DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9177#0212
192
PRINCIPLES OP GREEK ART
CHAP.
paper on the Amazons,1 observes that about the middle of the
fifth century a new set of vases comes in at Athens, whereof
the subject is the battles between Theseus and his Athenians
and the invading hosts of Amazons; and that these vases in
common present certain features, such as that the Amazons are
on horseback and the Greeks on foot, and that the women
warriors are usually clad in the well-known dress of the Persian
cavalry, familiar • to the Athenians since Marathon. He is
disposed to attribute the general character of the vases to the
influence of the painter Micon, who at about that time painted
in the Stoa Poikile and in the Theseion at Athens fresco-paint-
ings of the battles of Theseus and the Amazons. This sugges-
tion it would certainly not be rash to accept. But when
Klugmann goes farther, and proposes to find in some of the
schemes and fighting groups reminiscences of some of the
figures of Micon, we feel that he is venturing on thin ice, be-
cause, as will abundantly appear hereafter, the customs of vase-
painting were so definite and exclusive that it is far more likely
that the artists would take details of treatment from one an-
other and from tradition than from the new and bold schemes
of a great and progressive fresco-painter. We are here on the
borders of a very considerable question. What would seem
to us more natural than that an Athenian vase-painter should
copy groups of horsemen or chariots, or take poses from the
sculptural decoration of the Parthenon ? Yet scarcely more
than two or three vases can be pointed out which appear to show
traces of the influence of the workshop of Pheidias,2 and only
one or two show any close likeness to the pediments of the
temple of Zeus at Olympia, or the reliefs of the temple of Athena
Nike at Athens. And even in these cases the relationship is
certainly not close, and may be disputed. There is perhaps
more ground for finding in sculptured relief the influence of
1 Die Amazonen in der attischen Litcraiur und Kunst, 1875.
J See Winter, JiXngere attische Vasen, p. 34.
PRINCIPLES OP GREEK ART
CHAP.
paper on the Amazons,1 observes that about the middle of the
fifth century a new set of vases comes in at Athens, whereof
the subject is the battles between Theseus and his Athenians
and the invading hosts of Amazons; and that these vases in
common present certain features, such as that the Amazons are
on horseback and the Greeks on foot, and that the women
warriors are usually clad in the well-known dress of the Persian
cavalry, familiar • to the Athenians since Marathon. He is
disposed to attribute the general character of the vases to the
influence of the painter Micon, who at about that time painted
in the Stoa Poikile and in the Theseion at Athens fresco-paint-
ings of the battles of Theseus and the Amazons. This sugges-
tion it would certainly not be rash to accept. But when
Klugmann goes farther, and proposes to find in some of the
schemes and fighting groups reminiscences of some of the
figures of Micon, we feel that he is venturing on thin ice, be-
cause, as will abundantly appear hereafter, the customs of vase-
painting were so definite and exclusive that it is far more likely
that the artists would take details of treatment from one an-
other and from tradition than from the new and bold schemes
of a great and progressive fresco-painter. We are here on the
borders of a very considerable question. What would seem
to us more natural than that an Athenian vase-painter should
copy groups of horsemen or chariots, or take poses from the
sculptural decoration of the Parthenon ? Yet scarcely more
than two or three vases can be pointed out which appear to show
traces of the influence of the workshop of Pheidias,2 and only
one or two show any close likeness to the pediments of the
temple of Zeus at Olympia, or the reliefs of the temple of Athena
Nike at Athens. And even in these cases the relationship is
certainly not close, and may be disputed. There is perhaps
more ground for finding in sculptured relief the influence of
1 Die Amazonen in der attischen Litcraiur und Kunst, 1875.
J See Winter, JiXngere attische Vasen, p. 34.