Unit 2: Annotation: Attic amphora with Black-figure decoration

I have chosen an Attic amphora with Black-figure decoration depicting Theseus killing the Minotaur for my annotation. I choose this vase painting because it depicts an interesting Greek mythological story. The scene is dramatic with the depiction of the killing in progress. It shows victory and triumph for the Greeks against a monster. I like the annotation exercise. It was exciting to discover new knowledge about Greek vase painting as I read more in depth on various aspects such as the black- and red-figure techniques, the painters, the motifs of the paintings, the shape and uses of various vessels. I plan to make some sketches of the vase regarding its shape, composition and the camera view on my annotation.

Attic amphora with Black-figure decoration (540 BC) [pottery] Ht: 42.3cm, Musee du Louvre

Theseus is holding the Minotaur by the neck with his right hand and slitting its throat with his sword using the left hand. The Minotaur has collapsed and red blood spurting out from the wound. A bird flies between Theseus’ legs. They are flanked by two female and two male figures, one of each on each side. These are the young Athenians that accompanied Theseus on his mission.

The colours used are black for the figures, ochre for background, white for the faces, arms and feet of the female figures and red for the clothes and blood. The colours used are solid. There is no shading or tonal change. The figures are painted on their side profiles. There is no depiction of perspective to show depth of the space. Theseus and the Minotaur form a triangle which makes the composition symmetrical. The bird between Theseus’ legs balances against the lower half of the body of the Minotaur on the other side. The composition of the figures achieves a sense of symmetry, balance and unity.

 

This is a cropped view of the amphora showing only the middle part of side A which contained the painting of Theseus and the Minotaur. The picture is taken at angle above the horizon so that the details of the painting at the convex area are not too foreshortened to lose their details in the photograph.

This pottery is an amphora. An amphora is a ceramic vessel with two handles and a neck narrower than the body. It is used to transport and stores goods, food and liquids. Painted Greek amphorae are also used as prizes, for funerary purposes, as grave markers and as a vessel to contain ashes of the dead.

This amphora has been attributed to an Attic workshop at the third quarter of the 6^th century BC. The Attic potters uses excellent iron-riched clay found in Attica. How are these amphorae made? The vessel is first shaped on the wheel and the sections (neck, body and foot) are thrown separately. The sections are left to dry to a leather hardness and then assembled and joined with a slip (clay in more liquid form). Then the handles are attached.

The black-figure technique is used by the Attic potters in the 6^th to 4^th century. The figural and ornamental motifs were applied with a slip that turned black during firing while the background was left the orange colour of the clay. The pictures are then formed by incising the slip with a sharp point to reveal the orange clay and by adding white and purple enhancements (mixture of pigment and clay). The white is usually used to denote the face, hands and feet of maidens.

 

Bibliography

Attic amphora with Black-figure decoration. Musee du Louvre website. Available from: www.louvre.fr [Accessed 27 December 2010]

Beazley JD (1986) The development of Attic Black-figure [online]. University of California Press. Available from: http://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/ [Accessed 30 December 2010]

Department of Greek and Roman Art, (2002) Athenian Vase Painting: Black- and Red-Figure Techniques. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Available from: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/vase/hd_vase.htm [Accessed 30 December 2010]

Greek (6^th century BC) Theseus Fighting the Minotaur, detail from an Attic black-figure amphora [pottery] [online image]. Place: Musee du Louvre. Available from:  http://www.bridgemaneducation.com [Accessed 27 December 2010]

Unit 2: Greek Art

Greek Art is considered as the origin and source of Western Art. It is idealized in the Western World and provided inspiration to the subsequent Roman and European art and architecture.

From my reading, Greek Art can be divided into 3 distinct periods: Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic. Each period is defined by historical events. And one can see the evolution of art through these periods.

One good example is the free standing sculpture. The Kouros boy statues are from the Archaic period around 600BC. The Kouros boy statue shows a nude young man in a stiff attitude with head held high, eyes to the front, arms hanging at the sides with fists clenched. His facial expression is an impassive stare or a knowing look. The Kouroi varied greatly in their anatomical accuracy.

Anavysos Kouros, funerary statue of Croisos (560-546 BC)

 
The Kritios boy (circa. 480 BC) from the Classical Period, on the other hand, has a more relaxed pose; the right leg is slightly bent at the knee, the weight is supported by the left leg, the head is turned slightly to the right. The Kritios boy is the most natural sculpture up to that time and this is achieved with an accurate understanding of human musculature and bone structure.

The Kritios Boy, (c.480 BC)

 
In the documentary “Greek Sculpture” in “How Art Made the World” produced by BBC, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88gXWW3qN7o, it is postulated that the Greeks were not satisfied with natural realism of the Kritios boy and wanted to created something that is not real, something that is “more human than human”. The example used is the bronze warrior statue A from Riace: the crest of muscles across the waist (external abdominis obliques) are exaggerated, the legs are made artificially long, the centre groove of the chest is impossible deep (because the pectoralis major muscles are too hypertrophied) as well as the centre channel of the spine (because of overdevelopment of the trapezius and latissimus dorsi muscles) and there is no coccyx bone at the base of their spine. The conclusion was this is unrealistic body.

Riace Warrior A , (5^th century BC)

I don’t agree with Professor Ramanchandran’s opinion that the Greeks were bored with the Kritios boy and that is the reason why they made subsequent unrealistic statues. I think it is human nature to make something different and original rather than motivated by boredom and the need for unrealism. The evolution of Greek art is an illustration of the evolution of art by human in the subsequent periods.

There is still a lot about Greek Art besides the free standing sculptures. Below I provide a brief summary of the various works of art according to the periods.

Period	Free standing sculpture	Architecture	Relief sculpture
Archaic (8th to 6th century BC)	Kouros	Temple of Hera, Paestum	Treasury of Siphnians, frieze
Classical (5th to 4th century BC)	Kritios boy Discobolus Riace warriors	Parthenon	Parthenon frieze
Hellenistic (3rd to 2nd century BC)	Nike from Samothrace Venus de Milo	Pergamum	Alexander sarcophagus

Bibliography

Boardman J, (ed.) (1993) The Oxford history of classical art. New York: Oxford University Press

Dunlop G. (1989) The legacy of Greece. [DVD] United Kingdom: T.V.S. Television Ltd

Greek (6^th century BC) Anavysos Kouros, funerary statue of Croisos [marble]. [online image] Place: National Archaeological Museum, Athens, Greece. Available from: http://www.bridgemaneducation.com [Accessed: 26 December 2010]

Greek (5^th century BC) The Kritios Boy [marble]. [online image] Place: Acropolis Museum, Athens, Greece. Available from: http://www.bridgemaneducation.com [Accessed: 26 December 2010]

Greek (5^th century BC) Riace Warrior A [bronze]. [online image] Place: Museo Nazionale, Reggio Calabria, Italy. Available from: http://www.bridgemaneducation.com [Accessed: 26 December 2010]

Honour, H. and Fleming J. (2009) A world history of art. Revised 7^th ed. London: Laurence King

Varchol D. (2005) How art made the world: Episode 1: More human than human [online] available from <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88gXWW3qN7o > [26 December 2010]