Attic Pottery - Red-Figure Ware: Pelike
Inv. No.: 81.007
Provenance: Attica
Date: mid fifth century BC
Height: 330mm
Diameter: 250mm
This red-figure pelike has a torus lip with a tooled ridge where the lip meets the neck. This neck is short and leads smoothly to the round body of the vase which has its greatest diameter towards the base (as is characteristic of the pelike shape). The two strap handles have a central ridge. They are placed symmetrically either side of the neck and pass from the bottom of the neck to the top of the body of the vase. The foot is a flat disc. The decoration consists of both red-figure floral and black-figure geometric patterns while the main scenes consist of red figures placed against the black of the body of the vase. On Side A there is a nude male figure (Dionysus?) who pursues a female figure. A nude athlete and his trainer are shown on Side B. Black is painted thinly on most of the body of the vase (brush marks are evident in places where the red clay shows through) and there is some repainting of the figures.
Function:
The pelike was used for containing oil and wine. It could also be used to draw water - it could be dipped in a well using a rope tied around the vase, under the handles.
Manufacture:
This vase was thrown on the wheel with the lip and foot being turned at the leather-hard stage. The handles would have been made by hand and joined to the vase with slip.
Decoration:
- Black has been painted on the inside of the mouth and neck of the vase extending to about 100 mm below the top edge.
- The handles are black with a red-figure double palmette on the outer surface of each, extending from the base of the handle on to the body of the vase.
- There is a red double palmette pattern framed with single red lines between the tops of the handles on each side of the vase, above the figures.
- Side A: to the left is a nude male figure with profile head, facing right. He has a pointed black beard, long black hair and wears a wreath of laurel leaves. His torso is frontal and his legs are twisted to a side view with his left leg striding to the right and his right leg behind to the left. His right arm hangs by his side while his left arm is extended and a cloak is draped over it. To the right is a female figure dressed in a chiton and himation running to the right with her left foot forward and her left arm extended to the right. Her head is in profile, facing back to the left while her torso is frontal with her right breast evident. Her right arm is extended backwards towards the male figure. Her hair is tied back. Details of anatomy and dress are painted in dilute glaze. Both figures are place on a leftward meander ground line.
- Side B: to the left, in profile, facing right, is a trainer. He is draped in a cloak and leans on a long stick that he holds in his right hand. To the right is a nude athlete with frontal torso, extended arms and profile legs with the left leg moving to the right. His head is in profile, twisted back to the left. He holds one piece of a set of training weights (halteres) in his right hand. Both figures have short black hair and are placed on a leftward meander ground line.
- The base of the vase is black except for a reserved ring above the disc foot which is also reserved on its outer edge.
Painter:
Attributed to the Villa Giulia Painter. The Villa Giulia Painter was described by J. D. Beazley as being an "academic" painter in the early Classical period who was capable of producing work that is serene and noble. However, he does often rely on a number of stock figures, among which are the fleeing woman pursued by a king or a god and the athlete and trainer found on this vase. He mainly painted large vases, particularly craters and stamnoi, in red-figure, although recently a number of white ground cups have been added to his oeuvre. His name vase is a calyx crater in the Villa Giulia Museum in Rome which is decorated with dancing women.
Bibliography:
Beazley, J. D., Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters, second edition, Oxford, Clarendon, 1963, I, 618-627, II, 1662.
Beazley, J. D., Paralipomena: Additions to Attic Black-Figure Vase-Painters and to Attic Red-Figure Vase Painters, second edition, Oxford, Clarendon, 1971, 398-399, 514.
Beazley, J. D., "The Master of the Villa-Giulia calyx-krater", Römische Mitteilungen, XXVII (1912), 286-297.
Carpenter, T. H., Beazley Addenda: Additional References to ABV, ARV2 & Paralipomena, second edition, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1989, 270-271.
Christie's Catalogue, 8 July 1981, No. 179.
Robertson, M., The Art of Vase-painting in Classical Athens, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1992.
Sourvinou-Inwood, C., "A Series of Erotic Pursuits: Images and Meanings", Journal of Hellenic Studies, CVII (1987), 131-153.
Vickers, M., "A New Cup by the Villa Giulia Painter in Oxford", Journal of Hellenic Studies, XCIV (1974), 177-179.
Comparanda:
Side A:
Giglioli, G. Q., Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, Italia 2, Villa Giulia 2 (1976), Tavola 21 and 22 (name vase).
Hafner, G., Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, Deutschland 1, Karlsruhe 1 (1951), Tafel 20, 2 (fleeing woman).
Shapiro, H. A., Art, Myth, and Culture: Greek Vases from Southern Collections, New Orleans Museum of Art, Tulane University, 1981, No. 10, Side A (Harrow Painter - Dionysus pursuing Ariadne).
Von Lücken, G., Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, DDR 1, Schwerin (1972), Tafel 35 and 37, 3 (female figure).
Side B:
Greifenhagen, A., Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, Deutschland 21, Berlin 2 (1962), Tafel 97, 1-4.
Von Lücken, G., Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, DDR 1, Schwerin (1972), Tafel 36 and 37, 4-6.