DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.8577#0071
THE EARLY CORINTHIAN ORIENTALIZING STYLE 51
The same concern for the purely decorative aspect of the orientalizing
world is implied in the freedom with which early Corinthian artists added
their own inventions to the traditional repertory of types. The number of
animals which occur on Protocorinthian vases is comparatively small, and,
as Johansen has pointed out, the fabulous creatures are very few. The Proto-
corinthian artist took few liberties with the orientalizing world; he copied or
adapted oriental monsters, but invented scarcely any of his own.1 The
Corinthian artist not only takes over all the regular Protocorinthian motives,
but makes up a great many for himself. He breaks the rules which had been
carefully maintained in the earlier period, confusing fabulous creatures with
real;2 on the analogy of winged sphinxes and griffons, panthers and lions
grow wings ;3 sirens grow long beards, like gorgons; or long ears, like griffons.4
And if a bird can have a human head, or a griffon's head, why not a bird with
a lion's head,5 or a panther's head,6 or a siren with lion's claws;7 better still,
why not a bird with a gorgon's head, and lion's claws, and two bodies into the
bargain?8 These are not oriental motives: they are Greek, apparently Corinthian,
inventions. One or two of them go back as far as the Transitional period;9
the rest first appear in the early Corinthian style.
Now these fantastic inventions are not the only new motives of the early
Corinthian period; we find male sphinxes, and a curious fish-bodied monster,
later identified with Triton, a parallel to the snake-bodied 'Typhon' who first
appears in the late Transitional style.10 Another new motive, borrowed from
free painting, or at any rate from non-orientalizing vase-painting, is the
central motive was almost invariably an animal or a
bird; a feature of the Corinthian style is that the
central motive is often a floral ornament of a simple
kind drawn in the black-figure technique.
On larger vases we regularly find the same groups
of sirens, sphinxes, and floral ornaments, together
with a new group of confronting panther and goat.
Before the early Corinthian period this ill-assorted
couple seem to have had no particular attraction for
one another; from the late seventh century onwards
they are constantly more and more in evidence. In
the second quarter of the sixth century they are the
piece de resistance of the orientalizing style (v. infra
p. 61, note 1).
1 The only types which appear to be pure inven-
tion are the goat-headed bird on the alabastron no.
23, and the monster seen in fig. 6.
2 By giving sphinxes &c. ordinary wings instead of
the recurved wings proper to fabulous creatures:
sirens and griffon-birds are now regularly portrayed
with ordinary wings; and cf. the sphinx pi. 29, 7.
3 On the difference between Greek and oriental
winged lions, see p. 90, note 8.
4 Long beards : nos. 339-41 (pi. 17, 6: cf. fig. 12);
long ears : pi. 17, 6. 5 See 90.
6 PI. 12, 2, 4, and passim. 7 Nos. 157, 333.
8 Fig. 12. Analogous double-bodied creatures
occur on several other vases: nos. 39, 94 (pi. 16, 14),
543,1210; cf. the figure from the pseudo-Corinthian
olpe Brit. Mus. 60. 2. 1. 18 illustrated in J.H.S. pi.
15,1. The history of the motive between the Myce-
naean period and the latter part of the seventh
century is obscure. The ivory seal from the
Heraeum, A.H. ii, 351, 5 A, may be Ionian work of
the seventh century; so too, perhaps, the gem,
Furtwangler, Gemmen, pi. 8, 34. See further
Johansen, p. 131, where the relevant literature is
cited; to the examples which have been collected,
add Oxford 1924.17 (Etruscan alabastron) with
double panther, and South Kensington 819.1870
(Etruscan antefix with double sphinx): both seventh
century.
9 The panther-bird (three Transitional examples :
see p. 30), and the lion-legged siren (one Transi-
tional example; see p. 91).
10 On these, and other motives, see ch. vii.
The same concern for the purely decorative aspect of the orientalizing
world is implied in the freedom with which early Corinthian artists added
their own inventions to the traditional repertory of types. The number of
animals which occur on Protocorinthian vases is comparatively small, and,
as Johansen has pointed out, the fabulous creatures are very few. The Proto-
corinthian artist took few liberties with the orientalizing world; he copied or
adapted oriental monsters, but invented scarcely any of his own.1 The
Corinthian artist not only takes over all the regular Protocorinthian motives,
but makes up a great many for himself. He breaks the rules which had been
carefully maintained in the earlier period, confusing fabulous creatures with
real;2 on the analogy of winged sphinxes and griffons, panthers and lions
grow wings ;3 sirens grow long beards, like gorgons; or long ears, like griffons.4
And if a bird can have a human head, or a griffon's head, why not a bird with
a lion's head,5 or a panther's head,6 or a siren with lion's claws;7 better still,
why not a bird with a gorgon's head, and lion's claws, and two bodies into the
bargain?8 These are not oriental motives: they are Greek, apparently Corinthian,
inventions. One or two of them go back as far as the Transitional period;9
the rest first appear in the early Corinthian style.
Now these fantastic inventions are not the only new motives of the early
Corinthian period; we find male sphinxes, and a curious fish-bodied monster,
later identified with Triton, a parallel to the snake-bodied 'Typhon' who first
appears in the late Transitional style.10 Another new motive, borrowed from
free painting, or at any rate from non-orientalizing vase-painting, is the
central motive was almost invariably an animal or a
bird; a feature of the Corinthian style is that the
central motive is often a floral ornament of a simple
kind drawn in the black-figure technique.
On larger vases we regularly find the same groups
of sirens, sphinxes, and floral ornaments, together
with a new group of confronting panther and goat.
Before the early Corinthian period this ill-assorted
couple seem to have had no particular attraction for
one another; from the late seventh century onwards
they are constantly more and more in evidence. In
the second quarter of the sixth century they are the
piece de resistance of the orientalizing style (v. infra
p. 61, note 1).
1 The only types which appear to be pure inven-
tion are the goat-headed bird on the alabastron no.
23, and the monster seen in fig. 6.
2 By giving sphinxes &c. ordinary wings instead of
the recurved wings proper to fabulous creatures:
sirens and griffon-birds are now regularly portrayed
with ordinary wings; and cf. the sphinx pi. 29, 7.
3 On the difference between Greek and oriental
winged lions, see p. 90, note 8.
4 Long beards : nos. 339-41 (pi. 17, 6: cf. fig. 12);
long ears : pi. 17, 6. 5 See 90.
6 PI. 12, 2, 4, and passim. 7 Nos. 157, 333.
8 Fig. 12. Analogous double-bodied creatures
occur on several other vases: nos. 39, 94 (pi. 16, 14),
543,1210; cf. the figure from the pseudo-Corinthian
olpe Brit. Mus. 60. 2. 1. 18 illustrated in J.H.S. pi.
15,1. The history of the motive between the Myce-
naean period and the latter part of the seventh
century is obscure. The ivory seal from the
Heraeum, A.H. ii, 351, 5 A, may be Ionian work of
the seventh century; so too, perhaps, the gem,
Furtwangler, Gemmen, pi. 8, 34. See further
Johansen, p. 131, where the relevant literature is
cited; to the examples which have been collected,
add Oxford 1924.17 (Etruscan alabastron) with
double panther, and South Kensington 819.1870
(Etruscan antefix with double sphinx): both seventh
century.
9 The panther-bird (three Transitional examples :
see p. 30), and the lion-legged siren (one Transi-
tional example; see p. 91).
10 On these, and other motives, see ch. vii.