Boeotian Dancer's Group Kothon, Black Figure Tripod, 6th Century B.C.
Last updated
The kothon black figure tripod is from Boetia and dates back to the sixth century B.C. It is made of ceramic and portrays three different figural scenes: one with athletes, one with ritual dancers (Komasts), and one with a drinking activity, on each of its legs. Its creation is attributed to the group of vessels known as the Boeotian Dancers Group and is currently held at the Dallas Museum of Art.[1]
This particular vessel is a combination of both the kothon and tripod pottery shapes. A tripod refers to a three-legged stand used to support some sort of bowl or container, preventing it from falling over. In the case of this pot, the tripod is used to support a kothon (a type Greek pot generally used for domestic purposes). This kothon held some kind of perfume, as indicated by its small size.[2] As a vessel for perfume storage, the kothon was situated on top of a tripod because it made the substance inside more difficult to spill, protecting the valuable luxury good inside of it.[2]
Perfume and Greek athletics
In antiquity, perfume functioned both as a sign of elitism and as a means of maintaining good hygiene. While it was used by both genders, males most publicly applied perfume, often in relation to athletic activities. Post exercise, they would coat themselves in perfume to mask the smell of their sweat at public bathing houses in an effort to be more hygienic. The idea of perfume being correlated to good hygiene was propagated by Hippocrates, an ancient Greek physician known by many as the founder of medical science, who claimed that perfume could be used to prevent disease.[3]
Figural decoration
This kothon black-figure tripod is decorated with several figural designs, as was typical of pottery during the Archaic Period. The primary figural designs are found on the tripod's legs and illustrate males in the nude participating in various Greek activities.[2] These figural decorations are indicative of Greek lives of luxury, as it was the wealthy who participated in elaborate drinking parties (symposiums) and watched athletic duels like those depicted on the vase.[4]
Athletes
This black-figure amphora, painted by the potter Nikosthenes, displays a Grecian boxing scene similar to the one depicted on the Boeotian Dancers Group's Kothon, Black Figure Tripod.
Decorating the third leg of the tripod are two men facing each other with their arms raised in a fighting position, suggesting they are engaged in the athletic sport of boxing. The artist who painted this vessel uses facial hair to show a difference in age between the two athletes. The athlete on the left side has a beard and longer hair, suggesting he is older, while the athlete on the right has no facial hair whatsoever and is slightly thinner, suggesting he is younger. Behind them sits a tripod, likely the prize for the winner of their duel. This tripod can be interpreted as a reference to the type of pottery in which it is painted on, however because it is not as wide and bulky it is most likely supposed to be made of bronze and thus not exactly the same as the Boeotian Dancer Group Kothon, Black Figure Tripod.[2] The depiction of two athletes interacting in a combative sport that focuses on individual performance is representative of Greek culture during the Archaic period, which emphasized one's personal bravery and courage in taking on an opponent.[5]
Boxing in Ancient Greece
Boxing was one of the most popular and dangerous combat sports in ancient Greece. Opponents were chosen at random without consideration for differences in weight and/or age. Similar to modern-day boxing gloves, boxers would wrap their hands in himantes (leather thongs) around their hands and wrists for protection during boxing matches.[6]
Komasts
Different from the Kothon, Black Figure Tripod discussed in this article, this Komast cup from the Louvre is an example of how Komasts were depicted on ancient Greek pottery.
The second leg of the tripod features two male dancers, or Komasts (drunken, ritualistic dancers who were frequently depicted on Greek pottery), engaged in an intimate dance with each other. Komasts were commonly featured at symposiums, or formalized drinking parties,[4] as entertainment is closely related to revelry in Ancient Greek culture and celebration of athletic achievement. The black-figure artist who painted this particular pot has added a line going across each dancer's arm, perhaps indicative of a sleeve/garment common of komast dancers of the time. One of the dancers' arms is intimately extended towards his counterpart's chin in a gesture with some sexual implications. This depiction of homosexuality among komasts is not uncommon in Greek pottery.[2]
Drinking scene
On the first leg of the tripod two nude men are illustrated drinking wine. While one man hold the wine pitcher directly to his lips, greedily drinking all that is left inside, the other extends his cup, hoping that his friend will share. However, the frown he wears suggests that he believes that there will be no wine left for him to drink.[2]
This drinking scene is representative of a symposium, a formalized drinking party commonly depicted in Ancient Greek art and indicative of elitism in Ancient Grecian society. This figural representation of the aristocratic drinking party further highlights the vessel's intended use as a sign of status.
Boeotian Dancers Group
The region of Boetia, also referred to as Boiotia, where this Kiothon, Black Figure Tripod and other vessels in the Boeotian Dancers Group originate.
This Kothon, Black Figure Tripod is thought to be a part of the Boeotian Dancer's Group due to its shape, size, and figural decoration is similar to those in the group. These vessels were often tripod cauldrons featuring figural designs of Komasts.[1] Often Komasts are the only figural decoration featured on pottery by the Boeotian Dancer's Group, however when other figural decoration is present it is often depicting situations of high activity. Because there are several different painters within the Boeotian Dancer's Group, across pots the Komasts are in similar poses and styles, but not identical.[7]
1 2 3 4 5 6 Bromberg, Anne R.; Kilinski II, Karl (1996). Gods, Men, and Heroes: Ancient Art at the Dallas Museum of Art. Seattle: University of Washington Press. pp.58–59.
↑ Kilinski, Karl (1978). "The Boeotian Dancers Group". American Journal of Archaeology. 82 (2): 173–191. doi:10.2307/504492. JSTOR504492.
Related Research Articles
Maya ceramics are ceramics produced in the Pre-Columbian Maya culture of Mesoamerica. The vessels used different colors, sizes, and had varied purposes. Vessels for the elite could be painted with very detailed scenes, while utilitarian vessels were undecorated or much simpler. Elite pottery, usually in the form of straight-sided beakers called "vases", used for drinking, was placed in burials, giving a number of survivals in good condition. Individual examples include the Princeton Vase and the Fenton Vase.
In the pottery of ancient Greece, a kylix is the most common type of cup in the period, usually associated with the drinking of wine. The cup often consists of a rounded base and a thin stem under a basin. The cup is accompanied by two handles on opposite sides.
In Ancient Greece, the symposium was a part of a banquet that took place after the meal, when drinking for pleasure was accompanied by music, dancing, recitals, or conversation. Literary works that describe or take place at a symposium include two Socratic dialogues, Plato's Symposium and Xenophon's Symposium, as well as a number of Greek poems, such as the elegies of Theognis of Megara. Symposia are depicted in Greek and Etruscan art, that shows similar scenes.
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.
Black-figure pottery painting, also known as the black-figure style or black-figure ceramic, is one of the styles of painting on antique Greek vases. It was especially common between the 7th and 5th centuries BCE, although there are specimens dating as late as the 2nd century BCE. Stylistically it can be distinguished from the preceding orientalizing period and the subsequent red-figure 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.
A skyphos is a two-handled deep wine-cup on a low flanged base or none. The handles may be horizontal ear-shaped thumbholds that project from the rim, or they may be loop handles at the rim or that stand away from the lower part of the body. Skyphoi of the type called glaux (owl) have one horizontal and one vertical thumbhold handle.
A lekythos is a type of ancient Greek vessel used for storing oil, especially olive oil. It has a narrow body and one handle attached to the neck of the vessel, and is thus a narrow type of jug, with no pouring lip; the oinochoe is more like a modern jug. In the "shoulder" and "cylindrical" types which became the most common, especially the latter, the sides of the body are usually vertical by the shoulder, and there is then a sharp change of direction as the neck curves in; the base and lip are normally prominent and flared. However, there are a number of varieties, and the word seems to have been used even more widely in ancient times than by modern archeologists. They are normally in pottery, but there are also carved stone examples.
A kantharos or cantharus is a type of ancient Greek cup used for drinking. Although almost all surviving examples are in Greek pottery, the shape, like many Greek vessel types, probably originates in metalwork. In its iconic "Type A" form, it is characterized by its deep bowl, tall pedestal foot, and pair of high-swung handles which extend above the lip of the pot. The Greek words kotylos and kotyle are other ancient names for this same shape.
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.
The François Vase is a large Attic volute krater decorated in the black-figure style. It stands at 66 cm in height and was inspired by earlier bronze vases. It was used for wine. A milestone in the development of ancient Greek pottery due to the drawing style used as well as the combination of related stories depicted in the numerous friezes, it is dated to circa 570/560 BCE. The François Vase was discovered in 1844 in Chiusi where an Etruscan tomb in the necropolis of Fonte Rotella was found located in central Italy. It was named after its discoverer Alessandro François, and is now in the Museo Archeologico in Florence. It remains uncertain whether the krater was used in Greece or in Etruria, and whether the handles were broken and repaired in Greece or in Etruria. The François Vase may have been made for a symposium given by a member of an aristocratic family in Solonian Athens, then broken and, after being carefully repaired, sent to Etruria, perhaps as an instance of elite-gift exchange. It bears the inscriptions Ergotimos mepoiesen and Kleitias megraphsen, meaning 'Ergotimos made me' and 'Kleitias painted me'. It depicts 270 figures, 121 of which have accompanying inscriptions. It is highly unusual for so many to be identifiable: the scenes depicted represent a number of mythological themes. In 1900 the vase was smashed into 638 pieces by a museum guard by hurling a wooden stool against the protective glass. It was later restored by Pietro Zei in 1902, followed by a second reconstruction in 1973 incorporating previously missing pieces.
The pottery of ancient Greece has a long history and the form of Greek vase shapes has had a continuous evolution from Minoan pottery down to the Hellenistic period. As Gisela Richter puts it, the forms of these vases find their "happiest expression" in the 5th and 6th centuries BC, yet it has been possible to date vases thanks to the variation in a form’s shape over time, a fact particularly useful when dating unpainted or plain black-gloss ware.
Bucchero is a class of ceramics produced in central Italy by the region's pre-Roman Etruscan population. This Italian word is derived from the Latin poculum, a drinking-vessel, perhaps through the Spanish búcaro, or the Portuguese púcaro.
The Comast Group was a group of Attic vase painters in the black-figure style. The works of its members are dated to between 585 and 570/560 BC. The artists of the Komast Group are seen as the successors of the Gorgon Painter. Its most important representatives were the KX Painter and the slightly later KY Painter. They painted vases shapes that had been newly introduced to Athens or that had not previously been painted. Especially commonly painted by them were '’kothon’’ and lekanis. From Corinth, then still the centre of Greek vase painting, they adopted the Komast cup and the skyphos (known as kotyle. The KY Painter introduced the column krater. Also popular at the time was the kantharos. The group adopted the Corinthian habit of depicting komasts, after which the group is named. It provided the group’s most commonly painted motif. The komast scenes permit Attic artists for the first time to reach the artistic levels of middle-ranking Corinthian vases. While the older KX Painter still mostly painted animals and only the occasional komast scene, the komos became a standard motif for the KY painter and further inferior successors. It is not clear to what extent the painters of the group really cooperated. It is possible that they all worked in the same workshop. The group influenced later Attic vase painters, including the Heidelberg Painter. Works by the Komast Group were not only found in Attica, but appear to have been exported widely. Vases and fragments have been found at many sites, including Naukratis, Rhodes, Central Italy, Taras, and even Corinth.
Boeotian vase painting was a regional style of ancient Greek vase painting. Since the Geometric period, and up to the 4th century BC, the region of Boeotia produced vases with ornamental and figural painted decoration, usually of lesser quality than the vase paintings from other areas.
Ancient Greek art stands out among that of other ancient cultures for its development of naturalistic but idealized depictions of the human body, in which largely nude male figures were generally the focus of innovation. The rate of stylistic development between about 750 and 300 BC was remarkable by ancient standards, and in surviving works is best seen in sculpture. There were important innovations in painting, which have to be essentially reconstructed due to the lack of original survivals of quality, other than the distinct field of painted pottery.
Athletics were an important part of the cultural life of Ancient Greeks. Depictions of boxing and bull-leaping can be found back to the Bronze Age. Buildings were created for the sole use of athletics including stadia, palaestrae, and gymnasiums. Starting in the Archaic period, Panhellenic Games, including the Olympic Games, begin taking place each year. These games gave people from all over Greece the chance to gain fame for their athletic prowess. Athletics in Greece became one of the most commonly depicted scenes of everyday life in their art.
The kylix depicting athletic combats is a ceramic drinking cup made approximately in the late Archaic period, 490 B.C., in Attica. It is currently in the Museum of Fine Arts Boston as part of The Ancient World Collections. The artist, Onesimos, used red-figure technique for the decoration, which was invented in Athens around 530 B.C. and quickly became one of the leading modes of decoration Athenian potters used. Red-figure technique was favored because it allowed for a greater representation of garments, emotions and anatomy making it useful for artists, such as Onesimos, to use in painting athletic events.
The Boxing Siana Cup, is an Archaic vase that is part of the University Museums at the University of Mississippi. The vase is from the region of Attica and is dated to be around 560 BC – 550 BC. The design style of the vase is Attic black-figure and features a scene on the front and back of the cup and one on the interior. The artist of the vase is considered to be the Sandal Painter.
The kylix depicting pentathletes is an example of pottery and decoration from the late Archaic period. This piece is decorated both around the outside of the vessel and on the tondo inside with images of different events from the pentathlon. The drinking kylix is decorated in the red-figure style and is credited to the Proto-Panaitian group. It is currently at the Boston Museum for Fine Arts as part of their Ancient Greek collection.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
