Apulian vase painting

Last updated
Pelike by a painter of the Tarrytown Group; Eros, a woman with a harp and a youth with a fawn; circa 320/310 BC. Pelike fawn BM F315.jpg
Pelike by a painter of the Tarrytown Group; Eros, a woman with a harp and a youth with a fawn; circa 320/310 BC.

Apulian vase painting was a regional style of South Italian vase painting from ancient Apulia in southeast Italy. It comprises geometric pottery and red-figure pottery.

Contents

The legitimate Iron Age sequel to the Neolithic and Bronze Age culture of Matera and Molfetta has not yet been discovered and the pre-history of Daunia, Peucetia and Messapia begins to take shape as a coherent whole only with the 7th century BCE. Even then our knowledge is almost confined to the pottery, but it offers a rich field for study. [1]

Geometric pottery

Reference Map of Ancient Italy, Southern Part, with Apulia clearly visible at top Shepherd-c-030-031.jpg
Reference Map of Ancient Italy, Southern Part, with Apulia clearly visible at top

The subject of the painted pottery has been put on a scientific basis by the intensive studies of Maximilian Mayer  [ de ], who has identified and distinguished the products of the several provincial schools, and has established a scheme of dating which, with some slight rectifications and adjustments, due principally to Italian archaeologist Michele Gervasio, may be considered as final. [1] The division of schools corresponds very closely to the old pre-Roman distribution of the region into three sections. Of these the most northern is Daunia, extending from the promontory of Gargano to the most southern point in the course of the river Aufidus; next to which is Peucetia, which for purposes of this classification may be said to begin at Bari and end at Egnatia. South of a line drawn from Egnatia to Taranto, the whole heel of Italy, with Lecce at its centre, is Messapia.

The heel of Italy with its ancient colonies Salento antico.jpg
The heel of Italy with its ancient colonies

Each of these regions has its own peculiar and well marked style in pottery. The chronology of all three is not precisely concurrent; actually the Daunian school is dated from about 600 to 450BC and the Peucetian from 650 to 500BC, while the Messapian only begins at 500BC and lasts for two centuries. Wholly distinct is a much later Daunian school confined to Canosa, which belongs to the fourth and third centuries and may be called late-Canosan. [2]

This chronology excludes any connection with the Mycenaean. Actually no single example of Mycenaean ware has ever been discovered between the Alps and the Gulf of Taranto. But at two places in Apulia, Mattinata on the promontory of Gargano and the Borgo Nuovo at Taranto, geometric pottery of the very early Iron Age has been found. These two isolated discoveries, however, have yet to be explained; they stand apart from all other Apulian products and their proper connections have not been ascertained. The pottery of Mattinata and of Borgo Nuovo is apparently a foreign importation and its date is several centuries earlier than that of the regular Apulian schools now to be described. [1]

Apulian pottery schools

Daunian

Example 1 - Daunian jug Jug Daunia 550-400BC MAN Madrid.jpg
Example 1 – Daunian jug
Example 2 - Daunian terracotta askos (flask with a spout and handle over the top) Daunianpottery.jpg
Example 2 – Daunian terracotta askos (flask with a spout and handle over the top)
Example 3 - Daunian luxury vase (unpainted) Altes Museum - Canosinisches Prunkgefass.jpg
Example 3 – Daunian luxury vase (unpainted)

Canosa and Ruvo have yielded the greatest quantity of early Daunian pottery, and were perhaps the principal, though not the only centers for its production. It is found over the whole of Daunia from Bitonto in the south to Lucera and Teanum in the north, occasionally in Picenum, and even in Istria. In Campania also the site of Suessula has yielded several vases, produced apparently under Daunian influence. [1]

There are four principal forms. The first is a round-bottomed footless krater with side handles and a plate-like rim (cf. example 1); the second is a similar krater on a pedestal. This latter is the shape known in Picenum, where its occurrence at Novilara puts its date at least as early as 600BC. From the round-bottomed krater is evolved the most peculiar and characteristic product of Canosa, that is, the double-storied jar. The plate-like rim has been developed into a deep bowl, which becomes more and more exaggerated during the 5th century until eventually it takes up nearly half the height of the entire jar. Strange fanciful additions are then made in the way of plastic ornament. To the ordinary ring handles are added a third and even a fourth, of increasingly fantastic kind. They may take the shape of an animal's face, most like a cat or an owl, or be formed like a thumbless human hand, which had probably some talismanic value. The fourth principal shape of pot is that which is known in Greece as an askos (cf. example 2), derived originally from an ordinary goatskin, and know at an early date over much of Sicily and Italy, but perhaps introduced by the Greeks. [1] [3]

Rarer, but extremely characteristic of the Daunians, are elaborate grotesque ritual vases. One example is a ritual vase with a female figure opposite to the spout, in ceremonial dress with a fillet on her brow, long plaits of hair hanging down on her shoulders, and circular discs covering her ears. Instead of human figures, other examples have strange creatures with birds'-heads upon necks like serpents and other unusual experiments in zoomorphism (cf. also example 3, of an unpainted Daunian vessel). Apart from an occasional drawing of this kind, always quite schematic, the decoration of all Daunian vases is purely geometric. Squares, lozenges and triangles are the usual motives, arranged in panels of varying length and separated by vertical lines. Most of the decoration is placed on the upper half of the vase. In the school of Ruvo the fashion was to place a hanging trapezoidal figure on the lower half, but Canosa preferred horizontal bands or concentric circles on this otherwise empty field. Almost all the Daunian pottery was made by hand, but in a few of the finest kraters from Ruvo the wheel seems to have been used. The decorative designs were painted in two alternating colours, red and dark violet, generally but not always laid on a background of whitish slip. [1]

Peucetian

Entirely different from the Daunian pottery, both in spirit and in choice of shape and subject, is the Peucetian pottery. Fantastic ritual vases are unknown in Peucetia; kraters, bowls and jugs are the only forms permitted, and these are decorated in a style which is both simple and harmonious. There are two main classes of peucetian ware, the one painted in red and black (...), contemporary with imported Corinthian vases and considerably influenced by them, the other in plain black and white with a more restricted range of motives (cf. Gallery). There are four principal motives in the black and white, two of which, the swastika and the comb, overshadow the others. Swastikas began to appear at just the same period on pottery in the north of Italy, and are probably an imported conception from the Danube to the Balkans. The other chief motives are the festoon, and the zigzag. Cross-hatched lozenges are common to all these geometric schools but the Maltese cross, though only occasional, is peculiar to the Peucetians. This black and white ware goes back to 650BC and has a range of about 150 years from that point downwards. [1] [4]

The sources of inspiration for the black and white class have been unsuccessfully sought in various places; and it seems fair to regard this ware as in the main an indigenous product. Daunians and Peucetians, dissimilar enough in all other respects, had each inherited a certain repertoire of geometric tradition which was widely current over the Mediterranean, but each converted it into a new style which expressed the particular temperament of an inventive and artistic race. [5] With the red and black ware, the permeating Corinthian influence is readily identified, and vases of this kind have been found actually associated in the same graves with Corinthian. Here also credit must be given to the Peucetians potters for their ability in adopting new motives and transmuting them without slavish copying.

Messapian

Example 4 - Messapian ware Reperti messapici.jpg
Example 4 – Messapian ware
Example 5 - Trozzella, 4th century BC Nestoris trozzella MBA Lyon X681.jpg
Example 5 – Trozzella, 4th century BC

The Messapian school shows far less originality than the other two. When it appears for the first time in the 5th century, the Messapian is already a mixed style, to a great extent Hellenised. Some traces of an earlier geometric tradition still survive, though overlaid and almost stifled by the foreign innovations. In the early 5th century clepsydra, lozenge and band, the old elements of the Italian geometric, are still in existence. But the uncontaminated geometric is very rare in Messapia; the native potter can hardly resist adding his zone of Greek ivy-leaves, a maeander, a rosette, or even a bird. The chief centres of manufacture for such ware (cf. example 4) were at Rugge (Rudiae), near Lecce, and Egnatia, each originally a Rhodian colony. The strongest Greek influence came therefore from Rhodian sources, though others may have had some share. The hallmark by which all Messapian pottery, except a little of the very earliest, can be detected, is the round disc about the size of a large coin at the stop and bottom of each handle. This peculiarity has caused the nickname of "trozzella" to be given to such forms (cf. example 5 and Gallery). [6] Besides these the only shapes generally employed are the krater with column or handles, the jug, and a simple kind of bowl.

Canosan

Carefully to be distinguished from these three schools is the late-Canosan, which has nothing in common with the earlier Daunian school that also flourished at Canosa, except the shape of the vase (see Gallery). This survived simply because it was used for certain rituals which had not changed, but all the details of its decoration are different. The date of all the late-Canosan pottery is 3rd and 4th century. The evidence of the tombs shows that Canosa became the centre of a brilliant Apulian renaissance in the 4th century, and during the third it was an important factor in the art history of the Hellenistic world, becoming especially famous for large rococo works in polychrome terracotta, huge vases with centaurs and Cupids springing from the sides, surmounted very often by a Niobe, a Hermes, or some other statuette. At Naples there is a large collection of these, and of magnificent vases painted with scenes from Greek mythology and history. Documentary evidence proves that this collection, including the famous Darius vase and all the splendid examples from Canosa now at Munich, came from the same tombs as the humbler askoi twin-situlae and "sphagia" (see Gallery). If the decoration of these is examined, it will be seen that the whole spirit of the late Canosan is entirely changed from that of the earlier Daunian school. In place of the lozenge, band and triangle, the primitive motives of the geometric repertoire, there are meanders, frets, vine leaves and egg patterns, all designs appearing on the contemporary Greek pottery. The domination of Greek fashion is complete. But the irrepressible individuality of the Daunian breaks out in the large statuettes. [1]

Red-figure pottery

The Darius Vase (circa 340-320 BC), Naples Archaeological Museum Darius vase Napoli Museum without background.jpg
The Darius Vase (circa 340-320 BC), Naples Archaeological Museum

Apulian vase painting was the leading South Italian vase painting tradition between 430 and 300 BC. Of the circa 20,000 surviving specimens of Italian red-figure vases, about half are from Apulian production, while the rest are from the four other centres of production, Paestum, Campania, Lucania and Sicily.

The main production centre for Apulian vases was at Taras, the only large Greek polis in Apulia. Two styles, the "Plain Style" and the "Ornate Style" (sometimes "Rich Style") are distinguished. The first largely eschews additional colouring and was mostly used for the decoration of bell kraters , colonet kraters and smaller vessels. Their decoration is quite simple, the pictorial compositions usually include one to four figures (e.g., works by Sisyphus Painter, Tarporley Painter). The motifs focus on mythical subjects, but also include women's heads, warriors in scenes of battle or departure, and dionysiac thiasos imagery. The backs usually have images of cloaked youths. After the middle of the fourth century, the simple style became increasingly similar to the ornate one (see, e.g., the Varrese Painter).

Rhyton in the shape of an African's head, circa 320 BC. Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale, Cabinet des Medailles. Rhyton African Cdm Paris 1238.jpg
Rhyton in the shape of an African's head, circa 320 BC. Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Cabinet des Médailles.

The artists of the Ornate Style preferred bigger vessels with space for larger images, such as volute kraters, amphorae, loutrophoroi and hydriai . Compositions contained up to 20 figures, often arranged in two or more registers. The figures frequently appear to be floating. Colouring was used copiously, especially red, gold/yellow and white. While ornamentation had originally been relatively simple, from the mid-fourth century BC onwards, painters increasingly placed rich vegetal ornaments, especially on the necks and sides of vases. At the same time, simple perspective depictions of architecture, especially of "Underworld Palaces" ( naiskoi ) became common. From about 360 BC, a common motif was grave scenes showing individuals performing offerings at a stylised grave or pillar. Important representatives painters include the Ilioupersis Painter, the Darius Painter and the Baltimore Painter.

This is the piece for which the famed Baltimore Painter was named. The vessel functioned as a funerary marker and Hermes is shown waiting to guide the deceased to the underworld. Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. Baltimore Painter - Volute Krater - Walters 4886 - Side A.jpg
This is the piece for which the famed Baltimore Painter was named. The vessel functioned as a funerary marker and Hermes is shown waiting to guide the deceased to the underworld. Walters Art Museum, Baltimore.

Popular mythological motifs include the Assembly of the Gods, the amazonomachy, Bellerophon, Heracles, and events of the Trojan War. There are also many individual depictions of myths that are not commonly depicted elsewhere. Many scenes have dionysiac or aphrodisiac themes, probably directly connected to funerary traditions and grave cults (many of the vases were made as grave offerings). Ideas of an afterlife are frequently implied or expressed by such paintings. The motif of women's heads growing out of flowers or between tendrils belongs to the same context. Sometimes, the women's heads are replaced by that of Pan, Hermes or foreigners. In the second half of the fourth century, depictions of weddings, women and erotic motifs become more common. Apulian vases also occasionally depict theatrical scenes, which are also known from the other South Italian traditions, but absent in Attica. These include motifs from dramatic theatre as well as farce (phlyax play). In contrast, scenes of everyday life and athletic motifs disappear from the repertoire nearly totally after 370 BC.

The Apulian vase painters had considerable influence on the painters of the other South Italian traditions. Some of them appear to have moved to cities other than Taras, such as Canosa. Apart from red-figure pottery, black-glazed vases with painted decoration (Gnathian vases) and polychrome vases (Canosan vases) were also produced. The South Italian clays are less rich in iron than the Attic ones. As a result, the clay would not reach the rich red known from Attic red-figure vases. This was compensated by the addition of slips of light ochre clay before firing, which also produced smoother surfaces.

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 For the main sections of this article, these primary sources have been consulted and referenced throughout the text: Walters, Henry Beauchamp (1911). "Ceramics"  . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica . Vol. 5 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 703–760. with its basic bibliography and notes, especially useful in the illustration of specific pottery; Stephen B. Luce, "Early Vases from Apulia", The Museum Journal, Volume X, December, 1919, Philadelphia: The University Museum, 1919, pp. 217-225; the essential texts by Michele Gervasio(it), Bronzi arcaici e ceramica geometrica nel Museo di Bari, Bari, 1921, for which see also E. Douglas Van Buren's synoptical review on JStor: Classical Philology, Vol. 17, No. 2, Apr., 1922, pp. 176-179; also Michele Gervasio, I dolmen e la civiltà del bronzo nelle Puglie, Bari, 1913; Filli Rossi, Ceramica geometrica apula, Bretschneider Giorgio, 1981, as well as his Ceramica geometrica daunia, Dedalo, 1993. Fundamental work is the German Maximilian Mayer, Apulien vor und während der Hellenisierung, B.G. Teubner, 1914 as well as his specifically researched Molfetta und Matera, Karl W. Hiersemann, 1924. Generally, compare the requisite David Randall-MacIver, The Iron Age in Italy, Clarendon Press, 1927.
  2. Cf. David Randall-MacIver, The Iron Age in Italy, cit.; see also Stephen Luce, "Early Vases from Apulia", The Museum Journal, loc. cit., pp. 191-220.
  3. See also D. Randall-MacIver, The Iron Age in Italy, cit., s.v. "Askos".
  4. See esp. M. Gervasio, Bronzi arcaici e ceramica geometrica nel Museo di Bari, cit., 1921.
  5. M. Gervasio, Bronzi arcaici e ceramica geometrica nel Museo di Bari, loc. cit.
  6. The word "trozzella" is an Italianised form of the Salento dialect word tròzzula (Latin : trochlea, lit. 'pulley'), which means rowel/wheel.

See also

Literature

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Apulia</span> Region of Italy

Apulia, also known by its Italian name Puglia, is a region of Italy, located in the southern peninsular section of the country, bordering the Adriatic Sea to the east, the Strait of Otranto and Ionian Sea to the southeast and the Gulf of Taranto to the south. The region comprises 19,345 square kilometers (7,469 sq mi), and its population is about four million people. It is bordered by the other Italian regions of Molise to the north, Campania to the west, and Basilicata to the southwest. Its chief town is Bari.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pottery of ancient Greece</span>

Pottery, due to its relative durability, comprises a large part of the archaeological record of ancient Greece, and since there is so much of it, it has exerted a disproportionately large influence on our understanding of Greek society. The shards of pots discarded or buried in the 1st millennium BC are still the best guide available to understand the customary life and mind of the ancient Greeks. There were several vessels produced locally for everyday and kitchen use, yet finer pottery from regions such as Attica was imported by other civilizations throughout the Mediterranean, such as the Etruscans in Italy. There were a multitude of specific regional varieties, such as the South Italian ancient Greek pottery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Red-figure pottery</span> Ancient Greek painted pottery style

Red-figure pottery is a style of ancient Greek pottery in which the background of the pottery is painted black while the figures and details are left in the natural red or orange color of the clay.

The Iapygians or Apulians were an Indo-European-speaking people, dwelling in an eponymous region of the southeastern Italian Peninsula named Iapygia between the beginning of the first millennium BC and the first century BC. They were divided into three tribal groups: the Daunians, Peucetians and Messapians.

Geometric art is a phase of Greek art, characterized largely by geometric motifs in vase painting, that flourished towards the end of the Greek Dark Ages, c. 900–700 BC. Its center was in Athens, and from there the style spread among the trading cities of the Aegean. The Greek Dark Ages lasted from c. 1100 to 750 BC and include two periods, the Protogeometric period and the Geometric period, in reference to the characteristic pottery style. The vases had various uses or purposes within Greek society, including, but not limited to, funerary vases and symposium vases.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peucetians</span> Ancient tribe in Apulia, Italy

The Peucetians were an Iapygian tribe which inhabited western and central Apulia in classical antiquity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South Italian ancient Greek pottery</span>

South Italian is a designation for ancient Greek pottery fabricated in Magna Graecia largely during the 4th century BC. The fact that Greek Southern Italy produced its own red-figure pottery as early as the end of the 5th century BC was first established by Adolf Furtwaengler in 1893. Prior to that this pottery had been first designated as "Etruscan" and then as "Attic." Archaeological proof that this pottery was actually being produced in South Italy first came in 1973 when a workshop and kilns with misfirings and broken wares was first excavated at Metaponto, proving that the Amykos Painter was located there rather than in Athens.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sisyphus Painter</span>

The Sisyphus Painter was an Apulian red-figure vase painter. His works are dated to the last two decades of the fifth century and the very early fourth century BC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ilioupersis Painter</span>

The Ilioupersis Painter was an Apulian vase painter. His works are dated to the second quarter of the 4th century BC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Darius Painter</span> Apulian vase painter

The Darius Painter was an Apulian vase painter and the most eminent representative at the end of the "Ornate Style" in South Italian red-figure vase painting in Magna Graecia. His works were produced between 340 and 320 BC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Varrese Painter</span> Ancient Greek vase painter

The Varrese Painter was an Apulian red-figure vase painter. His works are dated to the middle of the 4th century BC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daunians</span> Iapygian tribe which inhabited northern Apulia in classical antiquity

The Daunians were an Iapygian tribe that inhabited northern Apulia in classical antiquity. Two other Iapygian tribes, the Peucetians and the Messapians, inhabited central and southern Apulia respectively. All three tribes spoke the Messapic language, but had developed separate archaeological cultures by the seventh century BC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peucetian pottery</span> Ancient pottery style indigenous to southern Italy

Peucetian pottery was a type of pottery made in the Apulian region of southern Italy by the Peucetians from the beginning of the 7th to the 6th centuries BC. It is an indigenous type. Its production area occupied the space between Bari and Gnathia. The pottery was painted only in brown and black and was characterized by geometrical ornaments, swastikas, diamonds, and horizontal and vertical lines. These samples were mainly in the Late Geometric phase of ceramics with a close ornamental pattern. The second phase of the pottery since the 6th century BC is influenced strongly by the Corinthian vase painting. This is reflected both in the ornaments, decorations in the form of radiation, as well as a change to figurative representation. The third and final phase brings a shift in production methods. The pottery was hand-formed before the arrival of the Greeks in the southernmost tip of Italy, when the potter's wheel was introduced. The painting became purely ornamental. Shown on them are decorative plants like ivy and laurel vines and palmettes. Rare images included figurative and mythological figures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daunian pottery</span>

Daunian pottery was produced in the Daunia, today's Italian provinces of Barletta and Foggia. It was created by the Daunians, a tribe of the Iapygian civilization who had come from Illyria.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Messapian pottery</span> Type of pottery from 7th century BC

Messapian pottery is a type of Messapian ceramic, produced between the 7th century BC until the 3rd century BC on the Italian region of southern Apulia. Messapian pottery was made by the Messapii, an ancient people inhabiting the heel of Italy since around 1000 BC, who migrated from Crete and Illyria. Messapian pottery consisted first primarily, with geometric patterns like circles, squares, diamonds, horizontal dash patterns, swastika and other similar motifs. Late through Greek influence the meander was added. From about the beginning of the 5th century BC again under Greek influence, with imports of Attic pottery, figurative decoration was added. In addition, leaf motifs, new elements such as ivy and other repertoire were included. Up to then only fragments of the pottery was decorated in contrast to the whole surface being decorated after the 5th century BC. In the fourth century BC, the artists came back again to geometric ornamentation, but by then the ceramics were almost completely under Greek influence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gnathia vases</span>

Gnathia vases are a type of pottery belonging to ancient Apulian vase painting of the 4th century BC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Campanian vase painting</span>

Campanian vase painting is one of the five regional styles of South Italian red-figure vase painting fabricated in Magna Graecia. It forms a close stylistic community with Apulian vase painting.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lucanian vase painting</span>

Lucanian vase painting was substyle of South Italian red-figure vase painting fabricated in Magna Graecia, produced in Lucania between 450 and 325 BC. It was the oldest South Italian regional style. Together with Sicilian and Paestan vase painting, it formed a close stylistic community.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paestan vase painting</span>

Paestan vase painting was a style of vase painting associated with Paestum, a Campanian city in Italy founded by Greek colonists of Magna Graecia. Paestan vase painting is one of five regional styles of South Italian red-figure vase painting.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Painter of the Berlin Dancing Girl</span>

The Painter of the Berlin Dancing Girl was an Apulian red-figure vase painter, who was active between 430–410 BC. He was named after a calyx krater in the collection of the Antikensammlung Berlin, which depicts a girl dancing to the aulos played by a seated woman.