Ancient Vases Research Articles

Enhancing Human Pose Estimation in Ancient Vase Paintings via Perceptually-grounded Style Transfer Learning

Human pose estimation (HPE) is a central part of understanding the visual narration and body movements of characters depicted in artwork collections, such as Greek vase paintings. Unfortunately, existing HPE methods do not generalise well across domains resulting in poorly recognised poses. Therefore, we propose a two step approach: (1) adapting a dataset of natural images of known person and pose annotations to the style of Greek vase paintings by means of image style-transfer. We introduce a perceptually-grounded style transfer training to enforce perceptual consistency. Then, we fine-tune the base model with this newly created dataset. We show that using style-transfer learning significantly improves the SOTA performance on unlabelled data by more than 6% mean average precision (mAP) as well as mean average recall (mAR) . (2) To improve the already strong results further, we created a small dataset (ClassArch) consisting of ancient Greek vase paintings from the 6–5th century BCE with person and pose annotations. We show that fine-tuning on this data with a style-transferred model improves the performance further. In a thorough ablation study, we give a targeted analysis of the influence of style intensities, revealing that the model learns generic domain styles. Additionally, we provide a pose-based image retrieval to demonstrate the effectiveness of our method. The code and pretrained models can be found at https://github.com/angelvillar96/STLPose .

A COMPARISON OF LASER AND STRUCTURED LIGHT SCANNING TECHNOLOGIES FOR ARCHAEOLOGICAL APPLICATIONS

Reverse engineering and in particular three-dimensional digitization have become an essential part of the documentation of archaeological findings. 3D scanning produces a high-precision digital reference document. The factors that influence the quality of the 3D scanned data are the scanned object’s surface colour, its glossiness and geometry, and the ambient light during the scanning process. However, the actual equipment and scanning technologies are of primary importance. The current paper presents a qualitative and quantitative comparison between two 3D scanning devices of different technologies; structured light 3D scanning and laser 3D scanning. The benchmark for this comparison is an ancient Roman vase from the city of Thessaloniki, Greece. The object was scanned with every possible setting on each scanner, but only one configuration of settings on each device was selected for the final comparison. The main criterion for the final selection of the two 3D models acquired with the use of the two technologies was the proximity in the number of points and polygons produced for digitally restoring the ancient vase in the best possible way. The results indicate important differences regarding the accuracy of the final digital model. The laser technology produced better accuracy but with a significant cost in scanning time and model data size. On the other hand, the structured light technology achieved the optimal combination of scanning quality and accuracy, along with reduced acquisition time of scan data.

Ancient vases in modern vitrines: the sensory dynamics and social implications of museum display

AbstractThis contribution explores the changing sensory priorities underpinning the display of Greek painted pottery in European collections. The focus is on the introduction of glass-fronted cabinets in the purpose-designed public museums of art and archaeology of the mid-nineteenth century. Contrary to expectations, the contemporaneous debates surrounding the use of gallery furniture show that the museum stakeholders were less worried about the safety of the objects than the prospect of middle- and working-class visitors being exposed to the sexualized imagery on Athenian pottery. A survey of the different traditions of display in Britain and continental Europe highlights the shift from the multisensory engagements in early modern elite collections with vases as evidence of ancient custom to the selective viewing of the objects’ painted decoration as works of art whose proper interpretation called for classical education.

How much did pottery workers know about classical art and civilisation?

Abstract The voices of pottery workers across the British Isles during the heyday of the taste for classically themed ceramics are almost silent to us, since so few left memoirs or diaries. But other sources cumulatively build up a picture of skilled male, female, and child workers familiar with multifarious ancient artefacts and books visually reproducing them. At Etruria and Herculaneum, workers were encouraged to see themselves as participants in the rebirth of the ancient ceramic arts; they were trained in painstaking reproduction of details not only from ancient vases but from ancient gems, intaglios, ivories, coins, bas-reliefs, frescoes, friezes, statues, and sarcophagi. They were familiar with the stories of a substantial number of ancient mythical and historical figures, and the different aesthetic conventions of classical Athenian, Hellenistic, and Roman art. Some were even able to study antiquity at institutions of adult education, and had access to well-stocked workers’ libraries.

MAPPING VIS AND UVL IMAGERY ON 3D GEOMETRY FOR NON-INVASIVE, NON-CONTACT ANALYSIS OF A VASE

Abstract. The paper presents an investigation about the combination of multispectral and 3D imaging aiming at the analysis of the condition and preservation of an ancient vase. Visible-reflected (VIS) and -induced luminescence (UVL) images are mapped to 3D models produced with image- and range-based 3D modelling techniques. The case study is an Attic vase, part of the pottery collection of the Landesmuseum Rudolfinum (Carinthia, Austria) and temporarily stored in the Institute of Archaeology of the University of Graz, Austria. The aim of this study is to exploit the added-value provided by mapping multispectral imaging onto 3D geometry for a comprehensive knowledge of the condition of a restored Cultural Heritage (CH) item.

An interdisciplinary approach to studying archaeological vase paintings using computed tomography combined with mineralogical and geochemical methods. A Corinthian alabastron by the Erlenmeyer Painter revisited

Abstract This paper presents the results of an investigation of an unusual unpainted area in the Corinthian vase painting silhouettes painting technique during the Archaic Period (late 7th to 6th century BC). A painting of two panthers in the heraldic scheme done by the Erlenmeyer Painter on an alabastron contains a striking unpainted circular area inside the shoulder of one of the panthers. Since this feature cannot be explained by iconographical constraints, it has previously been referred to as an “opening”. However, by combining X-ray methods, particularly computed tomography (CT) and related 3D surface renderings, with mineralogical and geochemical methods (SEM-EDS, XRD) and stylistic arguments, we have arrived at a new interpretation. The CT data revealed a feature directly beneath the unpainted circular area that was shaped like an angular plug and had similar structural properties and attenuation coefficients as the surrounding clay matrix. A visible inclusion on the surface of this alabastron was identified as a rock fragment, most likely sandstone or sandy shale, which suggests that a problematic large inclusion had been removed from the vessel and was subsequently filled with clay during the firm leather-hard stage. We argue that the painter intentionally deviated from the usual compositional form by leaving the area of the repair unpainted and adapting the drawing of the panther accordingly. One advantage of this method, particularly for vase collections, is that CT is a non-invasive technique that collects data from the entire ceramic body, which in combination with geoscience methods such as SEM-EDX and XRD allows for minimally invasive analysis that can strengthen the X-ray-based evaluation. Therefore, we contend that integrating CT data combined with mineralogical and geochemical data into pottery studies will open new avenues for the study of ancient vase painting, particularly for interpreting unpainted areas and other irregularities within black-glazed silhouette figures.

An analytical techniques pool to hit the target. A comprehensive examination on an Apulian red figured pottery collection

• Multi-technique approach to retrace the whole history of archaeological finds. • Proposed analytical methodology to study vases without information about their original context of origin. • Detection of not-documented restoration and identification of non-original fragments of ancient vases.

An exhibit on the Ceglie Vases from near Bari - URSULA KÄSTNER and DAVID SAUNDERS (edd.), DANGEROUS PERFECTION. ANCIENT FUNERARY VASES FROM SOUTHERN ITALY (The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA 2016). Pp. 212, c.140 figs. mostly in colour, 16 pls. ISBN 978-1-60606-476-4. $60. [issued on the occasion of the exhibition “Gefährliche Perfektion: Antike Grabvasen aus Apulien”, on view

An exhibit on the Ceglie Vases from near Bari - URSULA KÄSTNER and DAVID SAUNDERS (edd.), DANGEROUS PERFECTION. ANCIENT FUNERARY VASES FROM SOUTHERN ITALY (The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA 2016). Pp. 212, c.140 figs. mostly in colour, 16 pls. ISBN 978-1-60606-476-4. $60. [issued on the occasion of the exhibition “Gefährliche Perfektion: Antike Grabvasen aus Apulien”, on view at the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin June 2016 to June 2017, and previously at the Getty Museum] - Volume 30

Icons of Beauty: A Suite of Three Women with Ancient Vases from the Workshop of Marcantonio Raimondi

Working in collaboration with others, Agostino Veneziano produced three remarkable prints representing nude women seated or standing beside spectacular allantica vases and set before ruinous landscapes. This article investigates the authorship and origin of these unusual images. It suggests that the vases are presented as a metaphor for female beauty, and relates the visual rhetoric of these three prints to the writings of contemporary writers, including Agnolo Firenzuola (1493–1543), who described the beauty of women in relation to the elegant proportions of such vases.

Ancient vases from the Mastrilli collection in Russia

Ancient vases from the Mastrilli collection in Russia

Animations of Ancient Vase Scenes in the Classics Classroom

‘That's amazing! I can see what he's doing.’ These words, from a thirteen-year old boy in London, were extremely encouraging. Moments earlier he had been complaining that our imminent ancient history session would stop him playing pool. At his words, his friends looked up from online gaming, and they too began taking an interest in images of ancient vases and learning about ancient warfare. An hour later they hit the pool tables, but for the duration of our after-school session, these reluctant learners had engaged well and taken real pleasure in finding out about the ancient world.

Oedipus and the Sphinx: the threshold myth from Sophocles through Freud to Cocteau

When Oedipus met the Sphinx on the road to Thebes, he did more than answer a riddle - he spawned a myth that, told and retold, would become one of Western culture's central narratives about self-understanding. Identifying the story as a threshold myth - in which the hero crosses over into an unknown and dangerous realm where rules and limits are not known - Oedipus and the Sphinx offers a fresh account of this mythic encounter and how it deals with the concepts of liminality and otherness. Almut-Barbara Renger assesses the story's meanings and functions in classical antiquity - from its presence in ancient vase painting to its absence in Sophocles' tragedy - before arriving at two of its major reworkings in European modernity: the psychoanalytic theory of Sigmund Freud and the poetics of Jean Cocteau. Through her readings, she highlights the ambiguous status of the Sphinx and reveals Oedipus himself to be a liminal creature, providing key insights into Sophocles' portrayal and establishing a theoretical framework that organizes evaluations of the myth's reception in the twentieth century. Revealing the narrative of Oedipus and the Sphinx to be the very paradigm of a key transition experienced by all of humankind, Renger situates myth between the competing claims of science and art in an engagement that has important implications for current debates in literary studies, psychoanalytic theory, cultural history, and aesthetics.

Rydwan Triptolemosa

The story of Triptolemos is connected with the myth of Demeter. This goddess, in gratitude for the hospitality received from the parents of Triptolemos during the difficult quest for her missing daughter, Persephone, gave the young man an unusual chariot in order to help him reveal the mystery of agriculture to people and popularise this skill among them. That special moment was commemorated on vases produced in the red-figure technique in the fifth century BC and later artists repeatedly undertook this theme. However, an interesting difference in the way Triptolemos’s chariot is depicted appears on the subsequent art works. On ancient vases, Triptolemos is seated on a chariot with winged wheels, whereas two snakes are slithering beside. The following works of art depict a chariot dragged by winged dragons. The analysis of selected texts of ancient authors shows that the growing tendency to portray the chariot of Triptolemos with dragons is not justified by literary sources and is dictated by the imagination of the artist.

Evaluation of the relief line and the contour line on Greek red-figure vases using reflectance transformation imaging and three-dimensional laser scanning confocal microscopy

The relief and contour lines on a group of ancient Greek red-figure vases and vase fragments in the collection of the Harvard Art Museums and the Worcester Art Museum were examined using two surface examination methods – reflectance transformation imaging and three-dimensional laser scanning confocal microscopy. These methods helped characterize the lines and answer questions regarding tools, techniques, and production sequence used by Greek vase painters. This research also incorporated fabricated mock-ups to gain a better understanding of the ancient technology and in so doing confirmed that the relief lines were not produced by an extruded method, but with a brush made with only a few hairs, termed linierhaar as first proposed by Gérard Seiterle in 1976. Furthermore, it was discovered that not one but two distinct types of relief lines exist on these ancient vases: the laid line (proposed by Seiterle) which has a characteristic ridged profile, and the pulled line (proposed in a previous publication by the authors) which has a furrowed profile. It was also determined that the relief line used to outline figures was applied prior to the contour line in Attic vase decoration, although variations in this sequence occur in vases from South Italy. Based on observations made during this research, the authors propose a likely evolution for the techniques used to produce decorative features throughout the period of red-figure vase production.

Greek Vases: From Artistic Personalities to Archaeological Contexts

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,

How to read Greek vases

This handsomely illustrated volume is the second in a series of publications aimed at giving a broad audience deeper insight into the extensive collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Museum is famed for its Greek vases. Joan R. Mertens, Curator in the Department of Greek and Roman Art at the Metropolitan, has chosen thirty-five notable examples. They reveal the variety and vitality of the refined forms and masterfully rendered scenes that characterize these works. And they demonstrate the interrelation of function, shape, technique, and subject matter that is key to understanding the rich language of Greek vases. The introduction provides valuable background information, and the entries delve into the features of each vase, incorporating brilliant color illustrations, including many arresting details. Greek vases served specific utilitarian functions, and they also afforded outstanding artists, some of whom signed their work, a medium for depicting both the details of daily existence and aspects of their gods, goddesses, and heroes. We see the garments, implements, athletic competitions, and marriage and funerary rituals of Greeks who lived from the seventh through the fourth century B.C. We see their mythological figures and stories, for instance, the goddess Athena with her helmet, spear, and shield, and the great hero Herakles, from his first exploit as a baby to his elevation as an immortal at the end of his earthly life. The exceptional group of works assembled in this volume conveys the extent to which the culture of ancient Greece is still apparent today. Urns and jars inspired by Greek models are a staple in all types of public and private spaces. The meander patterns, palmettes, and other florals that adorn ancient vases recur in all kinds of modern objects. And the concept of the hero, or superman, first formulated and given visual form in ancient Greece is integral to Western culture. How to Read Greek Vases is sure to inspire closer scrutiny of these remarkable works of art, which have survived for over two millennia to offer viewers an enlightening look into the ancient heritage of the Western world.

The Slaving Brig Henriqueta and Her Evil Sisters: A Case Study in the 19th-Century Illegal Slave Trade to Brazil

The Middle Passage, the forced migration of millions of African captives across the Atlantic Ocean to enslavement in the Western Hemisphere, is arguably the most defining factor of the modern world. Yet, for all of its magnitude and its indisputably profound importance in altering human history, the tangible realities of the Middle Passage, particularly the experiences and perspectives of those most directly affected--the African captives, their communities, and their descendants--remain relatively unknown and unrecognized in academic and popular discourse. Most of what is available from historical records comes from non-African sources: ship captains, government officials, occasionally abolitionists, but all outside observers. The two notable exceptions were the narratives written by Ottobah Cugoano and Olaudah Equiano, which have stirred some controversy in their own right as to their authenticity. (1) [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Given these circumstances, clearly one valuable source of better understanding of the realities of the Middle Passage and its repercussions, particularly from the perspective of those silent and nameless souls whose lives were most affected and altered, is the surviving evidence and data pertaining to individual ships and voyages, and what might be reasonably extrapolated from them. These data, which often include the names of actual persons, places, and events, also have the advantage of reducing a story of such vast and abstract proportions to a more intelligible human scale. Such is the case with one of the most significant vessels during the illegal slave era, the Henriqueta, a 19th -century Baltimore-built two-masted brig from Bahia, Brazil. (2) The history of the Henriqueta offers numerous detailed insights into the illicit traffic to that country, its impact on the Africans, the wealth it built, and the attempts by Great Britain to suppress its activities. Gathering the data for such a study of the illegal era, however, poses additional challenges since so many records of ships and voyages are non-existent, inaccurate, or deliberately falsified. Yet, paradoxically, as will be shown, the ruses and subterfuges to which ship owners and slaving captains resorted in order to circumvent the law often followed such predictable patterns as to become more revealing of the very facts that they were designed to camouflage. Reconstructing the story of a single ship in this circumstance might aptly be compared to the archaeological task of recovering and reassembling the scattered remaining fragments of an ancient vase, whose pictorial decorations once had an important story to tell. But because each such vase was not only unique, but also typical of its time and culture, these fragments prove to be valuable for a more general understanding, in this case, not only of the illegal to Brazil, but also of the overall history of the Middle Passage. The fragmented story of the Henriqueta and her evil sisters--other slaving vessels linked to her in any number of ways--depends in large part upon primary archival sources in Brazil, as well as secondary sources such as historical accounts, and most notably, the comprehensive work of Pierre Verger and Howard I. Chapelle, the eminent historian and former maritime curator of the Smithsonian Institution. The history of this single slaving vessel of the 1820s might be viewed as a main stem with many roots and branches, each leading potentially to other case studies. (3) FROM LEGAL TO ILLEGAL SLAVE TRADING On 25 March 1807, the British Parliament, after more than a decade of debate, finally enacted legislation for the abolition of the trade (but not slavery itself) throughout its dominions and outlawed any further involvement in it by British citizens. (4) This prohibition was rooted in a growing sense of moral outrage vis-a-vis the ignominious centuries-old commerce in human lives, in which Britain was the largest participant. …

The birth of ancient vase collecting in Naples in the early eighteenth century: Antiquarian studies, excavations and collections

In Naples by 1764, the year in which Sir William Hamilton arrived in the city and in which Winckelmann asserted that the so-called ‘Etruscan’ vases should be attributed to the ancient Greeks, the collecting of figured vases was already a well-established practice. This paper examines the process that led to the codification of this new typology of antiquarian collecting during the first half of the eighteenth century. The analysis of this phenomenon takes into account three key components and their mutual interaction: the tradition of antiquarian studies, the antiquarian market and original eighteenth-century Neapolitan vase collections that are here reconstructed on the basis of archival documents.

Nola and the historiography of Greek vases

Cemeteries that encircled the Campanian town of Nola furnished many of the ancient vases most highly sought after by eighteenth-century collectors. Attracted by the exceptional quality of the glazes on what was later recognized as Attic pottery, antiquaries looked to the figured scenes for reflections of lost masterpieces of ancient Greek painting. Enmeshed practices of connoisseurship, scholarship and commerce were already firmly in place by the 1740s. Comparing vases to Old Master drawings and adopting modes of display popular for Continental porzellan-kabinetten, collectors relocated Greek vase painting from the realm of curiosity to that of fine art.

Commentaries: I: Some afterthoughts on Naples and antiquarian culture in the eighteenth century

IS it appropriate to speak of a specific Neapolitan approach when studying eighteenth-century antiquarianism? If one thinks of the excavations at Herculaneum and Pompeii, the answer will of course be in the affirmative. Three centuries on, the material discovered in those early investigations continues to inspire research of international significance. The contribution to these essays by Paola D’Alconzo, on restoration and the presentation of the Vesuvian wall paintings bears this out most explicitly. There is equally no doubt about the originality and importance of the Neapolitan collections of ancient vases formed in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In the past ten years, Claire Lyons and Maria Emilia Masci have demonstrated their precursory role, forcing us to reconsider how novel the collections assembled by Sir William Hamilton in the second half of the century really were. More generally, vases have been accorded a new status in the field of antiquarian...