 125. Drawing of one side of an

painted .J6

Attic calyx crater by the Niobid

" S

'

the children of Niobe (Niobids) for her mother's boast of being more fecund than their mother Leto. The other side [300], About

60 BC. (Paris, Louvre G431) ^Drawing of a Cupbythe Penthesileia Painter, from Vulci

Name vase. Greeks slay

&

m

painters f seem nlf

30 a

'

°*

»

exPer'ment

too with glossy

in the centui7 by

V°tiVe" S°°n

631anCC

hardly even used

;^ng in love with her is shown by

rubbed off but

red figure

S°me ^ ^ a"d 3 number of other

SRRWITHTHESEUS(-" Ppn h ? 0fAChNleSWith decided thatthe moment of his

*

PU '°d

chromy brightensThe an"' ^ led to evn

•«».turally black, with an

*- ' » « « • •

h

^ gT°Un6 ^ USed eaHy

made in nr'T6"48 ™

entnesileia, which is thought to

,

In most

ernative to the black for areas of paint.

Amazons. The most famous duels

be shown here. Many have

r

figure.

Attic, while female flesh was

tHe WaCk' and S° rather easi'y

l

coral rpH' Th

h3d b6e" lrft

aCeandchest ln early

alwavs l" ^ °Ver

Painter, from Orvieto. Name vase Artemis and Apollo shoot down

fleSH

Wkh tHe un"co'oured red

degree

t^le vases a°d

S"Ch as

h"' " ^ "0t

Painting styles like the00"!15"!"10"8

"

which °f^

ought to have

P~ were being The Wh'te

Sround

was

Wh'Ch S6em l° C°Py WaU"

red figure outline styled whh^f 'nStead'" ^ h"'' °f ^ r areas included. The white does not,!»»

the way their eyes meet - but thev

o not meet. Pre-mid-5thc. B c . - 43cm. (Munich 2688)

these with the white century, then with g2

/' °r

V3SeS

(lekytho1)-

The first

of

SvOU" b'aCk fiSure> some sti11 sixth°Ut me/col°ured figures and with the usual

127. Attic white ground cup, from Delphi. Apollo pours a libation; his raven watches. Early 5th c.

BC.

Diam. 17.8cm. (Delphi)

range of subjects. Then the technique was used exclusively for Athenian Sraves' and them'"8* ^ ^ funeral scenes upon e atte dance at the tomb dom f " ° " €'281, of farewell [leaj, or d ^ tori'T'

61 ""if

.

Per'°d in which major panel to be of considerable importance in

Vmg m°Ved °n fr°m the

oid lin??1?" °f with th 3r

drGSS' T'1IS 1S a

eg'nning

Pol^notus

tnulti-level, early class,cal his-

and others, either developing the

ltl0n Wbicb W3S closely

matched on the vases, but

mass an/graTuTted cli°f real utiC Shadl"g' °r dePendinS more °" the Hell " • ° °Ur'lcb was to be the way forward into Hellenistic and Roman periods. It is at this point that the 98

1

4. Decoration of an Attic hydria

the Meidias Painter. Above, the

iskouroi carry off the daughters

vase-painter's drawing techniques began to part company from the work of other painters and draughtsmen, and from now on

-eukippos, watched by their

develops only within an idiom which was bound before long to be

nds, by Aphrodite (at the altar)

found unsatisfying. But it had another century to run and was to

J Zeus (at the left). Below, a

ithful Heracles (second right)

> persuaded the Hesperides to

k for him the apples guarded

the serpent. The hero's

find a new artistic vitality among Greeks far to the west. The subject matter of the vases of war-torn Athens was either heroic still, as I have noted, or had relaxed into near-fantasies of

npanions Klytios and lolaos

paradise gardens, peopled by goddesses, usually Aphrodite,

id in the wings; the girls have

nymphs, and smooth-limbed youths who seem never to have gone

3 names: Health, Star Face,

to war or wanted to. Discreet gilding and added colour, if only

den Law, Shining. Photos, II, fig. 287. Late 5th c. BC.

52.1cm (London E224)

white, adds to the gorgeous effect, but this is not merely copying metal vases (there are none attested for Athens with this degree of finish in these years) but seem to be the vase-painter's contribu­ tion to an attempt to produce a morale-raising and optimistic, peaceful effect for the beleaguered town; perhaps no more than a 99

135. Attic lebes gamikos by the Marsyas Painter, from Panticapaeum (Kerch, Crimea). Preparations for a wedding. Other sides, ARFHII, fig. 388. Mid-4th c. BC. (St Petersburg 15592)

form of escapism little related to reality or cult, but with no little thought for the market overseas.96 i . 'S° about the time when there is a more general change m the balance of subject interest on the vases. It moves in wbi h

6 part-f~S0'n£' and

from the heroic, mainly military,

stressin th"!!-3rtlStS had CaUght the spirit of the day even by mythlcal cr™es of women as freely as those of men la fit 6 find mo "

SedUCti°n'

homicide, infanticide, etc.). Instead we

Zrr™ChWOmen at home Play a where with th^ fidTl

87

S™ply

°f

;er::;for th;change is not

Th

from whL 100

^ °fte"

part. These

the toilette of a bride'

apart

6 PreSence ofm Eros. the mortal and divine mingle

may have prompted. It could be that this

6. Attic pelike by the Marsyas

nter, from Camirus (Rhodes),

eus grapples with Thetis,

ight at her bath; her familiar, a monster (ketos), wraps itself

undhis leg. See also [305],

!-4thc. BC. H. 42.5cm.

ndon E424)

simply mirrors the spirit of the age - of Euripides and Aristophanes rather than Aeschylus and Sophocles - or reflects the fact that Athenian women are beginning to form a greater pro­ portion of the market for the vases. There are certainly more shapes that seem appropriate to womens' life: what are taken to be jewellery boxes and the like. Throughout the history of Athenian vase painting everyday life was not ignored as a subject, but was never given any prominence in the painters repertoire until now, while official civic aspects of the life of Athens' democracy were shunned altogether: we never see Athenian democracy in action. On these matters the comment was more subtle and less direct, as we shall see in Chapter 6, not as forthright as it could be on the stage. We have no contemporary portraits' on vases whatever. 101

Fourth-century Greece was much involved

with inter-state

leagues, soon overshadowed by attitudes to the new power in the Balkans, the Macedonians, culminating in Philip IPs virtual take­ over of power through all Greece, and his son Alexander's car­ riage of Greek arms and culture through Persia to Central Asia and India. Once the decorated pottery of Athens could reflect on contemporary politics and power, albeit at some remove, but such days were long past, and the craft continued to serve its commu­ nity in less ambitious, more parochial ways. So we find

many more

scenes of the life of women, some interest in local religious prac­ tices, a more restricted range of myth, some of which may have been inpart generated by new markets in the Black Sea. The trc.de to the Greek areas of Sicily and South Italy, as also to Etruria, declined as local, rival production of red figure

grew, though not

much more rapidly than overall production, to judge from finds

m

Athens. There was still a good market in Greece itself, however, and the houses of a north Greek city, Olynthos, show how very much Athenian red figure

vases remained part of the Greek

domestic scene. ie shape range seems narrower and some functions must ave been taken over by plain vases or metal. The principal large s apes now are the hydria, the bell crater which has supplanted most other forms of crater, and the big pelike, a bulbous oil con^

ups are on the whole smaller, and there are many 'stem-

esses, thenicest of which have a colour floral

within the rim.98 But

a fair i ange of what seem almost toilet vases, boxes and oil ^ases, some of which are appropriately pretty. The tall lekythos ^

610 t^le S(luat-

There is a tendency to the more ornate in

su si iary decoration, and a more curvaceous profile for vase bodies and handles - not much to our taste. .

0^ec01 ation

f e

ore an can include some very fine linear drawing, especially in

ork rat

is a logical development of what went

by

and around the Marsyas Painter in the mid-fourth

p3

^ hC 3t lenaics-

i5 °ne °f the last fine

It: ls

Painters also to deco-

easy to be distracted by the rather gaudier

appearance of many vases and overlook the very high quality of dr ugh snranship, sometlmes ^ of addp

16

"10S|part

tures h-

-TkltC

less careful. Before 400 BC the use

thew°rk is

°rfemaleflesh'some areas

of dress and other fea-

sion throughThe fourth C°ntInUed ^ Varyi"S degreeS °f Pred"

^

of trans

CeMUry

alSri1"^ )

ed clay for

the

and could

abet an illusion

-ses a relief effect was

some features, such as wings or

r.

Attic hydria. The court of

lysos. Early 4th c. BC. (Cape

n)

I. Attic squat lekythos in red

re and relief by Xenophantos,

i Panticapaeum (Kerch,

lea). In a mixture of red figure

n at top left) and painted,

ilded relief. Persians hunting,

i real and monstrous (the

in) creatures. Their names can

issociated with historical

res of the late 5th century.

3r views, ARFH II, fig. 340.

3etersburg

St 1790)

103

etailofan Attic hydria, lla. Athena (off left) fights in for the land of Attica. He

lis trident; Athena's olive

j Zeus' thunderbolt,

;the combatants, are

nthem. Below, Victory

supports Athena, and sea

3s Poseidon. Yellowish r Poseidon's armour,

i the subject and

sitionofthe central group

/est pediment of the

ion (GSCP fig. 77). Early

ic. (Pella 80.514)

ttic hydria in red figure and

om Panticapaeum (Kerch,

), The subject as the last,

ferences in composition -

iderbolt, and Athena's

it her tree. The main

in high (Poseidon) and low

0 relief, the others painted,

ief detail. Mid-4th c. BC.

irsburg KAB6a;

1.130)

jewellery, and these may be gilded. Eventually broader washes of colour are used, harking back to styles on white ground a century before, and no doubt in emulation of wall or panel painting, but these are few.100 There had always been some potters who offered vases whose main figure Xenophantos

wras one,

work was in relief, the rest in I ed figur

with vases that depict a Pei sian hunt,

ducing the new world power that swayed Greek fortunes for nearly two centuries [73S].'01 There are some splendidly ambi­ tious pieces both in the" usual red figure, and later with large relief figures,

reflecting at some remove sculptural monuments o

Athens, in these examples £139,140£ a Parthenon ped.men . By the time the new great Greek city of Alexandria was founded in 331 BC the course of Athenian red figur e

a

een iun, 105

and it is barely represented there. The last generation of the deco­ rated vases is characterized by some gaudiness, and a lot of weak drawing for a dwindling export trade. The reasons for the demise are not all that clear. Export markets had declined, but not disas­ trously, and there remained a lively market, it seems, in Spain, in north Italy (at Spina at the mouth of the River Po), in the east (much traders' stock at A1 Mina in Syria), and in the Black Sea ( t he site at Kerch in the east Crimea giving its name to one of the fourth-century styles). In the hierarchy of artisans the vase painter must have fallen fairly low but he surely would not have given up if there was still a living to be made, and it is clear that pottery production as such was still a lucrative profession. In a free market 'taste' can influence production more quickly than it can m an environment, as that of the ancient non-Greek empires, where it was dictated by a royal court, and conservatism in the arts was iecognized as a positive force for confidence in survival. In the archaic and classical periods, to the end of the fifth century, the stomers taste must have been at least in part responsible for the rapid changes in decorative style in this most conservative of crafts. In the fourth century the general demotion of the status of tie decorators, and a general growth in wealth which probably made metal vessels far commoner than hitherto, with new Macedonian courts now beginning to dictate taste, may have hastened the decision to abandon painted figure

decoration, and

e the market for any form of decorated vases in the hands t ose making plainer wares without figures, except in relief, e record of the rest of Greece outside Athens in this craft, part rom the plain vases, cannot be ignored but was of strictly oca interest since the main markets for decorated vases were ominated by Athenian wares. The principal non-Attic schools arc m t e west and will be considered shortly. Various local ,. °r re

^JW

7"

made vases in an

,

n

^ S° th'S

»««>.

colomz.ng area of Campania also

which may have"been ^eStyle Then there is Sicilia" red figure, lnsPlration for Paestan schn 1 u the Campanian and generation later.'

^

thoughthTvT' .f°i

ar°Und 4°° BC'itS

the VaS6S WaS pr'nciPal'y

PuPiIs

starti"S a

local and Greek

nonocauati r^rr -^^^Italy, ^ldom

mll\™IShaaphad

ThThlst e " C°nVenienCe OT which conies'71]3

f°"n'.and is named for its knobbi-

another trait info ° ornate. The h' 1 POtt'n^ lids, bases mo 1H tic figure decoratio °

Lucania and Apulia [ 14?],"*

S c'escr'Pt'on

la"dleS

foe relief and nth

to non-Greeks,

t0

nestons'of

ness which recalls H mei The prolifprafr°

^

Greelout 375 BC. (Ruvo, Jatta

etail from an Apulian

:rater. The punishment of

in Chapter 6.123 Many of the big Apulian vases survive intact and their, to modern eyes, rather unpleasing shapes, and the crowding of

sand Peirithoos in Hades,

figures,

ound by Furies, watched

draughtsmanship. The better painters (the Darius Painter and the

ephone at the left. About

•(Ruvo, Jatta 1094)

too readily disguise the extremely high quality of

Underworld Painter) are totally competent with all renderings of human and animal action, but also in delineation of mood and emotion.124 Here only does Greek vase painting come very close to the virtually modernistic effects achieved in major painting, on panel or wall, which we see in Macedonian graves. We are already being presented with a command of pictorial expression [_lo4, 156] which must have become commonplace in the Hellenistic period and which we can glimpse in the best work made by Greeks for early Rome. The multi-level scenes of myth on the craters have been thought by many to be inspired by the theatre (tragedy), although none shows the stage details and costumes and masks as do the comic scenes, and any connection with staged performances may at best be indirect. Vase necks are often filled with florals and heads. On the body several have a central building (naiskos) 117

156. Apulian volute crater by rhe Baltimore Painter. The deao as a heroized youth with his horse m a naiskos, with attendants. This is the reverse of a vase with the killing of the Niobids on the front. About

325 sc. (Ruvo, Jatta 424)

157. Apulian volute crater by the Underworld Painter, from Canosa. On the neck Greeks fight Amazons. The body: the building is the palace of King Creon of Corinth who is trying to succour his daughter, poisoned by a crown which her brother tries to remove. She is the victim of her rival, the eastern witch Medea who is seen below preparing to kill one of her children, while another escapes, left, and her lover, Jason, Creon's intended son-in-law, arrives too late from the right. At the centre is the serpent car driven by a mad Fury (Oistros), in which Medea will escape. At the right is the ghost (inscribed eidolon) of Medea's father, King Aietes, whose curse is being fulfilled. Above, Heracles, Athena and the Dioskouroi attend, representatives of the Argonaut expedition where the story of Jason and Medea began. About

3296)

325 BC. (Munich

'8. Apulian loutrophoros by the

irius Painter. Persephone and

ihrodite appeal to Zeus over the

B of Adonis, seated left; below,

5n and

women at a grave stele.

:ermid-4thc. BC. (New York .210.3)

containing an heroic figure, 8 of the

• s

h

*n

3

"eS

,W

t

e

dead

Is this the hall of Hades? There is some

^outp Italy with

1C

Jeassure

often with a horse, reflecting on the

Pythagoreanism and Orphism, doc-

Everyman that the afterlife need not be

mg;t0 fear, and the vases witha jovial Hades welcoming the

oic dead are in this spirit.«In other scenes the central building 0

•'

3S pa^ace 01 temple,

a focus for the display of a mythical

~erCted by grOUpS 0f 1set °P rGglStei

deities T dei les !ns

comm°nly

at either side and below,

reserved for the appropriate ^ a

n§ are nQt uncommo^ and these

urcc or the detail of Greek myth than most Athenian

'wing from a volute crater

vases and many contemporary texts. As pots and paintings they

irius Painter, from

are tours deforce, and their rather

Name vase. Centre, the

(ing Darius (III, the one

over-elaborated

settings should

not detract from their extreme value to us as far more than docu­

by Alexander) listens to a

ments of the potter s craft. I show a crater by the Underworld

his western

Painter ^.57],126 one of the most prolific and informative of these

firfrom

aranguinghim. The latter

i a base labelled 'Persai'

'scenic' artists, beside the Darius Painter. The mythical cast is

polis, Darius' capital),

enormous, acting episodes of a story which are broadly synchr

ie noblemen, Persian and

'ith some Persian dress,

nous and certainly closely linked in narrative; and there is a wa -

-ts). Below left, a Greek

on cast of nurses, old men, spear-bearers and relatives. Few ot er

'nt in the royal treasury

large vases, like the loutrophoros [Z55], are as well endowed with

sources; below right,

the top, from left, Artemis

populous mythology. It is on the Apulian vases too that we see some scenes wh.ch

"o; Zeus, with Victory

Athens abjured, since they seem to relate to specific contemporary

supplicate the King for

his knee, receives the

cation of Greece (Hellas)

2d by Athena; a Fury,

^Pata), leads a personifiPersia's western empire

vay from sanctuary at a

events, and might in this respect be influenced by wa

pain ing

which also now turned often to the depiction of the contemporary notably battles. There are some scenes of a Greek attacking a Persian in a chariot which closely resemble the scheme

Aphrodite (?) — a divine

used in the famous Alexander Mosaic (wh.ch copies a painting)

itary on the outcome of

probably showing Alexander the Great fighting Darius III at the

Jssion below. About

(Naples 3253(81947])

Battle of Issus. More remarkable is the Darius Painter s name 121

[[159] where the Persian king is in court at Persepolis (Persai to the Greeks), his Greek accountant receiving tribute below, ing to a western subject warning him, it may be,

listen­

of Alexander's

continuing advance. In the upper register Greek gods and

person

lfications of Victory and Deceit provide a commentary on the destiny of the Persian Empire.127 All red figure decoration for South Italian vases seems to have expired by the beginning of the third century BC, gradually -over­ taken by plainer products, with the range of added and colourful trimmings that we observed also in homeland Greece.

The Hellenistic H ares The Hellenistic period, east and west, was a very busy one for the ancient potter, but less rewarding for the modern viewer, and less well articulated to answer the questions of historians and archaeo ogists. The plain black vases became somewhat less plain, some­ times quite large and gaudy with added decorative elements in reliefer paint, their bodies often fluted

to imitate the common

decoration of metal prototypes.

30. Gnathian squat lekythos. A

One characteristic is for groups of Hellenistic vases to be

aman, possibly Leda, with a

b) misleading names. 1 he plain black vases with colourful

van. Her dress is orange brown

ora and other additions, remarked already [745], are known as

ith a red border. After mid-

H c. BC. H. 19cm (New York,

allimanopoulos Collection; once astle Ashby)

Slope \\ ai e in Gi eece, but were not made to be found only on t e west slope of the Acropolis of Athens;'28 and in the west the responding Gnathia Ware was not made only in a town of

51. Megarian relief bowl, from

pu la where much was found,but over much of South Italy and in

egara. Heracles attacking Auge

,,

e group repeated four times,

ith a figure of Pan, with animal in and throwing stick, placed

tween. 3rdc. BC. H. 13.8cm ondon G103)

'2. The decoration of a

611101 e

2321 '29°!°^ ~~ "

F

.,. ' y

the right dead Hector is dragged

ind Troy behind Achilles'

annheim, Reiss-Museum 349)

3. Calene black relief phiale

technique, made in third-century

with as good an understanding of shading ^es^rec'

at tkis

scale in such a medium.

ded hemispherical cups with the simplest floral and

g

e pattei ns in relief were not made only in Megara (near

°i int ) yet most are still called Megarian bowls [76lJ. This is &

"

6

sk\ h '

eastern shape we have remarked already, which also

«tle

f °me

seen

rr

lionysiac feast. 3rd/2nd c BC Petersburg)

tke

Painter in the realistic renderingof figures.130

ariot. The events of Homer's

C Book XXII. 3rd c. BC.

6VV versions

°ranSe' Pink' Sreen CW

re does the \ ase painter truly attempt to emulate the panel

low left Achilles, backed by tights her son Hector, and

admitted by way of figure vignettes in

WHlte' yel,°W' red'

3S C°U^ de

ekabe) mourns in Troy (llion)

1ena;

as a^so

are executec'

Onl if

omeric'relief bowl, from

ophipolis. Above, Hecuba

3

.

omenc

^3t ^eet

3nd

01016 e*ak°rate rehef mouh'ed

Bowls [7^_i3]

moulH^,l f°ty^eS ded fr0m

^ltt:^e ^°°P handles, usually called

and S°me

them"

cups with inscribed figure

upon them are understandably called ^ au ^ by '"heir patterns may even have been

^ey are particularly conspicuous on some

L64. A lagynos, from Benghazi

^dc Bc.H. 15.9cm. (London -513)

165. A 'Hadra' hydria from Egypt, nscribed after firing with the

tame of the dead whose ashes

l92a250,At>OU,20OBC-(OX,Ord

smaller shapes in black gloss, a notable class being made in Campania — the Calene — with moulded figure

groups decorating

cups, lamps and bowls [763, 288J, a practice that survived strongly into the Roman period.132 There is plain painted Hellenistic pottery too, usually deco­ rated with florals on apale, sometimes glossy slip. A new jug shape is the lagynos with high thin neck and broad low body [764]. Hydriai also attract this decoration. Hadra Ware is named for the appearance of its hydriai as ash urns in an Alexandrian cemetery, but they were made in Crete, and there are many other towns in the Greek world in which this was an acceptable mode of painted decoration [765]. The Hadra type in Alexandria was later also produced locally, then with uw;

and dates inscribed on the vase.

There is indeed an uninterrupted succession, from the archaic period on, of such simple, floral-decorated

and striped vessels.133

For something more elaborate, in the west especially, there are some elaborate funerary vases wit hi colourful decoration applied after firing

and often by was of moulded or modelled additives,

from Canosa in Apulia and Centuripe in Sicily [766]. Egypt had long been used to the production of real glazed vessels, their bodies not clay but a vitreous frit' miscalled faience; the

an lidded bowl, from Polychrome painting

of women performing

1

dtual. 3rd c. BC. York 30.11.4)

(New

167. 'Faience' flask in the form of Eros riding a goose, from Tanagra. 3rd c. BC. H. 17.8cm. (London Kl; 1875.11-10.2)

technique now acquires Hellenistic Greek decoration on vessels or t e Alexandrian Greek market. My example is a more exotic version in the technique f / 67' 134 On any Hellenistic site decorated pottery, painted or in relief, is a minority find beside the traditional plain table wares or those serving carriage and storage, notaby the conoid amphorae and a 1

jlnge °f

domestlc

shapes, including cooking ware, which had

a w ays ormed part of the potter's stock in trade. Metal, even glass, had come to replace many of the more admired painted shapes, and e t ie standard. Perfumed oil was certainly in demand, no longer rate clay \ essels but in metal or even semi-precious stone or g ass. In clay there are only the ubiquitous plain, thin and 0

an e ess flasks ('fusiform', like a spindle, or globular like the er a abastra) for the mass market [7