Apulian Pottery - Gnathia Ware: Epichysis
Inv. No.: 82.044
Provenance: Apulia
Date: 4th century BC
Height: 127mm
Diameter: 81mm
Gift of a number of donors represented by Mrs Judy James.
This small jug is decorated with floral and geometric patterns painted in white, yellow and red-brown over the black gloss covering. Vases painted using this technique are called Gnathia ware after the find-spot (Egnazia) of a number of vases with this type of decoration. The cylindrical body has straight sides and wide flanges at the base and where the cylinder joins the rounded top. The narrow tubular neck is set in the centre of this rounded top. The neck has a flared base and a beaked spout with a moulded ring near its end. The flat strap handle passes obliquely from the top of the neck. It then curves sharply around and down onto the shoulder. The junction of handle and neck is decorated on each side with a moulded lion head. The vase is intact, but there is some abrasion of the painted decoration, especially on the shoulder, handle and the spout.
Function:
A jug or oinochoe, used for pouring liquids.
Manufacture:
A wheel-thrown vase with a handle that has been shaped by hand and knobs of clay decorated with moulded lion heads where the handle joins the neck.
Decoration:
- The beak is decorated with a moulded ring near its end and two moulded lion heads on knobs of clay at its base. It is painted black inside and outside, but this is worn.
- There is a band of white tongues at the base of the neck and a ring of dots in added white and yellow on the shoulder, around the base of the neck.
- On the main part of the shoulder are two laurel sprays framing a large central white rosette placed beneath the spout. The laurel pattern has a central red/brown stem and leaves painted in white or red/brown on either side. Finely dotted rosettes are painted in white between the leaves. The upper edge of the upper flange is decorated with a band of white tongues.
- The cylindrical body has a yellow guilloche or cable pattern with two white lines above, and two below in white and yellow, on the side beneath the spout. There is a reserved band around the base of the cylinder, extending onto the inner part of the lower flange.
Bibliography:
Green, J. R., "Some Gnathia Pottery in the J. Paul Getty Museum", Greek Vases in the J. Paul Getty Museum. Occasional Papers on Antiquities, 2, Malibu, The J. Paul Getty Museum, 1986, Volume 3, 115-138.
Green, J. R., "The Gnathia Pottery of Apulia", The Art of South Italy: Vases from Magna Graecia, eds. M. E. Mayo and K. Hamma, Richmond, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 1982, 252-259.
Comparanda:
Boardman, J. and M. Robertson, Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, Great Britain 15, Castle Ashby (1979), Plate 56 (red-figure Apulian epichysis).
Hayes, J. W., Greek and Italian Black-Gloss Wares and Related Wares in the Royal Ontario Museum: A Catalogue, Toronto, Royal Ontario Museum, 1984, 242 (similar shape and shoulder decoration, but more slender), 243.
Lamb, W., Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, Great Britain 6, Cambridge 1 (1930), III I L, IV D G, Plate 43, 17 (Gnathia ware epichysis).
Mayo, M. E. and K. Hamma (eds.), The Art of South Italy: Vases from Magna Graecia, Richmond, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 1982, No. 132.
Metzger, I. R. et al, Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, Schweiz 5, Svizzera 5 (1979), Tavola 31, 24-25 (red-figure Apulian epichysis).
Moignard, E., Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, Great Britain 16, Edinburgh 1 (1989), Plate 32, 5-6 and 7-8, Plate 33, 1-2.
Rocco, A., Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, Italia 24, Napoli 3 (undated), IV, E, Tavola 72, 1 (very similar shoulder decoration).
Romanelli, P., Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, Italia 6, Lecce 2 (1979), IV D, Tavola 51, 2-4, 6-8, 10, 13-15 (many examples; 10 is a similar shape).