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WHAT WERE THE FAVOURITE FIGURE-SCENE OF GEOMETRIC VASE-PAINTERS AND HOW…
WHAT WERE THE FAVOURITE FIGURE-SCENE OF GEOMETRIC VASE-PAINTERS AND HOW ARE THEY TO BE INTERPRETED?
GEOMETRIC PERIOD
Context
when
Geometric Period (950)-700 BC
Middle Geometric (850-760 BC)
Late Geometric (760-700)
style breaks up *4
factors
increase in identified settlements of Greece *1
and indications of a steady rise in population
use
marked drinking cup, 'Kylix' after firing on a Rhodian subgeometric skyphos 700 BC - 'I am the kylix of Korakos' *3 [63]
painters
regions
influence
Sparkes RB, no scultures at this time, vases the most monumental art
Literature
'Homer probably never sa an Attic Geometric vase in his life', 'no Attic Geometric artist had ever read or heard recited a single line of Homer' - Boardman 1983, p29,
in *3 [50]
art
medium
pyxides ( round clay boxes)
reeds woven into baskets *3 [68]
plaited designs on walls and radial designs on bottom imitated in paint *3 [68]
raised form of interwoven strands, clay pressed onto basket, and long rope handles sometimes imitated *3 [68]
Boeotian Geometric pyxis, 700 BC
*3 [69]
FIGURE SCENES
iconography
composition, arrangement, place on the vase
number of subjects
neater and more compact composition *4
Middle Geometric
neck contains principal decoration *4 [19]
top of panel level with junction of handles
second field reserved on the belly
filled with same ornaments
dark ground covers most of pot *4
divided large field into panels *4
inserted bands of ornaments and stripes *4
Corinthian
single field stopped at each end by a narrow panel and may be underlined by subsidary horizontal strip *4
main field filled by hatched meander and sometimes cross-hatched triangles *4
Late Geometric
decoration starts to cover the whole of the pot *4
division of fields more popular *4
series of square-ish panels *4
hatched swastika *4
quatrefoil *4
Diplyon Ampora (Plate 4a) *4
middle C8th
reserved bands break up *4
broad and narrow bands of ornament *4
run continuously around the pot
neck - grazing deer and recumbent goats with heads turned back and legs tucked under *4 [21]
main scene framed by vertical strips of meander *4 [21]
Laconian
only seems to have appeared in 750 BC (before seemed to be just
protogeometric
*4 [26]
sacntuaries in Sparta and Amyklae *4 [26]
meanders hatching at right angles, quatrefoil take from grandiose Argive style *4 [26]
Boetia
clumsy and chaotic composition *4 [28]
Euboea
rows of small concentric circles or cross hatching round the vertical lips of Atticizing cups *4 [29]
lozenges with a dot in each corner *4 [29]
Naxian
adopts Attic system of decoration *4 [30]
Parian
begins strongly Atticizing *4 [31]
looser, sparser composition, small ornaments enlarged to major positions *4 [31]
style
technique
Sparkes RB, use of compass and multiple brush
Sparkes RB, first colour of paint lighter than surface of pot*
colour
monochrome painting *3 [94]
brown or black
late c8th BC, addition of colour and incision
dark paint has some sheen *4 [17]
often diluted for hatching *4
Late Geometric
- white sometimes applied over dark paint, normally for small ornament *4
Laconian
clay is coarser and pink
Western Greece dark brown with violet tinge
*4 [27]
pattern
more compelx designs of tongues, trinagles, cross-hatching, meander *3 [p94]
fauna: goats, deer, horses, birds
began to retreat to corners of composition when figures appeared *3 [116]
decoration place dand designed to emphasise shape *4 [15]
from
Protogeometric
curved to reclinear *4
limited variety of ornaments *4
Middle Geometric
novelties of opposed triangles between vertical strokes *4
added small circles attached tangentially *4
string of lozenges with a central dot *4
Late Geometric
more comple meanders *4
tapestry design *4
row of hatched leaves *4
chequers *4
cross-hatched batons *4
derived from plastic riibbing of walls of pots *4
snakes in regular undulation and without head/ tail *4
trefoil mouth on oinochoe *4 [21]
Parian (750 BC - [700]*)
tall blobs/ billets *4
short vertical zigzags *4
later, broken cable *4
thick wavy line *4
Theran
meander *4
heavy zigzags *4
big circles containing an 8-leaved star or 4 discs *4
cross-hatched lozenges and triangles *4
quatrefoil *4
false spiral for minor bands *4
Italian
hatched birds *4
vertical zigzags *4
lozenge *4
quatrefoil *4
hatched units of meander *4
precise planning *4
'Technical competence is generally no higher than in the protogeometric.'
*4 [17]
clay
clear medium-brown, fairly fine *4 [17]
pale slip mostly in Late Geometric, early Attic *4 [17]
Eubeoea
creamy slip *4 [29]
Naxian (750-700 BC)
dark brown with sparkling mica, creamy slip *4 [30]
Parian
brownish-orange clay *4
Theran
reddish with coarse volcanic particles of various colours *4
medium
vases
Boardman
17
increased range of patterns *1
sometimes quite complex *1
Greek meander *1
key pattern *1
swastikas *1
hatching devices *1
wickerwork influence? *1
influential for flat round 'wool-basket' boxes (pyxides) *1
regional variations *1
Cypriot dish showing a loom, C8th BC
[19] *1
Boardman, 19 - 'if weaving was women's work this might suggest that vase decoration too could have been in the hands of women
some early potters could have been women as some early societies it was women's work and primarily used by women
Detail of tapestry pattern on an Attic geometric pitcher mid c8th BC Athens
[19] *1
pale clay ground rather than black (of proto-geo) *1
smaller vases - often early imitations of observation of eastern decorative schemes *1
Attic geometric cup, with a procession of bulls (common motif on Syrian bronze bowls of the period and recurs in this shape in Attica, Late C8th BC
*1 [23]
some vases shaped like animals *1
Late Geometric
dishes have wider rising walls, narrow bases. Attic - recurved handles, little wicker platters as models. *1
inscription
'-inos made me', krater fragment from Pithecusa, Ischia, local script of Euboean style (the Greek settlers at Pithecusa were from Euboea.) *3 [66]
Athenian Dipylon Painter
*1
heavy geometricized *1
complicated *1
no true narrative *1
Attic gemogetric grave-marking ampora, athens, laying out a woman, 2 mourners to hold up a shroud, friezes of razing and reclining animals on the neck
*1 [21]
https://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/images/pottery/painters/keypieces/tiverios/1-p50-detail.jpg
'reduced to the canonical geometric form, inorganic and abstract and still in silhouette'
*4 [21]
full silhouette technique *4 [21]
Attic geometric grave-making crater, Athens
*1 [22]
laying out
prothesis
, chequered shroud cut away to show the man lying on his bier, mourners either side with hands to heads, child on a lap at the foot of the bier, two children on the bier, courtyard animals *1 [22]
mid C8th
below: Honorific procession of chariots and warriors with 'Dipylon' shields
one child possibly feeding the body
right-hand warriors approach with food offerings
one warrior with a disc-like object
pairs with dead animals - fish, fowl, live waterfowl
Attic geometric crater, file of warriors with 'Dipylon' stylised shield, below, a sea battle, with dead in the sea, above and below the warship, after mid C8th BC, Athens
*1 192
1 [20]
'fighting scenes which may relate to the status of the deceased'*
shape
Sparkes RB, angular silhouettes
calls '
impersonal and self-sufficient
' as a style *4
pose
detail
'At the end of the period more detail, by
drawing or added white
, begins to make figures more informative and even the
generic scenes become more ambitious
'
*1 [22]
women mourning from neck of geometric ampora, 700 BC, New York *1 [23]
warriors, from neck of Attic geometric amphora, the shields have white-painted devices, 700 BC
*1 [23]
drawing of the shipwreck shown on the neck of an Attic geometric oinochoe, late c8th BC
*1 [24]
simple, almost mechanical ornament *4
subject matter
context
human and animal figures added to decoration in C8th BC *1
mainly in friezes and panels*1
Attic potters moved from domestic production to more monumental, and something that requires display *1 [24]
Geometric patterns and figures adopted in vase decoration over most of Greece, but places like Corinth usually used pure pattern. *1 [24]
pottery of each region was distinctive, with a 'state' style *1 p24[
larger pots were likely not grave-markers, they might have been for domestic use before becoming coffins. *1 [p25]
Euboean states colonising, developing trade with non-Greek states *!
Cesnola crater, from Cyprusm goats at a tree in centre panel are an oriental motif, after mid c8th BC *1 [27]
pendent-semicircle skyphoi, retain protogeometric decoration up to 750 BC, and are markers for Euboean exploration in the east *1 [25], Lefkandi, about 800 BC.
The new big vases that were being made in Athens as grave-markers encouraged something better, to match the monumentality of their setting.
*1 [191]
'Dipylon' shields disappear around 700 BC, displaced by round shields for hoplite fighting in Greece, change is seen on several geometric vases.
Sparkes RB, beginning of fighting, hunting, ship scenes
figures started to appear by mid C8th BC, narrative scenes, mainly funerary - suitable for funerary purposes. *3 [p94]
figures and animals begin to appear in
Middle Geometric
*4
demarcating symbols
'For the bigger vases preparation for burial is the prime subject, often with intriguing detail'
*1 [20]
chariot processions - of mourners or imitating funeral games *1 [22]
grander vases for female burials have funeral scenes and patterns only [vase on 21] *1 [20]
factors
'The smaller vases often have more varied figure scenes upon them [15]'
*1 [22]
Attic geometric kanatharos, main frize - warrior and woman, duel, 2 lions tearing man, lyre player ith woman carrying jugs, late C8th BC
*1 [23]
scenes of men and horses
Argos and Argolud
large patterned pithoi, craters with broadly composed motifs *1
Argive geometric crater, from Argos. The devices below the horses recall yokes and whells, and the mazy centerpiece, with the other patterns, water, late C8th BC
*1 [p25]
wavy paterns that suggest watery subjects *1
simple formulae for elements of decoration *1
Panel on an Argive geometric crater. Dancers, man in high headdress tames a horse, fish, pebbles and a waterbird - indicate a river, late c8th BC
*1 [25]
Cretan vases almost all pattern *1 [p25]
late geometric
groups of a warrior bearing the body of a dead comrade over the field, over his shoulders. *1 [181]
prothesis (laying out of a body) and ekphora (passage of a body to the cemetery)
Argive Geometric
horses in many figure scenes *4
with large fishes floating in a field *4
women have 2-3 strands in front of skirts *4
step meander *4
hatching at right angles rather than oblique *4
relation to their use
relation to their production methods
provenance
mostly known from cemetaries *1
'The most significant evidence for
specialist production
, however,
lies in the very large (5 feet high) grave-marking vases decorated with funeral scenes
.'
*1 [24]
*Late Geometric
(720 BC),
Hama(th) on the Orontes, north Syria*
*3 [36]
destroyed by Assyrians under Sargon II, date of destruction providced by Assyrian sources *3
few and fragmentary Greek imports *3
Pithecusa and Cumae Late Geometric I and II ceramic material
*3 [38]
Naxos, Syracuse, Leontini, Egara Hyblaea provide some Late Geometric I, also Sybaris and Taras
*3 [38]
Atticising Euboean *4
LOUVRE 11
https://www.cvaonline.org/XDB/ASP/browseCVAtext.asp
INTERPRETRATION OF FIGURE SCENE
factors affecting interpretation
*
The Beginnings of Narrative Art in the Greek Geometric Period
, J Carter
Context
change from Middle to Late Geometric Period distinguished by massed figure-scenes [3]
first appear to be painted by the Dipylon Master
horses
Desborough [4] 'it is interesting to note that when the horse does make his appearance, he is not allowed to invade areas traditionally reserved for rectilinear and circular ornament, but is either tucked away in some inconspicuous position, or else he is found conspicuously [...] but in an area never before used for decoration - the neck.'
context
uncommon in 9th and 10th century pottery
ships
often of
factual type
[10]
simple, factual, descriptive rendeirng [10]
human figures
'The explanation is the same in both cases: we are witnessing the intrusion of a new motiffor which traditional schemes of decoration had no place'
[12]
funeral
'The gesture of mourning and the fact that the pot served as a grave-marker link the figure with the ritual of burial'
[10]
Dipylon Amphora
details parallel from epic [13]
!!!!
'The scene of mourning on Athens 804 is basically nothing more than than an expansion of the idea behind the single Kerameikos krater 1254
we see a representation which is starting to feel its way forward to spatial relationshios [13]
other works
kraters*
ekphora [14]
heroic procession [13]
context
many battle scenes as grave markers [14]
postulates is part of life contemporary to Homer's epics [14]
1 more item...
'They are generic. non-specific, and non-narrative'
'These massed figure scenes, then, appear to be a consistent development of an uncontaminated native tradition, drawing its subjects from the life of the society whose expression it was'
[14]
The Iconography of Mourning in Athenian Art
H. A. Shapiro
in funerary art, the dead
'that they are likened to heroes whose arete was celebrated in Homeric poems]
[2]
[2] geometric ekphora banned
[7] men come no closer than the feet of the body, need to be ritually purified
Key: Boardman History of Greek Vases =1, Sparkes The Red and The Black = Sparkes RB, Sparkes Greek Pottery an Introduction =3, R.M. Cook Greek Painted Pottery = 4