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Notes on Amasis and Ionic Black-figured Pottery

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

Extract

Among the artists who have signed Attic black-figured vases perhaps the most singular and interesting personality is the potter and painter Amasis. He is interesting both as one of the masters of that delicate decorative work, which gives b.f. vases their artistic value, and through the curious contradictions which can be traced in his style. Only seven vases bearing his signature are known up till now, yet each shows characteristic peculiarities of shape, decoration, or style, which one would seek for in vain among the mass of contemporary Attic pottery.

No artist has surpassed Amasis in easy mastery and accuracy of drawing, or in the painstaking, delicate treatment of detail; yet his figures are often rigid and affected, his choice of subjects monotonous and limited. The technique and style of his vases, the alphabet and dialect of their inscriptions prove that he worked in Athens; yet both his numerous peculiarities of style and his name seem to denote a foreign origin.

It is but natural that so peculiar and interesting an artist should have excited curiosity to trace his origin and influence, and the wish to enrich the scanty stock of his work which we possess, by unsigned vases that may be attributed to him.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1899

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References

page 135 note 1 Two amphorae and four jugs published Wiener Vorlegebl. 1889, 3, 4. An unpublished amphora quoted by Hauser, Archaeol. Jahrb. 1896, 178Google Scholar note 1. That the amphora in the Brit. Mus. bearing the name Amasis is not by our artist, will be shown below.

page 136 note 1 For Herr Gaab's drawings (which have been so far modified as is necessary for the purpose of general publication), and for permission to publish them, I am indebted to the liberal kindness of Prof. Sittl. I also wish to express my gratitude to Dr. Boehlan, who had intended to publish this vase, and very kindly gave up his plan in my favour.

page 136 note 2 This ornament, not frequent in Attica, is constantly used on the finest Chalcidian vases and on Corinthian ‘aufore a colonnette.’

page 136 note 3 On the Berlin vase the panels are framed on each side by a maeander, and the upper frieze divided from the main picture by a plait pattern, an unusual one in Attica; the Würzburg amphora has no ornamental patterns, the pictures being framed by plain double lines.

page 136 note 4 This vase, unhappily in a very fragmentary condition, is of peculiar interest, as it combines a neck distinct from the body, with reserved panels for the pictures: (a) a youthful horseman opposite a man draped in a chlamys. (b) two sphinxes seated heraldically opposite each other. In each of the upper pictures, remains of two animals.

page 137 note 1 Examples of Sileni engaged in grape-picking are rather rare; a specially characteristic one, very similar to the Würzburg amphora in subject, though not in style, Gerhard, A. V. 15Google Scholar; cf. an amphora and a cylix by Nikosthenes, , Wien. Vorlegebl. 18901891, 3Google Scholar, 5.

page 138 note 1 Berlin 1686 resembles Amasis in style, but is probably somewhat older.

page 140 note 1 The same technique is employed by Cholchos, (Wien. Vorl. 1889, 1Google Scholar), but it is only one isolated example; Amasis gives women's flesh in white also, mostly for small figures, as on the upper friezes of the two unsigned am phorae.

page 140 note 2 On the contrary, this armour finds its exact counterpart on the amphora by Exekias, (Wien. Vorl. 1888, 6Google Scholar, 2), which gives the same myth in an almost identical manner.

page 140 note 3 Two very fine examples in the Museo Municipale of Orvieto, especially one resembling Amasis in the palmettes under the handles and the decoration of each side by only three large figures (a) Apollo between Aphrodite and Artemis, (b) Zeus with the new-born Athena on his knee, between two Eileithyiae). The other examples mostly have no special resemblance to Amasis' style; e.g. Brit. Mus. B 212, 213 (Micali, Storia 85Google Scholar) Louvre F 199, 216. Berlin 1713, 1716, 1717. Strassburg Univ. Mus.

page 141 note 1 From a drawing by Mr. F. Anderson, which Mr. G. F. Hill kindly procured for me; I am also indebted to Mr. Murray for his kind permission to publish this vase.

page 141 note 2 See Daremberg-Saglio i. 2, 821, Fig. 1026; the water was emptied out of the vase through a hole in the bottom.

page 141 note 3 Cf. M. Pottier's valuable article on the beautiful Corinthian vase published B.C.H. xix. Pl. 19–20. I know several other examples of such vases with secret contrivances, all of them belonging to the seventh and sixth centuries.

page 141 note 4 The oldest example known to me is figured on the oinochoe by Xenokles, and Kleisophos, (Wien. Vorl. 1889, 1Google Scholar). Existing psykters of this shape, e.g. Louvre F 319, 320, 488. L 131. Brit. Mus. B 299. One in Dr. Hauser's collection, now in Leipzig, one in the Museo Municipale at Corneto.

page 141 note 5 Another example of this type, Naples, Coll. Santang. 38 Heydem., also Attic, and of similar, though less characteristic, style. Simple rays, ivy wreath on spout and grooved handles.

page 141 note 6 The vase was intended to be placed with the spout-side backward, as is here indicated by the chief subject being reserved for the other panel.

page 142 note 1 The loin-cloth is of exactly the same cut as the garment showing under the cuirass of Chalcidian warriors, and the rosette too is quite Chalcidian, and unusual in Attica at this period. On a b.f. hydria of ordinary Attic style in the Museo Gregoriano (ii. 8) we find Theseus, who is killing the stippled Minotaur, clad in exactly the same loin-cloth decorated with a rosette. A similar garment without the rosette is worn by a youth on the amphora, Berlin 1686 (see above p. 138).

page 145 note 1 See Pottier p. 425. These white lines appear only on Nos. 1, 7; they represent a transitional technique, while the Samian vases use reserved lines for details (the Altenburg vase has a few incised lines), and the Clazomenian sarcophagi only white lines, no incisions.

page 145 note 2 Cf. the Clazomenian, sarcophagus Ant. Denkm. i. 45Google Scholar. Ionic amphorae: Berlin 1674, 1885 (B.C.H. xvii. 434 Fig. 7), Arch. Jahrb. i. 150 (from Rhodes). Further a Rhodian oinochoe in the Louvre (A 321, Pottier, Vases du Louvre 13Google Scholar). The oldest examples known to me are on Mycenaean vases, e.g. Myk. Vas. x. 62.

page 145 note 3 I take the crescent pattern characteristic of Samian ware to be developed out of the polypus, when a foot was added to the vase, just as the rays are derived from a lotos chalice sustaining a vase without a foot; see App. ii.

page 146 note 1 The red nipple surrounded by a circle of white dots is a characteristic Ionic peculiarity. It recurs on a Triton on a fragment of an Ionic cup in Bonn, of the class which Dümmler has wrongly called Pontie.

page 146 note 2 It is not quite the same; the pattern of the amphora recurs now and then on Ionic vases (e.g. Vienna Hof-Mus. 278); an exact counterpart of the deinos pattern on the fragment of an Ionic pithos from Caria, published Athen. Mitth. xxi. Pl. 6.

page 146 note 3 Two of the Northampton Sileni have horses' hoofs, which are found on none of our deinoi, but as both these types constantly appear side by side in archaic art, the absence of one of them proves nothing.

page 146 note 4 For this type of tripod see Savignoni's careful and accurate study, Mon. ant. vii. 277; he quotes the Northampton amphora as the only example of such tripods on painted vases. Besides the Ruspoli deinos, I know another example on Munich 984, an Etruscan hydria copied from an Ionic model, of the class treated by Dümmler, Roem. Mitth. iii. 173Google Scholar.

page 147 note 1 Dr. Hartwig kindly informs me that not a single fragment of such ware has been found in the ‘Perserschutt’ on the Acropolis.

page 150 note 1 Of the practice of painting the vase with so little regard to the handles, that their ends partially cover some of the figures, an interesting example is offered by a fine bucchero hydria of fully developed style, in the Museo Municipale at Orvieto: on this vase, which belongs to a class copied directly from Ionic bronze models, the reliefs have been stamped on before the addition of the handles, one of which accordingly covers all but the legs of a male figure. A tongue or egg-pattern round the base of handles is frequent in later r.f. art.

page 151 note 1 Such female animals, mostly with very large udders, are a favourite subject of certain Ionic and Etruscan series.

page 154 note 1 On a small b.f. amphora in the Museo Gregoriano (ii. 44) of rather a peculiar shape, we find a similar paederastic scene with cocks offered as gifts; some of the men wear π༵ριάμματα like those on the affected vases.

page 155 note 1 See Loeschcke, A.Z. 1876, 114Google Scholar. Savignoni, , Mon. ant. vii. 334Google Scholar, who has published the ‘Zeus’ of No. 17, and recognised the oriental origin of the type.

page 156 note 1 Under the handles of 19 (Urlichs l.c. Pl. 2) and 20: Herakles, clad only in a short chiton, seizes the lion by both front paws and pulls him towards himself. This is not the oldest type, where he attacks the animal with his sword (Roscher, , Lexikon d. Myth. 2196Google Scholar).

page 156 note 2 On all the principal Ionic classes, the Caeretan, Samian, pseudo-Pontic, etc., inscriptions are entirely missing.

page 158 note 1 The three letters above this, written vertically, have no sense, nor any connexion with the lower inscription.

page 158 note 2 Delbrück, R., Linienperspective in d. Gr. Kunst, Bonn 1899 p. 10Google Scholar, 12, quotes nr. 42 (Gerhard, A.V. 118Google Scholar) as an Ionic vase.

page 159 note 1 Attic vases have always been largely exported to all other parts of Greece and it is but natural that their influence should have made itself felt: while the Attic potters do not seem to have modified their style to please their foreign customers. Among the vases found in the recent excavations in Cyprus conducted by the British Museum, I have noted an amphora and an oinochoe, both of the typical Cypriote shape, but made at Athens, evidently for clients in Cyprus. Yet their style is purely Attic, without any attempt at accommodation to foreign tastes.

page 160 note 1 The capital letters in brackets are those of Gsell's list of affected vases (Fouilles de Vulci, 502).

page 163 note 1 Cf. Karo, , Bull. d. Paletn. Ital. 1898, 148Google Scholar: on the Greek geometric series and the Cypriote vases, rays do not yet appear. The Milesian potters use a lotos chain instead.

page 163 note 2 Double rays: two lekythoi (A.Z. 1883, Pl. 10, 1, 2) and two skyphoi (Brit. Mus. A 1530, Vienna 98 Masn.). Alternately recurved: four lekythoi (Berlin, , Arch. Anz. 1888, 247, 1895, 33Google Scholar. Corneto, , Mus. munic., Arch. Anz. 1888, 247Google Scholar. Syracuse, , Not. d. Sc. 1895, 190Google Scholar).

page 163 note 3 Early Corinthian: skyphoi: Louvre L 166. Berlin 970. Vienna, Hofmus. 182 (Arch. Anz. 1892, 171); pyxides: Louvre L 159. Berlin 990; oinochoe: Louvre L 158; kylix: Coll. Somzée 104, Furtw.; amphoriskoi: Brit. Mus. B 41, Ath. Mitth. xix. Pl. 8; statuette vase published by Pottier, , B.C.H. xix. 227Google Scholar, Pl. 19–20. Later Corinthian: hydria: Louvre E 641; amphorae: Louvre E 755 bis, 757. Rouen, Mus. archéol. Brit. Mus. B 19. Vienna 137 Masn. Naples 336.