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Early Paintings of Asia Minor

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

Cecil Smith
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Extract

In the history of Greek vase-painting the comparative rarity of early examples of undoubtedly Asiatic provenance is a problem that has always remained a vexed question. It is difficult to account for the fact that, whereas from the islands studding the coast of Asia Minor a rich harvest has been gathered, yet the examples hitherto recovered from the mainland itself may be counted on the fingers—at least, with the exception of a few found in the Troad. Since, therefore, anything should be valuable which adds to our information, or throws light upon the existence of an Asiatic school of black-figured vase-painting, I propose to introduce in as few words as possible the vase before us (Figs. 1, 2) as a possible product of Asiatic soil, and as a commentary upon the examples we already possess.

It is an amphora of an unusual form, rather more rounded in proportion than the customary shape, reminding us perhaps in this of the rounded outline of the so-called Oriental oinochoe; unfortunately, only about half of the many fragments into which it was broken were found in Mr. Biliotti's excavations in Rhodes, so that the painted panels on each side are sadly dilapidated; still, enough remains to show us the intention of the painter, and, what is more important, perhaps, the technical conditions under which he worked.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 6 , November 1885 , pp. 180 - 191
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1885

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References

page 182 note 1 I cannot at all agree with M. Rayet in the extremely early date which he assigns to Mr. Ramsay's vase; the woodcut of it given loc. cit. very fairly represents what is at best a very crude production; it is true, the head painted on it resembles a type found on Phrygian monuments, but that is no reason why it should necessarily date from the earliest of this long series of monuments. Indeed, when we compare it with the Barre vase, the style seems to represent, not so much genuine archaism, as that florid ignorance of which we have samples in some late ware in the British Museum from South Italy, and where we find a similar reminiscence of an earlier art very much debased.

page 188 note 1 Except one instance, upon a Camirus pinax.

page 188 note 2 Unless indeed the Polledrara vases and the remainder of this class can be traced to some such Egyptian site as Naukratis: the porcelain objects and ostrich eggs found with them would render this probable, besides the Egyptian character of the scene represented on the hydria: see Micali, , Mon. pl. iv.Google Scholar

page 189 note 1 Cf. for example the bronze cuirass from Patras already quoted.

page 189 note 2 The head on the Myrina vase is to to all intents the same as those upon the sarcophagi; it is perhaps worth noting that the same principle of decoration is frequent in early Greco-Oriental gold work. Cf. the Lydian jewellery in Bulletin de Corr. Hell. vol. iii. p. 129, pll. iv. v.

page 191 note 1 The ‘yellow’ and ‘red’ here mentioned, and the ‘polychrome treatment’ (see Annali dell. Inst. 1883, p. 178) are also not due to different pigments, but to accidents of baking; the only colours used on the sarcophagi being, as usual, black, purple and white.