DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.8577#0021
I
EARLY PROTOCORINTHIAN VASE-PAINTING
IT was not my original intention to deal with any aspect of Protocorinthian
vase-painting in this book. The subject has been so fully treated by Johan-
sen in his admirable monograph 'Les Vases Sicyoniens' that any further dis-
cussion seemed of necessity superfluous. I have, however, been forced to
depart from my original plan. The intimate connexion between the Proto-
corinthian and Corinthian fabrics made it impossible to treat the Corinthian
in isolation, for the first and one of the most important questions concerning
the Corinthian industry is to determine its exact relation to the Proto-
corinthian. This problem involved a detailed investigation of the late Proto-
corinthian period (ch. ii and pp. 269-73). Further, a certain amount of
earlier Protocorinthian material, some of it of great importance, which is not
included in Johansen's book, accumulated in course of time; and then, there
were the geometric vases from Corinth to be considered. I begin, therefore,
with a chapter which is scarcely more than a collection of notes, and which is
really supplementary to the main body of the book. For a detailed account
of the matter from all points of view I make reference to Johansen's work.
Geometric Vases
Most of what need be said about the Protocorinthian geometric style has
already been said by Johansen. As he points out, the geometric vases proper
are apparently a late group,1 though they are still practically free from
exotic influence. They have nothing of the variety, and little of the intrinsic
interest of contemporary Attic work; in fact they form a colourless, unambi-
tious, but exceptionally competent series. There is very little figurative
decoration in this group;2 the greater part of the vase is covered with fine
horizontal bands, a system which is fairly common in island geometric
vase-painting but plays a very small part in Attica. Maeanders of several
kinds, spirals, zig-zags, and the like, are the principal motives with which the
upper parts of the vase are decorated. Cups of small or moderate size, bowls,
jugs, and large craters are the principal shapes.
These Protocorinthian geometric vases were freely exported; numbers of
them have been found at Delphi (in fragments); and Thera, Boeotia, Aegina,
and the Argolid have also yielded specimens.3 In this respect, therefore,
there is an analogy between the Protocorinthian and Attic geometric fabrics,
for Attic vases were likewise widely, but perhaps less consistently, exported.4
1 p. 13. 2 Johansen p. 10. pi. 2, 4, but with zigzags in place of maeander and
3 See Johansen p. 6. To these provenances I can stars).
add Kalymnos, where a skyphos in the university 4 See Pfuhl, i, 72. The reputed finds from Corfu
collection at Berlin was found (D 14: type, Johansen cannot be counted here, for though there were Attic
3575 r>
EARLY PROTOCORINTHIAN VASE-PAINTING
IT was not my original intention to deal with any aspect of Protocorinthian
vase-painting in this book. The subject has been so fully treated by Johan-
sen in his admirable monograph 'Les Vases Sicyoniens' that any further dis-
cussion seemed of necessity superfluous. I have, however, been forced to
depart from my original plan. The intimate connexion between the Proto-
corinthian and Corinthian fabrics made it impossible to treat the Corinthian
in isolation, for the first and one of the most important questions concerning
the Corinthian industry is to determine its exact relation to the Proto-
corinthian. This problem involved a detailed investigation of the late Proto-
corinthian period (ch. ii and pp. 269-73). Further, a certain amount of
earlier Protocorinthian material, some of it of great importance, which is not
included in Johansen's book, accumulated in course of time; and then, there
were the geometric vases from Corinth to be considered. I begin, therefore,
with a chapter which is scarcely more than a collection of notes, and which is
really supplementary to the main body of the book. For a detailed account
of the matter from all points of view I make reference to Johansen's work.
Geometric Vases
Most of what need be said about the Protocorinthian geometric style has
already been said by Johansen. As he points out, the geometric vases proper
are apparently a late group,1 though they are still practically free from
exotic influence. They have nothing of the variety, and little of the intrinsic
interest of contemporary Attic work; in fact they form a colourless, unambi-
tious, but exceptionally competent series. There is very little figurative
decoration in this group;2 the greater part of the vase is covered with fine
horizontal bands, a system which is fairly common in island geometric
vase-painting but plays a very small part in Attica. Maeanders of several
kinds, spirals, zig-zags, and the like, are the principal motives with which the
upper parts of the vase are decorated. Cups of small or moderate size, bowls,
jugs, and large craters are the principal shapes.
These Protocorinthian geometric vases were freely exported; numbers of
them have been found at Delphi (in fragments); and Thera, Boeotia, Aegina,
and the Argolid have also yielded specimens.3 In this respect, therefore,
there is an analogy between the Protocorinthian and Attic geometric fabrics,
for Attic vases were likewise widely, but perhaps less consistently, exported.4
1 p. 13. 2 Johansen p. 10. pi. 2, 4, but with zigzags in place of maeander and
3 See Johansen p. 6. To these provenances I can stars).
add Kalymnos, where a skyphos in the university 4 See Pfuhl, i, 72. The reputed finds from Corfu
collection at Berlin was found (D 14: type, Johansen cannot be counted here, for though there were Attic
3575 r>