“This little Minoan jug is so small and unassuming that I feel it often gets passed by, unnoticed. If you stop and look, though, it’s the most beautiful meditation on swirling waves and busy under-the-sea life. I always stop to say hello when I’m going through the Egyptian galleries, and I’m looking forward to saying hello again when we get to go back.“
Posted by Christina Marinelli, Senior Museum Instructor/Adult Learning Coordinator Greek.Decorated Jug, ca. 1575-1500 B.C.E. Clay, pigment. Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 37.13E. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)
[image description: a photo of a minoan jug made from pale clay, decorated with spiraling patterns, including curved tentacles emerging from conch shells.]
In the 6th century BC, a particular type of vessel for scented oil was produced in Corinth, Rhodes, and along the western coast of Asia Minor. Primarily animal forms, they are made of unglazed fired clay with painted decoration. This example in the form of a heron was crafted by a Milesian potter. The bird rests with its delicately curving and counter-curving neck nearly touching the ground; the feathers are defined by incision and painted black slip. Size: Overall: 13 x 5.8 cm (5 1/8 x 2 5/16 in.) Medium: earthenware with slip decoration
A Maenad (female devotee of Dionysus), brandishing her thyrsos(staff tipped with a pine cone) and a snake. Attic red-figure lekythos (oil flask), attributed to the painter Hermonax; ca. 460 BCE. Now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Attic black-figure terracotta funerary plaque. Above, a scene of prothesis (laying out of the dead); below, a chariot race. Artist unknown; ca. 520-510 BCE. Now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
[image description: a photo of the funerary plaque described above. there are two zones of painted decoration. the topmost, which is much longer, shows various people with their arms raised in mourning, standing around a corpse that’s been laid out. the smaller zone below shows three charioteers racing.]
Lakonian Black-figure kylix, attributed to the Boreads Painter, ca. 570–565 BCE, currently in Malibu, Getty 85.AE.121.
Bellerophon slaying the Chimaera with Pegasus.
I’ve noticed how rarely Lakonian vase painting is mentioned when discussing Greek pottery, though I find it to be some of the most visually striking and distinctive pottery from Greece! Unlike the Athenians who limit their interior kylix decorations to a smaller tondo within the cup, the Lakonians use up almost all of the interior space of a kylix. This results in these huge images that would come within inches from someones face while they drank from their cups. This is an aspect of Greek pottery that I find to be commonly overlooked–that these objects were meant to be used and and interacted with, not just admired from a distance.
Red-figure psykter, signed by Douris, ca. 500–470 BCE. London, British Museum 1868,0606.7.
This is my personal favorite piece of Greek art! Its full of peculiarities, like the satyr wearing a patterned chlamys and Thracian boots while carrying a kerykeion. He is meant to parody the god Hermes, which is something Douris tends to do.
The vessel itself is also quite extraordinary! It seems likely that it would have been filled with ice and then placed into a krater in order to chill wine. This shape, however, was only produced for a few decades, during the transition from the sixth into the fifth century.
Red-figure calyx-krater, attributed to Euphronios, ca. 500 BCE. Berlin, Antikensammlung F2180.
This is an athletic scene, and the figure to the far left is infibulating himself. This was a practice where men would tie their foreskin shut with a string known as a kynodesme (κυνοδέσμη) before they exercised out of politeness. While this practice is mostly associated with athletes, older symposiasts are also shown on pottery as infibulated.
Exekias. Achilles and Ajax playing a dice game. 540-530 BCE. Vase painting. 40cm high. Vatican Museum, Vatican City.
First of all, I love that they played dice games back in ancient times. Secondly, this piece utilizes simple techniques of elements of design to convey so much. The spears are lines, the eyes are directed to implied lines, the helmets as well. I love that the artist creates such a beautiful work of art with somewhat simple techniques and the black-figure seems so intricate with the designs on their capes. This piece inspires me every time I see it. You can even see the stylized armor kinks near their knees. I want to be able to have such a style to my own work.
The goddess Artemis, wielding her bow and quiver of arrows. Attic red-figure lekythos, attributed to the Carlsruhe Painter; 450s BCE. Now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
