Red-figured fish plates of the 5th century BCE

Throughout my travels to various museums around the world I have often encountered red-figured fish plates. First developed in Athens, these beautifully detailed serving pieces became especially popular in South Italy and Sicily in the 400s BCE. I stumbled across this excellent video about them and learned that fish plates produced in Magna Graecia were usually more colorful with white accents and the fish are portrayed with their bellies facing inwards towards the small central depression that is thought to have contained dipping sauce like garum. Fish on plates produced in Athens are painted with their bellies facing outwards. I thought this is quite a peculiar style difference. 

There also seems to be disagreement among scholars as to whether these plates were actually used in everyday life or produced for funerary purposes only, as almost all of the 1,000 examples that have been recovered came from ancient burials. Art historian Lucas Livingston points out that many of the recovered examples have a crack in the bottom of the dipping well produced during firing. This would indicate many of the plates were never actually used in the way they are designed.

You can see dozens of examples here:

https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=ancient+Greek+fish+plates+in+art&qs=n&form=QBIR&sp=-1&pq=ancient+greek+fish+plates+in+art&sc=0-32&cvid=B677B9B0A24547C0B59A1F1E97C1E345&first=1&tsc=ImageHoverTitle

As producer of the Ancient Art Podcast, Livingston, who has worked at the Art Institute of Chicago since 2002, has a number of other ancient video lessons available on YouTube including a discussion of Hadrian and Antinous, Medusa, the Roman Lycurgus Cup, Cleopatra's ethnic origins, and ancient astronomy.

 

 

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Phlyax play

A Phlyax play, also known as a hilarotragedy, was a burlesque dramatic form that developed in the Greek colonies of Magna Graecia (southern Italy) in the 4th century BCE. Its name derives from the Phlyakes, “Gossip Players,” in Doric Greek. From the surviving titles of the plays they appear to have been a form of mythological burlesque, which mixed figures from the Greek pantheon with the stock characters and situations of Attic New Comedy. The absence of any surviving script has led to conjecture that they were largely improvised. 

Although only a few script fragments have been found, fortunately, such plays were a popular subject of vase paintings from the region. The vases first appeared at the end of the 5th century BCE, but most are 4th century BCE. They depict grotesque characters, the masks of comedy, and the props of comic performance such as ladders, baskets, and open windows. These vase paintings indicate that they were performed on a raised wooden stage with an upper gallery, and that the actors wore grotesque costumes and masks similar to those of Attic Old Comedy. The term phlyax, which is used for both the play and the costumed actors, probably derives from the Greek verb "to swell" and finds its meaning in the actors' costumes. They wore a mask, tights, a padded tunic, and a large artificial phallus.  Any other garments necessary for the role were worn over this. They parodied heroes and themes of mythology or the comic elements of everyday life and incorporated acrobatics into the performances.

The Greek version of phlyakes seems to have died out by the late 3rd century BCE, but the Oscan inhabitants of Campania subsequently developed a tradition of farces, parodies, and satires influenced by late Greek models, which became popular in Rome during the 3rd century BCE. This genre was known as Atellan farce, Atella being the name of a Campanian town. Atellan farce introduced a set of stock characters such as Maccus and Bucco to Latin comedy. Even in antiquity, these were thought to be the ancestors of the characters found in Plautus, and perhaps distantly of those of commedia dell'arte, an improvised kind of popular comedy in Italian theaters in the 16th–18th centuries. Although an older view held that Attic comedy was the only source of Roman comedy, it has been argued that the phlyax playwright Rhinthon, in particular, influenced Plautus’s Amphitruo.

Image: Phlyax scene: three men (Gynmilos, Kosios and Karion) robbing a miser (Kharinos) inside his house. Side A of red-figure calyx-krater made in Paestum, 350–340 BCE, now in the Altes Museum in Berlin courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Bibi Saint-Pol.

 

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Apulian vase painting

Apulian vase painting was the leading South Italian vase painting tradition between 430 and 300 BCE. Of the approximately 20,000 surviving specimens of Italian red-figure vases, about half are from Apulian production, while the rest are from the four other centers of production, Paestum, Campania, Lucania and Sicily.   The south Italian clays are less rich in iron than Attic clay. As a result, south Italian clay would not reach the rich red known from Attic red-figure vases. This was compensated for, however, by the addition of slips of light ochre clay before firing, which also produced smoother surfaces. Ancient Tarantino, which became Tarentum under the Romans, was the main production center for Apulian vases and produced two styles - the "Plain" and the "Ornate."

The "Plain" style was mostly used for the decoration of bell kraters, colonet kraters and smaller vessels and used little supplemental coloring. Pictorial compositions usually included one to four figures (e.g., works by Sisyphus Painter, Tarporley Painter). The motifs focused on mythical subjects, but also included women's heads, warriors in scenes of battle or departure, and Dionysiac retinue imagery.

The "Ornate" style, as exemplified here, was used on larger vessels 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. Supplemental coloring was used copiously, especially red, gold/yellow and white. While ornamentation had originally been relatively simple, from the mid-fourth century BCE 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 BCE, a common motif was grave scenes showing individuals performing offerings at a stylized grave or pillar. Important representatives painters include the Ilioupersis Painter, the Darius Painter and the Baltimore Painter.

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.  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 almost entirely after 370 BCE.

Image: Terracotta loutrophoros (ceremonial funeral vase for water), Tarentine, ca. 340–330 BCE, attributed to the Darius Painter, Apulian, south Italy, courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

 The Tarentine predilection for disciplined yet exuberant embellishment is applied here to an imposing vase with deeply serious iconography. In the primary scene, Persephone and Aphrodite, who both laid claim to the beautiful hunter Adonis, await a judgment from the deity seated between them. He may be interpreted as Zeus or as Hades, ruler of the Underworld. Differing versions of the verdict allowed the hero to divide his time between the goddesses. In the zone below, a youth is isolated between a grave monument and a laver as figures approach from either side. The themes of death and the Underworld are complemented with luxuriant vegetation. The myth of the death and rebirth of Adonis is connected with seasonal change, and the abundant vegetation on this loutrophoros could symbolize rebirth, an appropriate theme for a funeral vase. - Metropolitan Museum of Art

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The Many Names and Faces of Persephone (Proserpina)

The daughter of Zeus and Demeter, Persephone, often referred to as Kore, became queen of the underworld when she was abducted by Hades.  As a goddess associated with the spring fertility of vegetation, she was worshipped along with her mother Demeter in the rites of the  Eleusinian Mysteries, which promised the initiated a more enjoyable prospect after death.  

However her cult was based on ancient agrarian rituals that were practiced around the Mediterranean at Minoan Crete, Egypt, Asia Minor, Sicily, Magna Graecia, and Libya far earlier.  In Minoan Crete, the female vegetation divinity was identified as Ariadne.  Some scholars suggest the name Ariadne was a "friendly" name, derived from the word for "pure," because of a superstitious taboo about speaking the real names of deities associated with the underworld. In another cult on Crete, Persephone was  conflated with Despoina, "the mistress" of a chthonic divinity, who was considered the unnameable daughter of Poseidon.

Evidence from both the Orphic Hymns and tablets known as the Orphic Gold Leaves demonstrate that Persephone was one of the most important deities worshiped in Orphism. Gold leaves with verses intended to help the deceased enter into an optimal afterlife were often buried with the dead. Persephone is mentioned frequently in these tablets. Those seeking the ideal afterlife strive for the "sacred meadows and groves of Persephone".  Other gold leaves describe Persephone's role in receiving and sheltering the dead. 

At Locri, a city of Magna Graecia situated on the coast of the Ionian Sea in Calabria (a region of southern Italy), perhaps uniquely, Persephone was worshiped as protector of marriage and childbirth, a role usually assumed by Hera.  Children at Locri were dedicated to Proserpina, and maidens about to be wed brought their peplos to be blessed. Diodorus Siculus knew the temple there as the most illustrious in Italy. During the 5th century BCE, votive pinakes in terracotta were often dedicated as offerings to the goddess, made in series and painted with bright colors, animated by scenes connected to the myth of Persephone. Many of these pinakes are now on display in the National Museum of Magna Græcia in Reggio Calabria.

The Romans first heard of her from the Aeolian and Dorian cities of Magna Graecia, who used the dialectal variant Proserpinē. Hence, in Roman mythology she was called Proserpina, a name erroneously derived by the Romans from proserpere, "to shoot forth." In 205 BCE, Rome officially identified Proserpina with the local Italic goddess Libera, who, along with Liber, were strongly associated with the Roman grain goddess Ceres (considered equivalent to the Greek Demeter). The Roman author Gaius Julius Hyginus also considered Proserpina equivalent to the Cretan goddess Ariadne, who was the bride of Liber's Greek equivalent, Dionysus.

In Athens, a festival called the Thesmophoria  which included secret women-only rituals was celebrated in the month of Pyanepsion, when Kore was abducted and Demeter abstained from her role as goddess of harvest and growth. The ceremony involved sinking sacrifices into the earth by night and retrieving the decaying remains of pigs that had been placed in the megara of Demeter (trenches and pits or natural clefts in rock), the previous year. These were placed on altars, mixed with seeds, then planted. Pits rich in organic matter at Eleusis have been taken as evidence that the Thesmophoria was held there as well as in other demes of Attica.

Images: Onyx cameo fragment thought to depict an episode from the story of Proserpine and Pluto, Roman, 1st century BCE - 1st century CE courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Closeup of a  votive Kore (Statue of a Young Woman) from the Athenian Acropolis Greek 520-510 BCE Parian Marble that I photographed at "The Greeks" exhibit displayed at The Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois.  Votive statue of Kore or Demeter from the sanctuary at Casaletto, Roman, end of 4th or beginning of 3rd century BCE, that I photographed at the Baths of Diocletian venue of the National Museum of Rome. Another votive Statue of Kore from a sanctuary in the Valle Ariccia, Roman, 4th-3rd century BCE that I photographed at the Baths of Diocletian, Yet another votive Statue of Kore from a sanctuary in the Valle Ariccia Roman 4th-3rd century BCE that I photographed at the Baths of Diocletian, Head of Demeter or Kore, Greek, made in Sicily 350-300 BCE Terracotta that I photographed at the Getty Villa in Pacific Palisades, California, Fragment of the Great Eleusinian Relief, Roman copy from the Augustan period 27 BCE-14 CE that I photographed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in new York, Demeter and Persephone Terracotta from Myrina, 100 BCE, that I photographed at the British Museum, Roman sarcophagus depicting Hades abduction of Persephone, Roman, 200-220 CE that I photographed at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland. The Rape of Proserpina by Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1621-22), another breathtaking sculpture at the Galleria Borghese in Rome courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Alvesgaspar (digitally edited to enhance sculptural details).

: Onyx cameo fragment thought to depict an episode from the story of Proserpine and Pluto, Roman, 1st century BCE - 1st century CE courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Closeup of a  votive Kore (Statue of a Young Woman) from the Athenian Acropolis Greek 520-510 BCE Parian Marble that I photographed at "The Greeks" exhibit displayed at The Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois

Votive statue of Kore from a sanctuary in the Valle Ariccia, Roman, 4th-3rd century BCE that I photographed at the Baths of Diocletian

Votive Statue of Kore from a sanctuary in the Valle Ariccia, Roman, 4th-3rd century BCE that I photographed at the Baths of Diocletian

Votive Statue of Kore from a sanctuary in the Valle Ariccia, Roman, 4th-3rd century BCE that I photographed at the Baths of Diocletian

Votive Statue of Kore from a sanctuary in the Valle Ariccia, Roman, 4th-3rd century BCE that I photographed at the Baths of Diocletian

Votive statue of Kore or Demeter from the sanctuary at Casaletto, Roman, end of 4th or beginning of 3rd century BCE, that I photographed at the Baths of Diocletian venue of the National Museum of Rome

Fragment of the Great Eleusinian Relief, Roman copy from the Augustan period 27 BCE-14 CE that I photographed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York

Demeter and Persephone Terracotta from Myrina, 100 BCE, that I photographed at the British Museum

Roman sarcophagus depicting Hades abduction of Persephone, Roman, 200-220 CE that I photographed at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland

The Rape of Proserpina by Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1621-22), another breathtaking sculpture at the Galleria Borghese in Rome courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Alvesgaspar (digitally edited to enhance sculptural details).

Head of Demeter or Kore, Greek, made in Sicily 350-300 BCE Terracotta that I photographed at the Getty Villa in Pacific Palisades, California

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Funerary symbolism: Relief of a hunter from Magna Graecia

Made in Taras, South Italy between 290-250 BCE, this Greek relief sculpture was probably once part of a grave monument.  A nude youth, with a horse rearing up behind him, lunges forward to attack an unseen foe.  The presence of the large snarling dog indicates this is a hunting scene and identifies the deceased as a member of the elite.  It also refers to an activity thought to be one of the pleasures of the afterlife.  Photographed at the Getty Villa in Pacific Palisades, California.

Funerary relief of a hunter with horse and hunting hound Greek, Taras, South Italy, 290-250 BCE photographed at the Getty Villa in Pacific Palisades, California by Mary Harrsch.

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University of Kentucky Students to examine Magna Graecia sites

The University of Kentucky will offer a course in Italy in summer 2008, designed to give students the opportunity to take part in an excavation at a Greek fort on the summit of Monte Palazzi in the Calabria region of southern Italy. The course will be of special interest to students studying art, anthropology, architecture, archaeology, geography, history and art history.

Working in teams, UK students will begin to reconstruct the architectural history of the site, which was inhabited by Greek settlers between the sixth and third centuries B.C.E. Students will also get hands-on experience in processing archaeological data. During the four-week UK program, participants will visit Pompeii; museums in Locri, Crotone, Scolacium and Reggio Calabria; and classical sites around the region.

The program, directed by Paolo Visonà, a scholar in residence for the UK art history program, will run May 26 to June 20, 2008. It is open to undergraduate and graduate students.

"This course will be a full immersion into Mediterranean archaeology," said Visonà. "Participants will learn about the history, art and architecture of Magna Graecia before leaving. Students will be trained to excavate with a variety of tools, to sift soil, and to process and record the ceramic, lithic and metal finds under the supervision of experienced archaeologists. These UK excavations will be the first large-scale archaeological project at Monte Palazzi since 1961, when this site was discovered." If you enjoyed this post, never miss out on future posts by following me by email!