Never mind the Parthenon or the Aphrodite of Knidos……
Centuries before marble there was clay – terracotta.
The craftsmen of black figure and red figure were the first artists in Greek history to record their names on their accomplishments.
What are we talking about?
Stories.
Tales of the Trojan War, the heroes of Greek history, the plights, loves, conflicts and struggles of the pagan Gods and Goddesses and episodes of daily life. These “myths” were the “Harry Potter” of the Ancient World.
This Archaic period, the coming age of decorative creativity, began with the 776 BCE ceremonial games between the Greek city states. These games were the single high jump from the Mycenaean Period (12c. BCE) to the Classical period. The games brought not only athletic competition but a new obsession with the human figure and its strength, proportion and divinity.
Man became the measure of all things, balancing the intellectual and the physical disciplines.
Greek civilization began to signal the importance of questions as much as answers and these produced poetry, theatre, philosophy, political debates, democracy, sexual and homosexual exploration and the desire for rational order and human reflection.
Artistic growth was nurtured and financially supported by colonization, overseas trade and warring.
There was the development of the common identity: being Greek.
Black figure and Red figure – we are referring to Greek pottery, that of the Archaic Period (8th c. BCE – 5thc. BCE).
An early example is the Dipylon Vase, 750 BCE.
Take a look at the intricate and overall patterning – the perfect bands of the Greek key pattern, a meander in changing scale and proportion, a row of deer grazing on the neck, reclining deer at the base of the neck. And then at the belly, the widest part bracketed by the handles, is a reclining figure on a bier surrounded by mourners.
YES – this is a funeral. The horizontally placed deceased is being carried by four “pallbearers”.
Dipylon refers to the cemetery near the Dipylon Gate in NW Athens where this vase was discovered.
This vase, called an amphora because of the belly-feminine shape, is a grave marker. There were holes in the bottom for the ritual pouring of wine or oil to the deceased.
The style here is Geometric.
As a comparison, an example of the sculpture of the period is this small, solid cast bronze warrior.
Notice the triangular torso and the sausage-like legs, the loin-cloth, and then compare it to the stylized figures on the vase.
Surprised?
The surprise is the scale. The warrior is 4 3/8 “. The vase is 5’1”.
These large vessels were thrown in sections, the sections then joined with clay slip.
Proportions are carefully measured.
The width is half of the height, and the neck is half of the body, handles at the widest point. This standard of required proportion, whether in a vase or a figure, is called a canon.
The Dipylon Vase is an example of early, Archaic “black figure”.
As the art of vase painting matures, and as the sculptural representation of the human figure is inspired by the prowess of the nude athletes, we see a breathtaking move to unfreeze the figure, turning, gesturing, laughing, and dressing/costuming as figures become narratives, particularly from Homer’s legends of the Trojan War. These figures are emblazoned by the refinement of the finely sifted black gloss slip used in drawing the figures and the incising the fine detailing and varietal patterns.
Now a single story occupies the vase.
This is the Vatican Amphora, 540-530 BCE. 24”, terracotta with black slip.
It was discovered in Vulci, having been imported by the Etruscans from Greece.
It is signed: Exekias. He was from Athens. He was both potter and painter.
This shape, the amphora, is used to hold wine and a decorative vessel, like this, was usually reserved for the symposium, typically a male drinking party.
The “title” of this amphora is “Achilles and Ajax Playing Dice”.
These heroes are from Homer’s Iliad, passed around as legend in oral tradition for the most part.
The dice game is fiction, gaming scenes being popular among artists at this time.
So – read the vase.
Both soldiers are named, in Greek, by Exekias. They lean on their spears with their shields framing them. They are in a campaign tent. This is a moment of “relaxation” amidst the battles of the Trojan War. The two cousins are engaged in the game. Achilles is wearing his helmet, and is slightly larger. His spears are loose, signaling that he is a little more relaxed. We see the inscription – “tesera” – 4 from his mouth. The posture of Ajax, on the right with his heel raised, is more concentrated and tense. His spears are clinched and are tightly parallel. His head is lower. His helmet rests on his shield. We see the word “tri”- 3 – and we know who won the game.
(And remember that Achilles dies in battle. Ajax carries his body back to camp. Ajax is defeated and becomes depressed after he loses the competition for Achilles’ famous armor that was made by Vulcan, and he falls on his sword.)
The composition here is a V, although not symmetrical.
Notice where your focus goes.
And then travel around, admiring the amazing detail as the black slip is painted with tiny animal hair brushes and then incised into with sharp needles so that the red clay is exposed, creating amazing detail and textures on the beards, eyes, garments and shields. Exekias also used a syringe for outlining, leaving tiny beads of slip that were slightly raised.
Exekias is able to create a sense of volume with his “shading”, painting white and purple over the black to make certain areas more subtle and details more prominent. He uses the expanding belly of the amphora to enhance his story.
And notice the beautiful decorative friezes of palmetto and lotus patterns, and the ivy on the handles.
A breathtaking masterpiece 25.5 centuries ago!
.
As you can see, this “painting” in black figure is very laborious.
There are more than 200 vases signed by Exekias.
With Exekias, the competition among Greek artists increases.
Most of the subject matter is male dominated, but some later vases show women in poses of daily activity like meeting at a well (fountain house).
Around 530 BCE, artists started “painting” in Red figure, although this is painting in the reverse. The figure, red, is the red of the vessel and is left unpainted, and the black slip (slip turns black in the second firing) is used to fill in detail and the background around the figures.
This method allows the figures to seem lighter, more fluid and freer and also to have more volume. They seem to come forward from the background rather than held to it.
Euthymides, the potter and painter, was so pleased (and competitive) with his work that he brags, “Euphronias never did anything like it.”
Actually the two were competitive comrades, in a group of potters labeled “the Pioneers” by historians, They worked in an area of Athens called the Kerameikos.
Pottery was a major desirable, expensive, and functional export for the Greeks.
Look at Euthymides‘ “Dancing Revelers”, Red figure amphora, 510-500, 24”, also discovered in a tomb in Vulci and now in the Staatliche in Munich.
In this 20 year period, between the black figure and red figure amphoras, a new confidence in the study of anatomy developed, along with the Greek sense of drama, the love of theatre, more experimentation and the slow observation of the human figure in every day life – festivals, weddings, burials, and symposiums – along with elements of comedy and the tragedy.
These revelers are perhaps tipsy. Their twisting movements allow for the early illusion of foreshortening, showing the figure in a ¾ view, breaking the stiff frontal or profile view, giving greater weight and security to the figures.
Euthymides has used the two outer figures in a similar way that Exekias used the shields – to frame the scene, also unsymmetrically. Although male participants in the symposiums were not usually nude, this vase displays the growing interest in the male nude inspired by the competitive games.
Euthymides, like Exekias, also used syringe-like instruments for the tiniest of descriptive lines and textures.
These 24″ scale amphoras, decorative in use, predate the Parthenon by 50-75 years.
They are truly Greek in vision and perfection.