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Stamped Pithos Fragments in the Collection of the British School
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 October 2013
Extract
In Volume XII of the Annual of the British School were published two fragments of stamped pithoi (Nos. I. and II.) from Kameiros, part of a series of such fragments in the collection of the School. The remaining examples, mainly from Melos, are described below, the drawings having been made at the same time as those published in 1906.
No. III. (Pl. XI. A) ·105 × ·12 × ·02 — ·03 m. From Melos.
Coarse reddish clay.
Decoration : border of arches; border of double plait with three strands in each twist and bosses between; frieze projecting ·004 m. with lion and Centaur. The lion's mouth is open, shewing the tongue, his left forepaw is raised. The motive of the paw is a common one: cf. the lion on the Ionic B.F. bowl, Pfuhl, Malerei und Zeichnung der Griechen, iii. Pl. XXVIII. No. 128, and the kylix, Louvre, A. 478. The Centaur, likewise, is a common type. He is the vanquished Centaur begging for mercy, made popular through illustrations like those of Herakles and Nessos, and used here because he was a familiar figure which fitted the space. An excellent parallel is on a steatite lentoid intaglio from Melos. The Centaur has equine, not human fore-legs, as on other pithos fragments from Melos: contrast the type with human fore-legs from Kameiros and Asia Minor, where it seems never to have been superseded.
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References
page 72 note 1 The white background on some of the fragments is not original but was put on at the time these drawings were made, to shew up the design.
page 72 note 2 Vases du Louvre, i. Pl. XVII.
page 72 note 3 See Baur, Centaurs in Ancient Art, p. 13 ff.
page 72 note 4 Baur, op. cit., p. 7, and Furtwängler, , Antike Gemmen, i. Pl. V. 28.Google Scholar
page 72 note 5 Salzmann, , Nécropole de Camirus, Pl. XXVII. 4 and 5, and Pl. XXVI.Google Scholar; Ath. Mitt. xxi. p. 230, Fig. 1 (from Datscha), p. 234, and Pl. VI. For the relation of the two types see Baur, op. cit.
page 72 note 6 J.H.S. viii. p. 71, Fig. 10.
page 73 note 1 Inv. G. 4, θ. 7.
page 74 note 1 Baur, op. cit., p. 9, No. 15. He had not seen the fragment and imagined that there were others similar.
page 74 note 2 For references, see p. 75, Nos. i–v.
page 74 note 3 I have not seen the fragment, as it could not be traced at Athens.
page 74 note 4 Op. cit., pp. 7, 8.
page 74 note 5 Furtwängler, Antike Gemmen, Pl. V. 28, 29, 33.
page 74 note 6 Courby, Vases Grecs à Reliefs, p. 81, Fig. 17.
page 74 note 7 B.S.A. x. p. 148, Pl. III.
page 76 note 1 Forman Collection, Sale Catalogue, No. 319. Baur, op. cit., p. 25, Fig. 6.
page 76 note 2 The lions and Sphinxes on the reliefs from the Heraeum (Waldstein, , Argive Heraeum, i. Pl. LXIII. 5Google Scholar) are unlike ours.
page 76 note 3 B.S.A. xiii. p. 78, Fig. 17, b.
page 76 note 4 No. 46 from the Heroön.
page 77 note 1 See Courby, Vases Grecs à Reliefs, p. 82.
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