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Mikon's Fourth Picture in the Theseion

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

J. Six
J. Six
Affiliation:
Amsterdam
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Extract

Since the first publication by Robert of the magnificent krater from Orvieto, which is one of the proudest possessions of the Louvre, its style has been brought in connexion with Mikon, more on account of the figures half disappearing behind the rocks, than on the rather problematic assumption that Mikon's Argonauts might have inspired the artist in the more extensive picture on the side of the vase opposite to the death of the Niobids. This last scene (Fig. 1) is perfectly clear, and would not be in need of any new commentary if Robert had not committed the error of taking the arrow, near the handle, as fallen (freccia caduta per terra), holding this to be a piece of thoughtlessness, rather uncommon with Attic ceramists, and if Hauser had not gone even further, blaming the painter for so absurdly making an unerring god shoot an arrow and lose it. Both of course are wrong, and it is the more surprising that he who understands what escaped Robert— namely that Apollo shooting and Artemis taking a new arrow suggest to our mind the presence, though unseen, behind the hills of the missing sons and daughters of Niobe—fails to understand that the painting is not a poor extract from a larger composition, but that it was precisely the perhaps somewhat extravagant intention of the artist to suggest more than he shows.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 39 , November 1919 , pp. 130 - 143
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1919

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References

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2a I have to thank the publishers, F. Bruckmann A.G. at Munich, for their kind permission to reproduce this plate.

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