Greek Vases: From Artistic Personalities to Archaeological Contexts

Abstract

Ancient Greek vases are a challenging and complex subject. With their detailed imagery, elegant forms, utility, and wide distribution, the decorated vessels of archaic and classical Greece constitute a significant and substantial category of archaeological evidence. The information they provide about mythology and daily life is unparalleled in the whole of ancient art. Integral to the pursuits of both the classical archaeologist and the ancient art historian, Greek vases have for quite some time been considered equal to sculpture, architecture, and other arts.1 Their importance for both relative and absolute chronology is notable. But their place in the greater scheme of classical studies is sometimes awkward and unpredictable. Although Greek vases are rife with depictions of gods and heroes, it is all too often assumed they are mere snapshots of antiquity and that their decorated surfaces exist in large part to illustrate the stories better known to us from ancient texts. It is also presumed that their iconography and artistic merit make them accessible and comprehensible to a wider group of enthusiasts, and, as a result, they become the ready targets of simplistic visual interpretation. Yet as any specialist in vase painting knows, such attitudes make about as much sense as the assumption that Aristophanes is just as good in translation or that Homer can be read without a cursory knowledge of dactylic hexameter. Greek vases produced in the city of Athens and elsewhere are a language unto themselves. Like other visual forms of other cultures and traditions, they possess an internal structure, grammar, and vocabulary.2 While there are numerous ways to “read” the ancient Greek vase, and it is fair to say that no particular way is better than another, there remain a few unwritten rules: Beazley’s lists are an indispensable reference framework; the Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum volumes are primary sources of facts and (these days) of good illustrations; the vase is the sum of its parts and should be viewed holistically rather than selectively; fragments are as useful and valid as whole specimens; excavation pottery and museum-quality objects each have their place in the scholarly enterprise. At the same time, no one, not even the most dyed-in-the-wool connoisseur, is under the illusion that vases alone hold all the answers. Indeed, one of the most frustrating aspects of all Greek vase scholarship is the utter silence of the ancient sources on the subjects of vase production, techniques, and craftsmen.3 The five books under review here (two monographs, two conference proceedings, and a single exhibition catalogue) exemplify both the challenges and the complexity of Greek vase scholarship and demonstrate that these figuredecorated ceramic objects are at once visual and material, art and artifact, beautiful and ugly, tactile and portable. They also show that the merit of vases as archaeological data is rarely overlooked in current publications and scholarship. The notable amount of overlap among the bibliographies and the recurrence of authors exposes a certain “preaching to the choir” aspect to this intriguing and distinct disciplinary subfield. Although the books are produced in several countries, by different publishers and in various formats,