Early Boeotian Potters

EARLY BOEOTIAN POTTERS (PLATES 44-52) Amico et magistro bene mnerentid. d. > J THEN JosephClark Hoppin published his Handbookof GreekBlack-Figured Vases in 1924 he included in his section on Boeotia (pp. 17-24) nine vases with the signatures of five potters: Gamedes, Gryton, (I)phithadas, Menaidas, Mnasalkes. Since that time six additional vases signed by the same potters and five by a new one, Polon, have become known from museums and private collections. It seems worthwhile, therefore, to re-edit the material with photographs and to re- examine some of the problems raised by a study of this rather homogeneous group of vases.1 A. E. RAUBITSCHEK STANFORD UNIVERSITY 1 Our study began with the Heidelberg alabastron (Menaidas 5) which was put at our disposal by Roland Hampe; from him and from his associates, Hildegard Gropengiesser and Erika Diehl, we received generous help throughout the work. In the study of the Bonn aryballos (Menaidas 4) we enjoyed the assistance of Christiane Grunwald. For the photographs of the vases in the Louvre (Gamedes 1, Menaidas 1, Polon 1-4), in the British Museum (Gamedes 2), and in Athens (Mnasalkes 1) we are grateful to P. Devambez, Ann Birchall, Barbara Philippaki, Dina Delmouzou, Semni Karouzou. Karl Schefold and Reinhard Lullies called our attention to the Solothurn aryballos (Mnasalkes 3) and to the Berlin aryballos (Gryton 1) respectively, and we received photographs of the former from its owner Rudolf Schmidt and of the latter from Elisabeth Rohde and Huberta von Littrow. Finally, Cornelius Vermeule put the valuable material from Boston (Gryton 2, Mnasalkes 2, Polon 5) at our disposal, and Fritz Eichler and Rudolf Noll gave us information and photos of the Vienna aryballos (Phithadas 2), Ulrich Gehrig and Norbert Kunisch of the Berlin exaleiptron, Klaus Vierneisel of the unsigned Mnasalkes aryballos in Munich, and Neda Leiper of the unsigned snake in Toronto. Our debt to all these scholars and friends is so great and so obvious that we must ask the reader not to hold any of them responsible for any error he may detect in the following account. This applies also to the advice we have had from A. Greifenhagen, Herbert Hoffmann, Erika Simon, Annie Ure, and especially from John Boardman and Dietrich von Bothmer. For permission to publish this rich harvest of photographs we want to thank not only those who generously sent them to us but also the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin; the Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Staatliche Museen, Berlin; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Trustees of the British Museum, London; the Antikensammlungen, Munich; the Royal Ontario Museum, University of Toronto; and the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. A generous grant from Stanford University nmadethe publication of extra plates possible. American School of Classical Studies at Athens is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve, and extend access to Hesperia ® www.jstor.org EARLY BOEOTIAN POTTERS 155 GAMEDES Clay: Pinkish brown, fine textured, without mica or grit. 1. Oinochoe. Paris, Louvre, MNB 501. Pl. 44, a-c. Paint: Reddish brown at bottom, shaded to darker brown on body and neck. Laboratory Bibl.: Hoppin, pp. 18-19; E. Pfuhl, MuZ, analysis showed that the paint is a fired slip. pp. 127-129, fig. 94; R. Elgnowski, Festschrift Decoration: The fired slip has penetrated Eugen v. Mercklin, pp. 34-38, pls. 17, 11 and into the incised decoration which must have 19,4. been made before the firing of the vase. Provenience: Tanagra. Inscription: E7roEe,incised on a band Height, 0.33 m. ]Patf8eg between chevrons which were incised after- Shape: See Elgnowski, op. cit. wards. Laboratory analysis showed that the Clay: Misfired false red. inscription was incised before firing and that the Paint: Brownish black, purplish red, white. slip penetrated into the letters. The letter forms Decoration: Foot and lower part of body are are the same as those on the painted signature solid brownish black. There are abundant in- cisions on all figures, and there are purplish red (1). Acknowledgments: Ann Birchall. and white dots on the animals. Four rosettes are scattered among the animals; these rosettes have added red and white. Below the frieze is a GRYTON row of Doric leaves in dark red on white ground 1. Ring Aryballos. Berlin, Staatliche Museen, and above it alternating red and white leaves. Antiquarium, Inv. 3395. P1. 45, a-b. On the collar and on the lip are white dots. Unpublished. There are double palmettes on the upper part Provenience: Unknown. of the neck. Height, 0.096 m.; diameter, 0.076m. Inscription: rPa/if f7roE'rE, painted twice, Shape: Tubular ring with flattish sides. Pro- once inside the trilobate lip and again on the file of lip is round. There is a strap handle frieze on either side of the man. from lip to rim. Acknowledgments: P. Devambez. Clay: Rather fine, yellowish brown. 2. Aryballos. London, British Museum, 73.2- Paint: Brownish black and purplish red. 8.2 (old number A 189). P1. 44, d-e. Decoration: Horizontal and vertical lines on Bibl.: Hoppin, p. 17; J. D. Beazley, B.S.A., the handle. On the body, a series of seven con- XXIX, 1927-28, p. 195. centric bands, with ladders on the two nearest Provenience: Acquired in 1873, probably to the rim, on both sides. from Thespiae. Inscription: Pprrov CZotFcaLE, incised on the Height, 0.09 m. rim from the bottom up. The, last six letters Shape: Well known Corinthian type with are scratched over and into the decoration on square lip (H. Payne, ATecrocorinthia,Nos. 378, the handle, thus showing that the inscription 638, 1262, 1294) of which many examples were was incised after the firing of the vase. found in Rhitsona; see P. N. Ure, Aryballoi Acknowledgments: Huberta von Littrow, and Figurines, pl. IV, 99: 50, 52; 13: 12; 89: R. Lullies, Elisabeth Rohde. 5; 86: 252; 97: 10. Ure (pp. 23-25) assigned these vases to his Class IV. The prototype was 2. Plastic Vase in the shape of a sandalled right possibly Assyrian, transmitted through the East foot. Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, 99. Greek faience aryballos; see R. D. Barnett, The 897. P1. 45, c-d. Aegean and the Near East, p. 233 and note 108, Bibl.: HIoppin, p. 20; A. Fairbanks, Cata- pl. XXII, 1-2. logue of Greek and Etruscan Vases, Boston, 156 ISABELLE K. RAUBITSCHEK Museum of Fine Arts, I, pp. 183-184, pl. LI, and 54; G. M. A. Richter, Archaic Gravestones no. 536; H. Payne, Necrocorinthia, p. 33, of Attica, pp. 22-23. note 2; J. Boardman, J.H.S., LXXXV, 1965, Decoration: Lip and upper part of neck are p. 235. covered with paint; concentric bands are Provenience: Acquired in 1898, from Thebes. painted, two on the shoulder and three on the Height, 0.074 m.; length, 0.092 m. body. Shape: The foot is modelled only in meager Inscription: MEvaas E,U'LE'7rofEaE Xaport, in- details; the straps are not rendered plastically cised around the middle of the body between as on other sandalled foot vases, e.g., A.J.A., two of the painted bands. LXIX, 1965, p. 64. There is another plastic Acknowledgments: P. Devainbez. foot in Wiirzburg, with an incised inscription Paris, Louvre, ODF (A,EvKO'AoJo,) which Langlotz (Katalog, p. 21) 2. Globular Aryballos. considered of doubtful genuineness. (objets douteux ou faux) 53. Clay: Dull gray with small lumps of white Bibl.: Hoppin, p. 22, quotes a note from Pot- and black particles. tier who reports that he acquired another ary- Paint: Shiny brownish black decoration on ballos similar to Menaidas 1 without decoration a dull gray slip. and with the same inscription. Pottier listed the Decoration: There are laddered straps across vase among the " doubtful or false " objects and the toes (which are not plastically indicated), Devambez was unable to find it in 1965. crisscrossing at instep, and going up to the mid- Acknowledgments: P. Devambez. dle of the foot where they end in a rectangular 3. " Corinthian Pilgrim's Bottle." Athens, plate (which held the straps together), with Private Collection. spirals above and below. The ankle bone is sur- rounded by circles. Below the neck is a band Height, 0.105 m. of carelessly painted pendant leaves. On the lip Inscription: MEvat'8as' E/L E7rotFELE Xapomr. are radiating lines, on the handle, transverse Acknowledgments: D. v. Bothmer. bars. 4. Pomegranate shaped Aryballos. Bonn, Aka- Inscription: FPv'Tov fTOtfrE9E, incised on the demnischesKunstmuseum der Universitatt, sole of the foot, in letters similar to those on 2128. Pls. 46, c; 47, b. the Berlin aryballos (1). Bibl.: A. Greifenhagen, Arch. Anz., 1936, Acknowledgments: Erika Simon, C. C. Ver- cols. 400-401, fig. 56. meule, III. Provenience: Unknown; in the Museum since 1910. MENAIDAS Height, 0.055 m. Shape: Derived from earlier, even geometric, 1. Globular Aryballos. Paris, Louvre, CA 128. aryballoi; see, e.g., E. Pfuhl, Ath. Mitt., Plate 46, a-b. XXVIII, 1903, Beilage XIX, 4; B. Schweitzer, Bibl.:' Hoppin, p. 22. Ath. Mitt., XLIII, 1918, p. 139, pl. IV, 2; H. Provenience: Thebes. Payne, Necrocorinthia, p. 170; K. Schefold, Height, 0.065 m. Meisterwerke, pp. 8, 124, no. 41. The Bonn Shape: Ball shaped aryballos without handle, vase, however, does not have any plant-like with round lip (similar to that of the ring ary- forms; the smooth thorn at the foot has merely balloi in this catalogue). No exact parallels are a slight indentation, probably caused by the available; see the aryballos (with handle) on vase being set on a point for the painting. the " Boeotian" stele in Boston, F. R. Grace, The lip is round (as on Menaidas 1 and 5), Archaic Sculpture in Boeotia, p.

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