Greek Vase Painting

Classics ◽  
2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tyler Jo Smith
Keyword(s):  
Coming Out ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Classical Antiquity ◽  
Vase Painting ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
South Italy ◽  
Classical Archaeology ◽  
Oxford University ◽  
Greek Vases ◽  
Production And Distribution

Greek vase-painting is one of the best studied areas of classical antiquity. Figure decorated pottery, often called “vases,” was produced in large quantities in many regions of the ancient Greek world. Although decorated pottery had been made in Greece since prehistoric times, the field of Greek vase-painting is a branch of classical archaeology which focuses on vessels produced between the late Geometric and late classical/early Hellenistic periods (8th–3rd century bce). Early modern connoisseurs and collectors during the 18th century were attracted to Greek vases coming out of tombs in Italy, often mistakenly considering them to be Etruscan rather than Greek. Formal study of vases began during the late 19th century, but it was throughout the 20th that the sub-discipline truly gained momentum. Through the efforts of J. D. Beazley (b. 1885–d. 1970), a professor at Oxford University, the black- and red-figure vases of Athens (also termed “Attic”) which survive in enormous quantities were categorized according to painter and published in his magisterial lists (Attic Black-Figure Vase-Painters, 1956; Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters, 1963; see Beazley 1956 and Beazley 1963 under Connoisseurship and Attribution). Beazley concentrated on attributing unsigned works, and his attributions remain for many scholars an important framework for the study of Greek vases. A. D. Trendall (b. 1909–d. 1995) created a similar typology for the Greek vase-painters of South Italy and Sicily. Also foundational is the Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, launched by the Louvre in 1922 (see under Digital and Special Resources), which provides illustrated catalogues of Greek vases from museum collections, and also continues to feature vital information about individual vessels. Since the death of Beazley, research on Greek vase-painting has evolved greatly. The 1980s and 1990s saw increased attention to vase iconography, including studies of both myth and everyday life. At the same time, there emerged an updated series of regional studies for vases made outside of Athens, including those of Corinth, Boeotia, Laconia, East Greece, and western Greece. These studies too have focused to an extent on painter attribution, production, and distribution, while important developments in archaeological science have greatly benefited our understanding of local fabrics and techniques. In recent decades, scholarship has shifted toward contextual studies that emphasize social, historical, and religious functions and meanings of vases and their images. At present, there is an interest in the role of archaeological context and how it may have impacted the choices of both artist and consumer.

scholarly journals Museum of Classical Archeology of the 19th-century Imperial Academy of Sciences: The history of organizing and transferring collections to the Imperial Hermitage

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-27
Author(s):  
Margarita F. Khartanovich ◽  
◽  
Maria V. Khartanovich ◽  
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Fine Arts ◽  
Precious Metals ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Classical Archaeology ◽  
Archaeological Collections ◽  
Imperial Academy ◽  
Academy Of Sciences ◽  
The 19Th Century

The Museum of Classical Archeology of the Imperial Academy of Sciences is the successor to the 18th-century Kunstkamera of the Academy of Sciences in term of collections of classical antiquities. This article discusses in detail the stages of development of the Museum of Classical Archaeology as an institution within the structure of the Academy of Sciences through the Cabinet of Medals and Rarities, Numismatic Museum, and the Museum of Classical Archaeology. The fund of the museum consisted of ancient Greek and Roman coins, ancient Russian coins, coins from oriental cultures, ancient Greek vases, antiquities from ornamental stone, glass, precious metals, impressions of medals and coins, items from archaeological excavations and treasures, manuscripts, drawings of objects and photographs. Special attention is paid to the correlation of the possibilities of museum collections of the Academy of Sciences and the Imperial Hermitage in terms of storage, exhibition, research, and promotion of archaeological collections in the second half of the 19th century. The reasons for the very active transfer of the Academy of Sciences’ archaeological collections to the Hermitage in the 19th century and the types of compensation received by the Academy for the collections are discussed. The first archaeological collections donated from the Academy of Sciences to the Hermitage on the initiative of the chairman of the Imperial Archaeological Commission S. G. Stroganov were the “Siberian collection” of Peter I and the Melgunov treasure. The collection of the Museum of Classical Archeology also attracted the attention of art critic I. V. Tsvetaev when arranging funds for the new Museum of Fine Arts at Moscow University. The article introduces into scientific circulation archival documents, showing the state of the museum work in the 19th century in the institution of the Academy of Sciences, documents depicting the structure of the Museum of Classical Archaeology, and the composition of collections.

Bodies in Motion

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-84
Author(s):  
Tyler Jo Smith
Keyword(s):  
Modern Dance ◽  
Gender And Sexuality ◽  
Vase Painting ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Dance History ◽  
Greek Vases ◽  
Ritual Activity ◽  
Ritual Communication ◽  
And Function ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract Drawing on the combined approaches of ancient Greek iconography, dance history, and the archaeology of ritual and religion, this paper examines dance gesture as a mechanism of ritual communication in ancient Greek vase-painting. After presenting the problems and limitations of matching art and text with regard to dance, as both Classical scholars and practitioners of modern dance have attempted, the paper expands on various ways of showing dance on vases. Special attention is given to komast dancers on black-figure vases and to other types of dance scenes and figures. A rethinking of the evidence for dance as ritual on Greek vases is proposed under the two categories of non-repetitive and repetitive gesture. It is posited that such a distinction anticipates the mood, participants, and occasions, and might indicate discrete areas of ritual activity. Dance, gesture, and ritual are also considered according to the gender and sexuality of performers, the presence of the divine, and the relationship between the shape, composition, and function of some vessels.

Lykophron's Alexandra, Rome, and the Hellenistic World

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Hornblower
Keyword(s):  
Turning Point ◽  
Roman History ◽  
Historical Document ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
South Italy ◽  
Hellenistic World ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Greek World ◽  
Area Of Origin

This book is an original, accessibly written, contribution to Roman and Hellenistic history. Its subject is a long (1474-line) ancient Greek poem, Lykophron’s Alexandra, probably written about 190 BC. The Trojan Kassandra foretells the conflicts between Europe and Asia from the Trojan Wars to the establishment of Roman ascendancy over the Greek world in the poet’s own time, including the founding of new cities by returning Greeks through the Mediterranean zone, and of Rome by the Trojan refugee Aineias, Kassandra’s kinsman. Simon Hornblower now follows his detailed commentary (OUP 2015, paperback 2017) with a monograph asserting the Alexandra’s importance as a historical document of interest to political, cultural, and religious historians and students of myths of identity. Part One explores Lykophron’s geopolitical world, especially south Italy (perhaps the poet’s area of origin), Sicily, and Rhodes, and argues that the recent (in the 190s) hostile presence of Hannibal in south Italy is a frequent if indirectly expressed concern of the poem. Part Two investigates the poem’s relation to Sibylline and other anti-Roman writings, and argues for its cultural and religious topicality. The Conclusion shows that the 190s BC were a turning-point in Roman history, and that Lykophron was aware of this.

Labor IX

2021 ◽  
pp. 123-134
Author(s):  
Adrienne Mayor
Keyword(s):  
Black Sea ◽  
The Black Sea ◽  
Vase Painting ◽  
Ancient Greek

Heracles’ ninth Labor, set by King Eurystheus and Princess Admete of Tiryns, was to obtain the war belt of Hippolyte, queen of the Amazons dwelling in Pontus on the Black Sea. Artistic and literary evidence suggests that his mission began peacefully but turned violent thanks to Heracles’ nemesis, the goddess Hera. The encounter between Heracles and his companions against the Amazons was one of the most popular subjects in ancient Greek vase painting and sculpture, second only to the Nemean Lion, with the earliest depiction on a terracotta shield of about 700 BC, found at Tiryns. The artistic and literary depictions reveal that Hippolyte and the Amazons were considered the equals of Greek males in courage and combat skills, although they were ultimately defeated and the Amazon queen’s precious war belt was won by Heracles.

scholarly journals Urbanisme régulier, occupation des campagnes et rapports interethniques en Grande-Grèce

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (29) ◽  
pp. 199
Author(s):  
Airton Pollini
Keyword(s):  
The South ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
South Italy ◽  
Native Populations ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Archaeological Work ◽  
Greek Colonization ◽  
Greek World ◽  
Written Sources

L’Italie du Sud est probablement la région la mieux connue du monde grec antique. Quelques sources écrites mais surtout des études archéologiques menées depuis longtemps ont permis le développement des recherches sur plusieurs aspects au cœur de la thématique de la colonisation grecque. Ce travail se concentre sur trois aspects essentiels : l’appropriation de l’espace colonial, l’interaction avec les populations indigènes et l’urbanisation des nouvelles installations. The South Italy is probably the best known region of the ancient Greek world. Some written sources but especially archaeological work undertaken for a long time allowed the development of research on several aspects at the heart of the issues of Greek colonization. This paper concentrates on three essential aspects: the appropriation of colonial space, the interaction with the native populations, and the urbanization of new establishments.

Diogenes Laertius and Philosophical Lives

2020 ◽  
pp. 250-266
Author(s):  
Stephen White
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual History ◽  
Life Writing ◽  
Cultural Practice ◽  
Classical Antiquity ◽  
Greek Philosophy ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Form Of Life ◽  
Comprehensive Account ◽  
Ancient Greek Philosophy ◽  
Modern Perspective

This chapter addresses Diogenes Laertius’ Lives of Eminent Philosophers, which recounts the doings, sayings, and writings of the leading figures of ancient Greek philosophy from its origins down to its rapid efflorescence and institutionalization in the fourth and third centuries bc, with occasional glimpses of its continuing vitality in the centuries beyond. Diogenes’ Lives is an exceptional work on many counts. For one, it is the single largest collection of Lives to survive from classical Antiquity, handily surpassing Plutarch in number and scope if not in depth or length, and so too Philostratus and Suetonius. It is also a key witness to the early stages of biographical literature in the fourth and third centuries bc. At the same time, it presents the single most comprehensive account of the origins and development of an entire discipline, and a distinctive form of intellectual history from a biographical perspective. It also, accordingly, represents a distinctive form of life-writing, framed by basic biographical data but lean, often very lean on the standard biographical fare—from a modern perspective at least—of incident and narrative, and governed instead by its disciplinary orientation, and its sustained focus on philosophy as a distinctive cultural practice and way to live.

Introduction

Ladies' Greek ◽  
2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yopie Prins
Keyword(s):  
Women Writers ◽  
Virginia Woolf ◽  
Greek Tragedy ◽  
Classical Antiquity ◽  
Elizabeth Barrett Browning ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Collective Identification ◽  
Victorian Women ◽  
Greek Alphabet ◽  
Women Of Letters

This book examines why Victorian women of letters such as Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Sara Coleridge, and Virginia Woolf self-consciously performed collective identification with Greek letters and showed literary interest in their translations of with Greek tragedy. It considers how these women engaged with ideas about classical antiquity, and how much they contributed to the idealization of all things Greek. It discusses the ways in which women learned to read the Greek alphabet, to discover all the letters between alpha and omega, and how they turned ancient Greek into a language of and for desire. The book argues that nineteenth-century women writers turned to tragedy in particular as a literary genre for the performance of female classical literacy, and that their passionate reading of Greek led them into various forms of translation. Five tragedies are analyzed to elucidate the legacy of Ladies' Greek: Agamemnon and Prometheus Bound, Electra, Hippolytus, and Bacchae.

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