L’avènement des récits picturaux au VIIe siècle

Abstract

The Advent of Pictorial Narratives in the Seventh Century. In this paper— translated from chapter III of Bild und Kunst. Geschichte der Bilderzählung in der griechischen Kunst— Luca Giuliani demonstrates how Greek artists in the seventh century BC invent new processes allowing them to tell stories, whereas in the former period, the so-called geometric period, no narration was possible through images. The study concerns two cases, both of them concerning the relation between Homer and his context : how an unique vase, the relief amphora of Mykonos on the neck of which is very clearly a horse with wheels, tells the fall of Troy ; in the friezes of the same vase, no image allows an identification of the characters by name : they are anonymous Trojans, men being killed, women threatened with a weapon, children savagely executed. The adopted point of view seems that of the vanquished people, which might have been justified in a Cycladic context. The second part of the article discusses a series of vases depicting Polyphemus’ blinding ; several details differ from known versions in folktales : in many of the vases the Cyclops is shown drinking (of course, the wine used by Odysseus to make him drunk and then asleep) ; a big olive wood stake is used rather than a brooch. A third part expands the question of the relation between tale, epos and images.