Red-Figured Vases Research Articles

Adalékok Marczibányi István (1752–1810) műgyűjteményének történetéhez

The art collection of István Marczibányi (1752–1810), remembered as the benefactor of the Hungarian nation, who devoted a great part of his fortune to religious, educational, scientific and social goals, is generally known as a collection of ‘national Antiquities’ of Hungary. This opinion was already widespread in Hungarian publicity at the beginning of the 19th century, when Marczibányi pledged that he would enrich the collection of the prospective Hungarian national Museum with his artworks. But the description of his collection in Pál Wallaszky’s book Conspectus reipublicae litterariae in Hungaria published in 1808 testifies to the diversity and international character of the collection. In the Marczibányi “treasury”, divided into fourteen units, in addition to a rich cabinet for coins and medals there were mosaics, sculptures, drinking vessels, filigree-adorned goldsmiths’ works, weapons, Chinese art objects, gemstones and objects carved from them (buttons, cameos, caskets and vases), diverse marble monuments and copper engravings. Picking, for example, the set of sculptures, we find ancient Egyptian, Greek and Ro man pieces as well as mediaeval and modern masterpieces arranged by materials.After the collector’s death, his younger brother Imre Marczibányi (1755–1826) and his nephews Márton (1784–1834), János (1786–1830), and Antal (1793–1872) jointly inherited the collection housed in a palace in dísz tér (Parade Square) in Buda. In 1811, acting on the promise of the deceased, the family donated a selection of artworks to the national Museum: 276 cut gems, 9 Roman and Byzantine imperial gold coins, 35 silver coins and more than fifty antiquities and rarities including 17th and 18th-century goldsmiths’ works, Chinese soap-stone statuettes, ivory carvings, weapons and a South Italian red-figure vase, too. However, this donation did not remain intact as one entity. With the emergence of various specialized museums in the last third of the 19th century, a lot of artworks had been transferred to the new institutions, where the original provenance fell mostly into oblivion.In the research more than a third of the artworks now in the Hungarian national Museum, the Museum of Applied Arts and the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest could be identified, relying on the first printed catalogue of the Hungarian national Museum (1825) titled Cimeliotheca Musei Nationalis Hungarici, and the handwritten acquisition registers. The entries have revealed that fictitious provenances were attached to several items, since the alleged or real association with prominent historical figures played an important role in the acquisition strategies of private collectors and museums alike at the time. For example, an ivory carving interpreted in the Cimeliotheca as the reliquary of St Margaret of Hungary could be identified with an object in the Metalwork Collection of the Museum of Applied Arts (inv. no. 18843), whose stylistic analogies and parallels invalidate the legendary origin: the bone plates subsequently assembled as a front of a casket were presumably made in a Venetian workshop at the end of the 14th century.There are merely sporadic data about the network of István Marczibányi’s connections as a collector, and about the history of his former collection remaining in the possession of his heirs. It is known that collector Miklós Jankovich (1772–1846) purchased painted and carved marble portraits around 1816 from the Marczi bányi collection, together with goldsmiths’ works including a coconut cup newly identified in the Metalwork Collection of the Museum of Applied Arts (inv. no. 19041). The group of exquisite Italian Cinquecento bronze statuettes published by art historian Géza Entz (1913–1993), was last owned as a whole by Antal Marczibányi (nephew of István) who died in 1872. These collection of small bronzes could have also been collected by István Marczibányi, then it got scattered through inheritance, and certain pieces of it landed in north American and European museums as of the second third of the 20th century. Although according to Entz’s hypothesis the small bronzes were purchased by István’s brother Imre through the mediation of sculptor and art collector István Ferenczy (1792–1956) studying in Rome, there is no written data to verify it. By contrast, it is known that the posthumous estate of István Marczibányi included a large but not detailed collection of classical Roman statues in 1811, which the heirs did not donate to the national Museum. It may be presumed that some of the renaissance small bronzes of mythological themes following classical prototypes were believed to be classical antiquities at the beginning of the 19th century. Further research will hopefully reveal more information about the circumstances of their acquisition.

Artisanal experiences in Arpi: Colours and raw materials of Apulian red figure production

This work aims at studying the manufacturing and technology peculiarities of Apulian red figure (4th − 3rd century BCE) production from Arpi. In particular, the relationship between the red figure production from Arpi with coeval pottery of different classes retrieved in the same contexts in Arpi is investigated, as well as the connection between the red figure production from Arpi and same class vases from different Apulian sites. This goal has been achieved through widening the archaeometrical studies so far performed to red figures finds from two more tomb complexes in Arpi – i.e. tomb of the Niobids vase and 4/2004 tomb – and also organically reorganizing the so far obtained experimental data on Arpi findings of various ceramic classes. The systematic characterization of red figure vases was obtained by Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) with Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS), Powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) and Raman Spectroscopy. Analytical data allow to define the elemental and mineralogical composition of ceramic pastes and identify pigments and coatings.The results allow to validate the archaeological hypotheses that Arpi red figure production is different from the one from other Apulian areas and that pictorial experiences were shared among tombs, domus and ceramic production in Arpi.

Curricular Materials on the Chemistry of Pottery, Including Thermodynamic Calculations for Redox Reactions in the 3-Stage Firing Process of Athenian Black- and Red-Figure Vases Produced from the Sixth–Fourth Centuries BCE

Curricular Materials on the Chemistry of Pottery, Including Thermodynamic Calculations for Redox Reactions in the 3-Stage Firing Process of Athenian Black- and Red-Figure Vases Produced from the Sixth–Fourth Centuries BCE

Dancing with Greek Vases

Abstract As gods dance, women twirl in choruses, and men leap in kōmos revels on Athenian red-figure vases, their animate bodies must be made to conform to the rounded shape of the vessels. Occasionally, these vases are even included in the images themselves, particularly within the kōmos revel, where the participants incorporate vessels into their dance as props, markers of space, and tools to engage new dance partners. Positioning these scenes within their potential sympotic context, I analyze the vases held by the dancers according to the ancient viewer’s own possible use of these physical vessels. The symposiasts’ own dextrous interaction with the objects echoes the dancers’ behaviors, so that human and ceramic bodies come together in shared movement. The handling of vases thus suggests a tactile, embodied experience shared between dancers and viewers; by evoking viewers’ familiarity with handling similar vessels, the vase-paintings invite viewers to join in the dance.

Pallas and a Female Pyrrhic Dance for Athena in Attica

Abstract In Attica, Pallas was a giant apparently related to the sanctuary of Athena at Pallene. Pallene recalled the eponymous Chalcidian region and thus echoed the myth of the Gigantomachy. In some versions, Athena performed the Pyrrhic dance after defeating the giants. In other versions, however, Pallas was also a Titan, the father of Athena and another young woman. This maiden was the alter ego of the goddess and died at the hands of Athena in an hoplomachia. In this paper, I explore the possibility that some representations of a female Pyrrhic dance relating to Athena on red-figure vases may reflect a ritual in fifth-century Athens. This ritual was presumably associated with the Pallenian sanctuary where the Gigantomachy was evoked and a mimêsis of the goddess in arms seems to have taken place.

On the Representation of Ganymede in the Roman Mosaic of the Loves of Zeus from Astigi (Baetica)

The discovery in 2015 of the great mosaic so called of the Zeus’ Loves in Écija (Sevilla) comes to highlight again the quality of the mosaic heritage of the ancient Astigi, capital of the conventus astigitanus in Baetica. It is a large pavement, which contains several pictures, with geometric motifs, Bacchic themes and scenes from the Zeus Loves cycle, among which the legend of the Rape of Europe stands out, as well as one of the Dioscuri, Leda and the Swan, a satyr pursuing a young maiden, identified as Antiope, and by last the legend of Ganymede.The depiction of Ganymede in Roman mosaics is well documented, in particular the precise instant of the abduction with both already in flight. However the Ganymede’s legend in the Astigi pavement of the Zeus’ Loves found in the Plaza de Armas shows a not usual image. This article deals with the literary sources and possible parallels that would have served as a model for the representation from Astigi.Are analyzed several images in Attic red-figure vases, Roman paintings, reliefs and gems and particularly in two mosaic floors, the Antioch pavement of the so called domus of Buffet Supper and the Italica mosaic of the love stories of Zeus, preserved in the Lebrija Palace-Museum in Seville.

A Greek tragedy? Why ‘Dillwyn’s Etruscan Ware’ failed*

Abstract Between 1847 and 1850, the Cambrian Pottery in Swansea made ‘Dillwyn’s Etruscan Ware’, a range of vases copying the designs of red-figure vases found in south Italian and Sicilian tombs. The vases were made for sale to ‘humble homesteads’, but they did not attract buyers and were discontinued. This article explores the economic and commercial milieu in which the Swansea ‘Etruscan’ ware vases were designed and made. It examines relationships between manufacturers’ design choices and their perceptions of the social, cultural, and political aspirations of intended buyers. It establishes the identity of the Cambrian Pottery’s intended customers and shows how practical issues, such as space, display, and utility, could influence buyers’ choices as well as design. Finally, it explores the influence of social, cultural, and religious ideals on domestic decoration in working-class households, and it offers an explanation of why ‘Dillwyn’s Etruscan Ware’ failed.

Gender and Body Language in Roman Art by Glenys Davies

Reviewed by: Gender and Body Language in Roman Art by Glenys Davies J. F. D. Frakes Glenys Davies. Gender and Body Language in Roman Art. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018. Pp. xii, 357. $120.00. ISBN 978-0-521-84273-0. Asserting that modern studies of body language offer comparative support to an understanding of ancient gestural codes, and marshaling decades of theorization of how gesture and comportment together work to establish social configurations of identity, Glenys Davies promises here an analysis of how visual art in the Roman world made use of body language to express "status, and the relationship between status and gender" (1). The introduction quickly clarifies the author's methods and assumptions: that art from all Greek and Roman periods can be lumped together as evidence for Roman visual modes (she begins the discussion with a red-figure vase from 430 bce); that literary evidence is of primary value when interpreting visual evidence (she consults Cicero, Valerius Maximus, Seneca, Quintilian, and Plutarch, among others, throughout); and that display context is irrelevant to how artworks communicated ideas of gender and status (the Barberini Faun, the Capitoline Seated Girl, some philosophers, and the Terme Ruler illustrate opening themes, with no discussion of placement and little acknowledgement of dating or replication). A case-study is then built upon Cancelleria Relief B, focusing on the gestural connections between its principal figures, that indulges in Jocelyn [End Page 364] Toynbee's reading (in The Flavian Reliefs from the Palazzo della Cancelleria in Rome [Oxford 1957]) of the scene's emotional subtext before signaling that Vespasian's gesture toward Domitian is unique and interpreting it remains problematic. What to make of this strange impasse is evidently up to each reader to decide—a difficult challenge considering there will not be any more images to consider for a good sixty pages. The first two chapters present the surviving ancient testimonies relevant to body language, each one devoted to a normative gender: first male, then female. About male comportment we read of exempla traditions, of oratorical training and performance, and of good manners. Themes include status display, imperial power, and the dangers to men of femininity. About female comportment we read of proofs of inferiority and weakness, of tendencies toward frivolity, and of matronly values and modesty. Veiling and clothing requirements follow, along with demonstrations of subordination, and some closing thoughts on the dangers to men of female masculinity, before we are promised an analysis of the representation of Roman women in art. How disappointing it was after all this to turn the page to chapter 3 (82) and discover the Vatican copy of the Aphrodite of Knidos. "The Standing Nude," so Davies argues, best illustrates the differentiated body languages of males and females on account of their opposed sexes being so visually evident, and before too many pages go by there appears the inevitable Naples Doryphoros. Although these famous statues are in fact Roman artworks, they are here treated as unproblematic exemplars of Greek Classical design, works that demonstrate (one assumes?) the timelessness of gendered gestural codes. The bibliography is thorough and responsible—one finds the support of Ridgway, Havelock, and Lefkowitz, among others—but the discussion fails to take us far beyond the luscious treatments of Andrew Stewart's Art, Desire and the Body in Ancient Greece (Cambridge 1997). Beyond their status in elite culture, how do these opera nobilia inform us on the gestural attitudes of lived experience promised earlier? I fear it was a mistake to linger so long among elite male opinion and fetishized works of Classical culture, rather than jumping straightaway into well-documented viewing contexts from the Roman period. What might be said of these as Roman works? I think of Valentina di Napoli's recent study of displays in Roman Achaea of exactly these two statue types, the Knidia installed in baths and domestic contexts in small-scale formats while the Doryphorus was placed in civic settings on scales life-size or greater ("Looking at the Classical Past: Tradition, Identity, and Copies of Nobilia Opera in Roman Greece," in S. E. Alcock, M. Egri, and J. Frakes [eds.], Beyond Boundaries: Connecting Visual Cultures in the Provinces...

Kerch style: towards a local branch evidenced at Apollonia Pontica?

Primele rezultate obținute în urma analizei fizico-chimice făcute pe exemplare reprezentative de vase cu figuri roșii de la Apollonia, decorate în stilul Kerch, au scos în evidență compoziții non-atice, demonstrând, deci, că Atena nu a avut monopolul fabricării ceramicii de factură, mai degrabă „ kitsch”, acoperită cu auriu și retușe colorate. Chiar dacă cele mai multe dintre eșantioanele care ar indica acest stil formează, împreună cu alte vase cu firnis negru, un grup geochimic deosebit de ceramica uzuală de fabricație locală, aceasta s-ar putea datora unor imperative tehnologice. Continuarea cercetării își propune clarificarea apartenenței pieselor la un alt grup local distinct sau a provenienței acestora din importuri din alte centre pontice de fabricație, precum Panticapaeum, actualul Kerch, considerat sursa cea mai previzibilă !

Reading and Writing, Singing and Playing on Three Early Red-Figure Vases

Abstract The tools for reading and writing, the writing tablets and the papyrus scroll, were inherited by Greece from the East together with the Phoenician alphabet. The oldest papyrus scroll and writing tablets with Greek text were found in the tomb of a musician in Daphne dated to 430 BC. After 700 BC writing tablets were ubiquitous in Greece. However, black figure vases do not depict them. The first writing tablet appears on a red figure kylix of the Euergides Painter from Vulci (520). The first papyrus scrolls appear, together with writing tablets and the lyre, on a kylix from Ferrara (c. 480-70). Papyrus scrolls, writing tablets, the lyre and aulos appear together on the famous Berlin kylix of Douris from Caere (480).

Ancient machine tools for the construction of the Antikythera Mechanism parts

The present work deals with the study, design, original reconstruction and use of the bow drill of the late archaic period (ca 490 BC), as depicted in two different red figure vases and the vertical lathe depicted on an engraved wall painting of the Petosiris tomb of the Ptolemaic era (300 BC). After the reconstruction of the three ancient tools, during the implementation of the FRAMe Project, their use was thoroughly studied, from which useful conclusions were drawn about the material processing in antiquity, as well as the details of the construction of the Antikythera Mechanism components. Following the new findings detected from the authors’ study of the X-Ray Computed Tomographies from Antikythera Mechanism Research Project, these ancient machine tools can be considered as the progenitors of the Hellenistic period machine tools, which were used for the construction of the mechanical components of the Mechanism.

The Six's Technique in Boiotia: Regional Experiments in Technique and Iconography

Despite progress in the study of Boiotian black- and red-figure vase painting, research on special techniques of vase decoration for this region is lacking. This article attempts to examine a facet of Boiotian decorated pottery in which colors were added over the black glaze, a practice known as Six's technique. Our synthesis focuses on material that long languished unstudied, and we aim to understand the manifestations of this technique over time by examining the issues of influences, development, variations, and affiliations with other regional overpainted ceramics. Iconography, including generic images of youths and animals, as well as rare Dionysiac scenes and parodies, is discussed in relation to the local social customs of the region.

Red-figure vases from Durres – A reflection of a local culture?

Epidamnos/Dyrrhachion was one of the most important Greek colonies in the territory of modern Albania and in its necropolis a lot of red-figure ceramics was found. Many of these objects were very probably produced locally. The methods and style of the decoration of these ceramics was inspired by the South Italian production, however they have some specific characteristics: small size, limited iconography, and often low quality of execution. Many of them are decorated with the images of women, some as part of Dionysiac scenes, and some in everyday situations. I conduct a visual analysis of these images and vessels, asking the question whether or not they reflect the local culture and possible Illyrian influences. I especially focus on the question why these vases were interesting for the local consumer. The result of my inquiry is that pottery from Epidamnos does not reveal images of local costumes, nor new iconography. On the other hand, the frequent appearance of female figures, or scenes of nude athletes with women, can be interpreted as reflecting local ideology. The repetitiveness of the images speaks about an increased demand on the side of the consumers, which points to the significance of Illyrian population in the economic and social life of the coastal city. I suggest that use of red-figure pottery in funeral rituals was considered an expression of identity and status of middle class citizens of Epidamnos.

Растительные мотивы в южноиталийской вазописи: проблемы изучения.

This article focuses on the study problems of floral motifs in South Italian vase painting. Floral motif in the decor system of Late Greek red-figure vases still remains insufficiently explored. This study intends to indicate the range of major issues and problems related to plant images in red-figure vases of South Italia. Nowadays, it is common to study floral motifs in the framework of resolving the problem of an author’s handwriting. The research on the iconography of antique flowers — especially acacias, poppies and roses — and their semantic analysis can also be considered as promising. The semantic analysis is particularly effective in Orphic and heortological contexts (or a feast system by the example of Rosaliae). The author shows that these days all three sets of scientific problems remain relevant.

Provenance of Red-Figure Pottery of the Classical Period Excavated at Olympia

Neutron activation analysis (NAA) has been applied to a set of red-figure pottery fragments excavated in Olympia, in Elis: (a) to determine the provenance of these vases, since this is difficult by archaeological means, and the vessels might be local Elean or Attic, Corinthian or Italian products; and (b) to determine the characteristic elemental pattern of the clay paste prepared by the potters of this Elean region. Included for comparison are several Corinthian sherds excavated in Kyme, Italy, that are archaeologically classified as exports from Corinthia to Italy, and fragments of local Italian Corinthian imitations. The majority of the red-figure vases were made locally in the north-western Peloponnese and show the elemental pattern termed OlyA, which is represented in many vases and clay samples from this region that were known previously. It is not very different from the well-known pattern of the north-eastern Peloponnese (Argolid/Corinth) termed MYBE (Mycenae/Berbati), but can be separated by its lower Cs, Rb and K concentrations, as proven by many sherds from the Argolid and wasters from Berbati. Only a few red-figure vessels are imports from Attica, but none come from Italy.

Courtesans Reconsidered: Women in Aristophanes’ Lysistrata

This essay provides a reassessment of the view that the young wives of Aristophanes’ Lysistrata are modeled on hetaeras. It begins by examining a parallel debate in contemporary Attic red-figure vase paintings of women at home to show that displays of female sexuality are not incompatible with marriageable maidens and free citizen wives. Aristophanes similarly situates his female characters within a domestic context as the site of sexual and social legitimacy. A detailed analysis of clothing, footwear and grooming practices deployed in the sex strike demonstrates that they represent the standard accoutrements of housewives rather than of hetaeras. Their domesticated eroticism, while enabling the male spectators a voyeuristic glimpse of other men’s wives, reinforces their procreative function as mothers and producers of future Athenian citizens. The importance of sexual desire within marriage for the production of legitimate offspring is dramatically reinforced by the onstage presence of the boy child in the thwarted sexual encounter of Myrrhine and Cinesias. Aristophanes’ Lysistrata fits with a pattern of heightened interest in women and domestic ideology at the end of the fifth century BCE. The centrality of marriage in the play may represent a response to the erosion of Pericles' citizenship law in response to the depletion of Athenian men in the waning years of the Peloponnesian war.

Can iconography help to interpret Lycophron’s description of the ritual performed by Daunian maidens (Alexandra 1126-1140)?

In the Alexandra, Lycophron mentions a cult celebrated in Daunia, the northern part of Puglia in Southern Italy. This paper presents the result of an attempt to find an iconographical parallel for the Daunian ritual described by Lycophron. In particular, it focuses on how iconography can help to achieve a better understanding of Lycophron’s description. Bearing in mind the idea that an image is always a symbolic construction rather than a picture of reality, I ask whether there is a figurative heritage that presents affinities with the cult described by Lycophron. First, I consider the figured pottery found in the Daunian necropolis of Salpia Vetus, where the cult would have taken place according to Lycophron’s text; second, I enlarge my research to include the rest of Apulian red-figure vases, because their iconographic repertoire mirrors the interests and tastes of a native Apulian market; third, I incorporate in my analysis a different class of materials, namely votive plaques belonging to Southern Italian and Sicilian contexts (i.e. the sanctuary of Persephone-Aphrodite at Locri Epizephyri and the sanctuary of Persephone at Francavilla-Naxos).

Pelops on an Early Fourth Century BC Krater from Pella

In this article part of a red-figure bell krater, found in the area of the new entrance of the archaeological site of Pella, is presented. This vase is very interesting because of its rare iconographic subject. On side A the chariot of Pelops is depicted. From other sherds of the same vase we come to the conclusion that on the same chariot Hippodameia was also probably shown. In this scene elements of the abduction of Hippodameia by Pelops, as well as the chariot race between Pelops and Oinomaos, can be traced. The vase is attributed to the workshop of the Painter of Athens 12255 and is dated to the beginning of the fourth century BC. This dating makes it possible to connect the krater’s iconographic subject to king Archelaos’ quadriga victory at the Olympic Games and the celebration of the Olympia festival in Macedonia. The krater under examination is one among the many red-figure vases that arrived in the Macedonian capital from Attica.

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.

The Imagery of Ideal Women and Romantic Married Life in Attic Red Figure Vase Paintings : Some Thoughts on Athenian Female Citizens in the 5th century B.C.E.

The Imagery of Ideal Women and Romantic Married Life in Attic Red Figure Vase Paintings : Some Thoughts on Athenian Female Citizens in the 5th century B.C.E.