DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.8577#0125
THE CORINTHIAN FIGURE STYLE 105
For the first time since the late Protocorinthian period, Corinthian vase-
painters show an interest in colour for its own sake.
The possibilities of the new technique were evidently explored without
delay. Men,1 horses,2 even orientalizing motives 3 and floral patterns,4 which
were always, or nearly always, drawn in in silhouette on earlier vases, are
now regularly outlined with the brush. In the full development of the red-
ground style there is either an even balance between the extremes of dark and
light, or else the dark is definitely outweighed. The scheme is further com-
plicated by a liberal use of the usual purple-red, and by washes of yellow
varnish.
But it is not simply the variety of the ingredients which gives an individual
character to the colouring of late Corinthian period; not the contrast, but the
pitch at which the contrast is maintained. The most characteristic late Corin-
thian vases, vases like the oinochoai illustrated on pis. 39 and 42, are a
network of gay, outspoken, colours, matched against one another in equal
strength. We find the same kind of effect in Attica, but only at one particular
moment—in the Corinthianizing period of which the vases by Sophilos are
typical; in Sophilos's vases we see a direct reflection of Corinthian -n-oi/aXta.5
But the style of Sophilos had little effect on the Attic tradition. The de-
veloped black-figure style of Athens is always primarily a silhouette style.
The design depends from first to last on an arrangement of dark surfaces;
added colours are never allowed to dominate. And this is precisely the effect
which the late Corinthian artist was at pains to avoid. But the contrast
between Attic and Corinthian in the second quarter of the sixth century does
not end here. The Attic desire for minute exactitude of form was quite in-
compatible with a free use of outline drawing; it required engraving, not
brushwork, as the means of registering detail. Broad, sweeping brush-strokes
were suited only to the generalized effect at which the late Corinthian
artists aimed.6
The part which is allotted to the subsidiary patterns in the late Corinthian
style is a further illustration of this point of view. The patterns are used, not
to facilitate the transition from the primary to the secondary areas of the
vase—but simply to extend the brightly coloured surface which forms the
central theme. The patterns may cover the mouth and the foot of a vase,
and, by a simple process of repetition, are often made to cover the shoulder
1 The only outlined male form on a light-ground 3 Only on red-ground vases: amphorae, craters,
vase occurs on a fragment in Corinth; on red-ground oinochoai, hydriai, &c. passim.
vases there are many examples: 1373, 1413, 1437, 4 Previously unknown except in the form fig. 54.
1470, 1473, 1480-1 (cf. pis. 38, 2, 4; 40, 2; 5 On Sophilos see pp. 200 and appendix ii.
41,3). 6 In addition to the use of brushwork for contours,
2 There is a white horse on the Timonidas bottle, to which allusion has already been made, note the
others on the craters pi. 33,5 and no. 1196. There innumerable details of armour, &c, rendered in
are many on red-ground vases. outline on later Corinthian vases.
3575 p
For the first time since the late Protocorinthian period, Corinthian vase-
painters show an interest in colour for its own sake.
The possibilities of the new technique were evidently explored without
delay. Men,1 horses,2 even orientalizing motives 3 and floral patterns,4 which
were always, or nearly always, drawn in in silhouette on earlier vases, are
now regularly outlined with the brush. In the full development of the red-
ground style there is either an even balance between the extremes of dark and
light, or else the dark is definitely outweighed. The scheme is further com-
plicated by a liberal use of the usual purple-red, and by washes of yellow
varnish.
But it is not simply the variety of the ingredients which gives an individual
character to the colouring of late Corinthian period; not the contrast, but the
pitch at which the contrast is maintained. The most characteristic late Corin-
thian vases, vases like the oinochoai illustrated on pis. 39 and 42, are a
network of gay, outspoken, colours, matched against one another in equal
strength. We find the same kind of effect in Attica, but only at one particular
moment—in the Corinthianizing period of which the vases by Sophilos are
typical; in Sophilos's vases we see a direct reflection of Corinthian -n-oi/aXta.5
But the style of Sophilos had little effect on the Attic tradition. The de-
veloped black-figure style of Athens is always primarily a silhouette style.
The design depends from first to last on an arrangement of dark surfaces;
added colours are never allowed to dominate. And this is precisely the effect
which the late Corinthian artist was at pains to avoid. But the contrast
between Attic and Corinthian in the second quarter of the sixth century does
not end here. The Attic desire for minute exactitude of form was quite in-
compatible with a free use of outline drawing; it required engraving, not
brushwork, as the means of registering detail. Broad, sweeping brush-strokes
were suited only to the generalized effect at which the late Corinthian
artists aimed.6
The part which is allotted to the subsidiary patterns in the late Corinthian
style is a further illustration of this point of view. The patterns are used, not
to facilitate the transition from the primary to the secondary areas of the
vase—but simply to extend the brightly coloured surface which forms the
central theme. The patterns may cover the mouth and the foot of a vase,
and, by a simple process of repetition, are often made to cover the shoulder
1 The only outlined male form on a light-ground 3 Only on red-ground vases: amphorae, craters,
vase occurs on a fragment in Corinth; on red-ground oinochoai, hydriai, &c. passim.
vases there are many examples: 1373, 1413, 1437, 4 Previously unknown except in the form fig. 54.
1470, 1473, 1480-1 (cf. pis. 38, 2, 4; 40, 2; 5 On Sophilos see pp. 200 and appendix ii.
41,3). 6 In addition to the use of brushwork for contours,
2 There is a white horse on the Timonidas bottle, to which allusion has already been made, note the
others on the craters pi. 33,5 and no. 1196. There innumerable details of armour, &c, rendered in
are many on red-ground vases. outline on later Corinthian vases.
3575 p