Ancient Greek Pottery & Sculpture PDF

## La Grecia ### Pittura a figure nere - Exechias, the greatest artist of the black-figure technique, was an Athenian potter active around the second half of the 6th century BC. - He signed, among other things, an amphora with a continuous profile on side A depicting Achilles killing Penthesilea...

## La Grecia ### Pittura a figure nere - Exechias, the greatest artist of the black-figure technique, was an Athenian potter active around the second half of the 6th century BC. - He signed, among other things, an amphora with a continuous profile on side A depicting Achilles killing Penthesilea (Fig. 4.76). - The invincible Homeric hero is shown on the left as he pierces the throat of the beautiful Penthesilea, the warrior queen of the mythical Amazons, during the Trojan War. - He wears armor on top of his chiton to protect his chest, and a crested helmet that completely covers his face. - The woman, on the other hand, is forced to kneel with her face uncovered, and as she looks back, she tries to react to the fatal assault by brandishing a spear with her right hand against the enemy. - Penthesilea is dressed in a short chiton partially covered by leopard skin, while in her left hand she holds a shield and a sword hangs from her belt. - The technique of realization is extremely refined, and Exechias decorated in a fanciful way the clothes and armor of the two contestants, meticulously scratching the black surface of the figures. - The face of the unfortunate Penthesilea, on the other hand, is as well as her right arm and leg painted in light, for the double purpose of characterizing the female figure immediately and to detail its features more accurately. - The entire scene is perfectly balanced and the two characters fit so well into the chubby shape of the amphora that they seem to almost expand and mold themselves onto it, creating a seamless unity between the depicted subjects and the amphora, the support for such a representation. - The body of the vase is scattered with calligraphic spirals, while inscriptions indicate the names of the characters and the author’s name. - On the side B of the amphora are depicted Dionysus (on the right), dressed in a long chiton, and his son Oinopion. - The god of intoxication carries vine shoots in his left hand and in his right hand he holds a cantharos which he offers to his son. - The latter, naked, extends his left hand towards his father, still holding an oinochoe in his right hand. - In this case too, the two figures seem to live not only from their gestures, but also from their glances. ### Pittura a figure rosse - The harmonious and well-studied correspondence between decoration and decorated object becomes more precise with the introduction of the red-figure technique. - Euphronios, Among the many potters active in Attica at the turn of the 6th and 5th century BC, it is important to remember especially Euphronios, who had a very famous workshop in Athens between 520 and 480 BC. - In the large calyx crater with Sleep and Death lifting the body of Sarpedon under the direction of Hermes, molded around 515-510 BC by the potter Euxitheos, the painter Euphronios displays all his drawing and coloring skills (Fig. 4.77). - The impressive decorative apparatus is arranged in three registers that run around the entire circumference of the crater with the only interruption of the handles. - The narration, placed in the central register, occupies more than half of the surface available, between two floral-inspired geometric friezes. - The upper one features vertical palmette inscribed within heart-shaped sprigs; the lower one, twice as high, has different ornaments on the two sides, although always based on the repetition of motifs with horizontal and vertical palmettes. - The dramatic scene on the main side shows the Trojan hero Sarpedon (Fig. 4.78, 1) who, after being killed in battle, is being transported towards an honorable burial by Sleep (in Greek Hypnos) 2 and Death (in Greek Thanatos) 3. - Zeus himself, of whom Sarpedon was the son, sends Hermes 4 to the scene, to make sure that everything is done in the best possible way. - On both sides, almost as if to symbolically contain the tragedy of the central narration, stand the standing figures of two Trojan guards who, as can be seen from the inscriptions, are Leodamante (Leodamas) 5 on the left and Hippolytus 6 (Hippolytos) on the right. - The monumental bloody figure of Sarpedon, almost twice as large as the others, fills the entire width of the register, and his left leg and arm, together with the horizontal torso, create a geometric shape similar to a trapezoid. - Euphronios’ design is extraordinarily fresh and sharp, which can be appreciated especially in the realization of the draperies and the wings of Sleep and Death, whose individual feathers are decorated with tiny eyes, like those of the peacock. - There is also a varied and refined use of colors, which, while always limited to red and black, have different dilutions, like in the brownish hairs of Sarpedon and Death, or on the reddish draping of Hermes’ chiton. ### The problem of the pediment decoration - The pediment constituted the part of the temple that presented the greatest problems for the sculptors who had to decorate it. - Its triangular shape, in fact, having a limited height and with very acute angles at the base, forced them to devise compositional solutions that could adapt to the configuration of that space. - The simplest solution was initially to reduce the size of the figures as they went, without caring about their mutual relationship or the distortions that would thus be created. - Furthermore, it may not have seemed important that what was depicted told a single story, like in the Temple of Artemis at Corfu (Dode: artists were not used to designing for single episodes that were self-sufficient, and located in a well-defined space. - In addition, for the believers and viewers who, arriving at the temple and raising their eyes, looked at the pedimental sculptures, the interpretation of the various and disparate episodes should not have been a problem. - As time went on, however, the decorative organization of the pedimental tympanum became more complex, the stories told became one (like in the early Temple of Athena in Athens > p. 85 and the Treasury of the Siphnians at Delphi), the right part began to relate to the left, and the proportions of the characters became congruent with each other. - The western pediment of the Temple of Artemis at Corfu, In the western pediment of the Temple of Artemis at Corfu (7th-6th century BC), one of the first great stone temple constructions of the Archaic age (Figs. 4.79-4.86), the central portion is occupied by the depiction of Medusa in an apotropaic function (Fig. 4.81). - The mythical figure is represented in flight, in the characteristic schematization called “kneeling run” (Fig. 4.82, often recurring in many other representations of the period) (Figs. 4.83 and 4.84). - She (Fig. 4.85, 1) is flanked, with no sense of proportions, by the two sons born at the moment of her decapitation by the hero Perseus, Chrysaor on the right 2 and, almost totally lost, Pegasus 3, the winged horse, on the left. - Two gigantic crouching panthers 4 flank Medusa, who was considered the mistress of wild beasts such as Artemis, the goddess to whom the temple is dedicated. - The heraldic position of the two animals, with their head viewed frontally, perfectly adapts to the inclined sides of the temple triangle. Further out, two sculptural groups depict episodes from the Gigantomachy and the epic narration of the Trojan War a. On the right Zeus strikes a kneeling giant 5 with a lightning bolt, and on the left, King Priam of Troy, seated on the throne, is killed by Achilles 6. - The acute corners of the pediment, finally, are occupied by two reclining figures, one symbolizing the giants killed and expelled from Olympus by the gods, the other the Trojans who died during the terrible night when their city was set ablaze by the Achaeans 7. - If we were to imagine all the figures standing and placed next to each other, the reclining ones would be gigantic compared to the others and the panthers would be incredibly tall and monstrous (Fig 4.86). - the eastern pediment of the early Temple of Athena on the Acropolis of Athens, In the eastern pediment of the ancient Athenian temple of Athena (ca. 560-550 BC), another type of solution can be observed. - Semi-human and tailed beings fit perfectly with their undulating bodies to fill the triangular space harmoniously (Fig. 4.87). - On the left Heracles (who in Latin mythology will take the name of Hercules) strangles Triton, a marine monster half man and half fish, son of Poseidon and the Nereid Amphitrite; on the right a monstrous being with three human torsos and with a serpent tail assists the scene, and, while the faces of the two inner busts observe the fatal struggle, the one on the outside turns towards the possible spectator (Fig. 4.88). - Also in this case, as in many other cases, the sculptures were vividly painted in blue, red, and green. ## The pediments of the Temple of Athena Aphaia at Aegina - Only in the two pediments of the Temple of Athena Aphaia > Figs. 4.38-4.40 on the island of Aegina, across from Athens, is it possible to see a significant leap in quality both formally and in the organization of spaces (Figs. 4.89, 4.92 and 4.94). - In fact, the central area of both pediments, whose round sculpture adornments are today kept at the Glyptothek in Munich, is occupied by the appearance, or theophany (from the Greek theos, god, and phainesthai, to appear) of Athena (Fig. 4.90). - The goddess, represented frontally and in an upright position, is also larger than all the other statues, which, for the first time, depict characters telling a single story. - They are also all the same height (following the same proportions), and they fit the shape of the pediment either leaning, or kneeling (Figs. 4.91 and 4.93), or lying down. - And this also happens for the first time: they are all related to one another: those on the right side with those on the left side. - If in the western pediment the composition follows a centrifugal trend (the combatants diverge from the center, and the action unfolds in two opposite directions), in the eastern pediment the composition is centripetal (meaning that the action converges towards the center of the pediment from the two opposite directions) (Fig. 4.94). - The two distinct pedimental compositions recall the battles between Achaeans and Trojans, and, in particular, the role played by Aegina and its heroes in the course of the two expeditions against the city of Troy: the mythical one led by Heracles, and the one led by Agamemnon. - The divinity, however, is not yet actively participating in the narration: it is, in fact, present, but unseen. ## The western pediment of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia - The subject of the composition of the western pediment of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia (ca. 460 BC) (Figs. 4.95 and 4.96) is the story of the wedding of the Lapith Pirithous, to which the Centaurs also attended, who, drunk with alcohol, had attempted to kidnap the bride, Hippodamia, harassing the other women and the young people present (Fig 4.97). -For the Greeks, hospitality (xenia) is sacred: the Centaurs violate it with arrogance (hybris), that is, with such arrogance and violence as to show contempt for the divine laws that regulate the order of the world. - It is up to the gods to restore harmony, therefore Theseus and Pirithous—on the right and left of Apollo—in the act of fighting, carry out the god’s command, and, with their centrality in the story, further justifies the placement of the deity in the pedimental composition (Figs. 4.98 and 4.99). ## The problem of the metopes decoration - Each metope in the Doric frieze, due to both its small size compared to the size of the temple and its high position, required that the scenes, to be clearly distinguished from below or from far away, should include as few characters as possible, and have a height that was as large as possible. - Even in this case, it was only in the Classical period that attempts were made to ensure that the subjects of all the metopes belonged to a single story or narrated events that were homogeneous and not just isolated representations of separate events, as was the case in the Archaic temples. - Geometry, symmetry, and the frontality of the characters were the simplest means of organizing the metopal representations, especially in the presence of numerous figures. ## Metopes of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia - It is, however, in the twelve metopes on the outside of the pronaos and opisthodomos of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia (ca. 460 BC), that we can see the greatest innovations. - The sculptor did not just try to make the most of the size of the metopes, using a small number of characters, mostly in an upright position or positioned at an angle, but he also worked out single theme. - In fact, they depict the twelve labors of Heracles, the mythical founder of the Olympic games in honor of Zeus, father of the gods, a subject that was also frequent in vase painting. - According to tradition, Heracles, to atone for the punishment for killing his own sons and two nephews when he was in the madness induced in him by Hera, was condemned by an oracle of the sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi to submit to the will of Eurystheus, King of Mycenae (or of Tiryns). - He commanded him, indeed, to complete twelve extraordinary feats, or “labors”. - The metope with Athena, Heracles, and Atlas (from the eastern portico) (Fig. 4.100) recounts the feat of the conquest of the golden apples, the wedding gift of Gaia (Earth) to Hera, kept at the extreme western edge of the earth in a garden guarded by the Hesperides, the mythical daughters of Evening. - To complete the task, Heracles asks Atlas for help, the giant who holds the entire celestial vault on his shoulders, who willingly consents to the request, happy to abandon even for a short time his arduous task, and so it is the hero who holds the sky in his place. - At the center of the metope Heracles, in profile, with his arms raised to support the starry vault resting on a folded cushion, is completely absorbed in his important task, but he is helped by his protectress Athena. - The goddess, like an archaic apparition, is placed frontally, with one arm raised and bent, in the gesture of help, and with her face in profile. - This amplifies the action of Heracles, just as circles propagate in the water after throwing a stone in it. - The giant Atlas is not perfectly in profile, as one would expect, given his direct movement towards Heracles. - His posture (three-quarters) is in an intermediate condition between the position of the hero and that of the goddess. - His step is secure and swift as, with his arms bent in a gesture of offering, he shows the apples he has just stolen. - The balance of the composition also contributes to the geometry (Fig. 4.101). - It is easy to verify, for example, how the lower half of the metope is organized according to three vertical lines (those of the standing figures of the three characters, despite their different postures), while the upper part is more complex, since, in addition to the triple verticality, three horizontal lines are added. - The first is defined by the hands of Athena and Heracles with their palms facing upwards, and also by the upper edge of the folded cushion a; the second runs along the forearm of the goddess, continuing along the shoulders and chest of the semi-divine hero b; the third, finally, follows the direction of Atlas’s outstretched arms c. a. Horizontal passing through the hands of Athena and Heracles b. Horizontal passing through the shoulders of Athena and Heracles c. Horizontal passing through the arms of Atlas - The diagonal lines, on the other hand, are the key to reading the metope (from the western portico) depicting Heracles struggling with the white bull that Minos, king of Crete, had refused to sacrifice to the sea god Poseidon (Fig. 4.102). - The angry deity had made the bull furious, which had become a serious threat to the islanders. - The two protagonists of the scene, Heracles and the bull, are arranged—precisely—according to the diagonals of the metope (Fig 4.103). - They thus acquire larger dimensions than they would have had if, for example, they had been depicted in an upright position. - Among other things this kind of contrasting composition, with the bull turning its muzzle back, also highlights the effect of movement and struggle. - It is, however, only with Phidias, as we shall see later > p. 5.5, that all the pedimental problems will be finally overcome and the composition of the metopes will move towards more complex and harmonious solutions.