DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.8577#0190
XII
PLASTIC VASES
FEW plastic vases were made at Corinth, or elsewhere on the Greek
mainland, in the geometric period. Such examples as exist are nearly all
of one type, and that, as Johansen has shown, borrowed in the late eighth
century from the East.1 It was not till the full seventh century that the idea
took root.
The Protocorinthian series proper begins with the excellent little lion-vase
from Syracuse illustrated in fig. 71.2 This vase was found in a very early
context (in the same grave as the ovoid aryballos pi. 1,4); but the style alone
would prove that it belongs to an early period. For we have other vases of the
same kind, still Protocorinthian, but greatly in advance of this stage. This
will be clear if we turn to figs. 72 and 73. The first of these is part of a lion
protome, and is evidently to be restored, as is done in the right-hand illustra-
tion, on the analogy of the vase in Syracuse; it was found in the Menelaion at
Sparta.3 That the artist now has at his command a great many details which
were unknown to the earlier artist is obvious at a glance: he draws the
mane with elaborate care, suggests the ruff at the side of the face, models
the wrinkles of the muzzle, and breaks up the planes of the head. But
there is a clear connexion between this vase and that from Syracuse, and a
significant resemblance in one point, the technique of covering large areas
with dots.
The lion from Sparta must be dated a little before the middle of the seventh
century, for, as we shall see, he is distinctly earlier than the Macmillan vase.
It is surely no exaggeration to say that later artists never improved upon this
stage: the Rhodian vases of the 'gorgon' group are, it is true, later, and near
to perfection, but even here the fusion of the two ideas—the vase and the
modelled head—is not quite satisfactorily achieved. And in the sixth and
fifth centuries these two ideas stand far more obviously at variance. The Attic
vases in the form of heads or whole figures are often exquisitely beautiful,
because the modelling and the technique are beautiful; but there is not one of
them that is the better for being a vase. And now and then a gifted artist pro-
duced a veritable monstrosity.4 The seventh century knew better; knew that
the less vase-like the vase appeared, the more fully it justified its plastic form.
It valued the element of surprise, and surely, too, that of incongruity. Why,
otherwise, vases—perfume-vases—in the form of lions, owls, ducks, pigeons,
1 Several of these, vases in the form of pome- my own notes, from photographs taken by Mrs.
granates, are illustrated by Johansen on pi. 8 (cf. Wade-Gery. The vase is recognized as Protocorin-
P- 28). thian by Maximova (p. 109); it was published from
2 N.S. 1893, 470; Johansen pi. 41, 5; Maximova, unrecognizable photographs in B.S.A. xiv, 118 fig.
Vases Plastiques pi. 44, 166 (from photographs). 2. The orifice is in the chest, not in the mouth.
3 The drawings, fig. 72 are made, with the aid of 4 Cf., for instance, Buschor, Krokodil, 12 fig. 17.
PLASTIC VASES
FEW plastic vases were made at Corinth, or elsewhere on the Greek
mainland, in the geometric period. Such examples as exist are nearly all
of one type, and that, as Johansen has shown, borrowed in the late eighth
century from the East.1 It was not till the full seventh century that the idea
took root.
The Protocorinthian series proper begins with the excellent little lion-vase
from Syracuse illustrated in fig. 71.2 This vase was found in a very early
context (in the same grave as the ovoid aryballos pi. 1,4); but the style alone
would prove that it belongs to an early period. For we have other vases of the
same kind, still Protocorinthian, but greatly in advance of this stage. This
will be clear if we turn to figs. 72 and 73. The first of these is part of a lion
protome, and is evidently to be restored, as is done in the right-hand illustra-
tion, on the analogy of the vase in Syracuse; it was found in the Menelaion at
Sparta.3 That the artist now has at his command a great many details which
were unknown to the earlier artist is obvious at a glance: he draws the
mane with elaborate care, suggests the ruff at the side of the face, models
the wrinkles of the muzzle, and breaks up the planes of the head. But
there is a clear connexion between this vase and that from Syracuse, and a
significant resemblance in one point, the technique of covering large areas
with dots.
The lion from Sparta must be dated a little before the middle of the seventh
century, for, as we shall see, he is distinctly earlier than the Macmillan vase.
It is surely no exaggeration to say that later artists never improved upon this
stage: the Rhodian vases of the 'gorgon' group are, it is true, later, and near
to perfection, but even here the fusion of the two ideas—the vase and the
modelled head—is not quite satisfactorily achieved. And in the sixth and
fifth centuries these two ideas stand far more obviously at variance. The Attic
vases in the form of heads or whole figures are often exquisitely beautiful,
because the modelling and the technique are beautiful; but there is not one of
them that is the better for being a vase. And now and then a gifted artist pro-
duced a veritable monstrosity.4 The seventh century knew better; knew that
the less vase-like the vase appeared, the more fully it justified its plastic form.
It valued the element of surprise, and surely, too, that of incongruity. Why,
otherwise, vases—perfume-vases—in the form of lions, owls, ducks, pigeons,
1 Several of these, vases in the form of pome- my own notes, from photographs taken by Mrs.
granates, are illustrated by Johansen on pi. 8 (cf. Wade-Gery. The vase is recognized as Protocorin-
P- 28). thian by Maximova (p. 109); it was published from
2 N.S. 1893, 470; Johansen pi. 41, 5; Maximova, unrecognizable photographs in B.S.A. xiv, 118 fig.
Vases Plastiques pi. 44, 166 (from photographs). 2. The orifice is in the chest, not in the mouth.
3 The drawings, fig. 72 are made, with the aid of 4 Cf., for instance, Buschor, Krokodil, 12 fig. 17.