DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.8577#0029
EARLY PROTOCORINTHIAN VASE-PAINTING 9
scious freedom of the early seventh century. There are, of course, still traces
of the old discipline, notably in the angular stylizations of the finials; but
there is little else in the principal decoration to remind one of the immediately
preceding period. A fine oinochoe from the Argive Heraeum,1 and a frag-
mentary crater from Aegina, reconstructed in pi. 2,2 take us a stage further
on the road to the full development of the Protocorinthian style. The patterns
on these two vases are executed in a more elaborate technique—for pale pink
is used as well as black—and show a fuller understanding of the properties
Fig. 4. Protocorinthian oinochoe from Cumae.
of the new forms: the floral elements have more substance, and the designs
are more intricate.
The elements of these patterns are, of course, oriental, but the Greek
artist has given new form to the borrowed matter. Cretan and Proto-
corinthian vase-painters, particularly, developed one aspect of the subject in
which the Orient had never been interested—the loops and volutes which were
originally simply the connecting links between the palmettes and flowers; in
doing so they gave an elasticity, a suggestion of tension and relaxation, to
the patterns which is rarely, if ever, present in oriental work. It is, perhaps,
worth remarking that the Protocorinthian vases of the early seventh century
1 A.H. ii, pi. 64 and p. 137; Johansen, p. 25. base are a certain conjecture. For the scheme of the
2 The existing fragment is illustrated in A.M. 1897, upper frieze compare Johansen pi. 13, 1, and
279, fig. 12. The doubtful elements are the relation of pyxis no. 52 b. The vase is too big to be considered
the patterns at the rim to the handle (the maeander akotyle : the original diameter was c. 34 cm. The
may have been at the side, and not in the centre), the pale pink is placed directly on the clay : it is the same
length of the palmettes within the volutes, and the matt colour which we find in contemporary Cycladic
height and curve of the vase. In regard to the latter vases (e.g. J.H.S. 1926 pi. 10, face of lion). The
points, there is little room for error, as a study of fragment is mentioned by Johansen, p. 25 and p. 57,
contemporary kotylai will show. The rays at the note 1.
3575 r
scious freedom of the early seventh century. There are, of course, still traces
of the old discipline, notably in the angular stylizations of the finials; but
there is little else in the principal decoration to remind one of the immediately
preceding period. A fine oinochoe from the Argive Heraeum,1 and a frag-
mentary crater from Aegina, reconstructed in pi. 2,2 take us a stage further
on the road to the full development of the Protocorinthian style. The patterns
on these two vases are executed in a more elaborate technique—for pale pink
is used as well as black—and show a fuller understanding of the properties
Fig. 4. Protocorinthian oinochoe from Cumae.
of the new forms: the floral elements have more substance, and the designs
are more intricate.
The elements of these patterns are, of course, oriental, but the Greek
artist has given new form to the borrowed matter. Cretan and Proto-
corinthian vase-painters, particularly, developed one aspect of the subject in
which the Orient had never been interested—the loops and volutes which were
originally simply the connecting links between the palmettes and flowers; in
doing so they gave an elasticity, a suggestion of tension and relaxation, to
the patterns which is rarely, if ever, present in oriental work. It is, perhaps,
worth remarking that the Protocorinthian vases of the early seventh century
1 A.H. ii, pi. 64 and p. 137; Johansen, p. 25. base are a certain conjecture. For the scheme of the
2 The existing fragment is illustrated in A.M. 1897, upper frieze compare Johansen pi. 13, 1, and
279, fig. 12. The doubtful elements are the relation of pyxis no. 52 b. The vase is too big to be considered
the patterns at the rim to the handle (the maeander akotyle : the original diameter was c. 34 cm. The
may have been at the side, and not in the centre), the pale pink is placed directly on the clay : it is the same
length of the palmettes within the volutes, and the matt colour which we find in contemporary Cycladic
height and curve of the vase. In regard to the latter vases (e.g. J.H.S. 1926 pi. 10, face of lion). The
points, there is little room for error, as a study of fragment is mentioned by Johansen, p. 25 and p. 57,
contemporary kotylai will show. The rays at the note 1.
3575 r