Euboean Floral Black-Figured Vases: Additions and Corrections

Abstract

In recent years a number of vases with floral decoration have come to light, and we can now carry a little further the study of the Euboean floral black-figure style of vase-painting started in BSA lv. 211 f. Unfortunately few have any known provenience and it is often hazardous to attempt to distinguish between the work of Euboean and Boeotian workshops. Some of the Euboean attributions here made are tentative, and even when they can be regarded as certain the question of the distribution of the vases within Euboea still remains largely unsolved.An early example of a vase with decoration that consists entirely of floral elements is a pelike in Athens, Plate 69a, with provenience given in the inventory as ‘Chalcis?’. It has bands of myrtle, ivy, and a kind of laurel with spatulate leaves covering the neck and the upper part of the body, and can be regarded as a precursor of the floral style. It is to be distinguished from it chiefly by the absence of the palmette, which is the chief ingredient of the floral style proper. The stemless ivy leaves accompanied by spots recall the sixth-century skyphos of Chalcidian make, Rhitsona 31. 41 (BSA lviii. 18, pl. 2. 3), and the little stemmed kothon, Athens E1520 (Ibid. pl. 2. 8).