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Southern Italian and Sicilian Vases

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Southern Italian and Sicilian Vases Margot SchmIdt Southern Italian and Sicilian Vases Among the precious legaciesmankind has inherited from Magna Graecia are the painted vasesof the Classicalperiod. Somemight consider this statementan exaggeration,or that - without exactly contradicting it - it should be circumscribed and limited inasmuchas other regions of the ancient world produced ceramicsof equal quality, especiallyif we include the products madeby the Athen- ian potters and vase-paintersin the sixth and fifth centuries,when this kind of art was at its zenith, which were by far superior to other regional workshops.What was decisivefor the developmentof vase-paintingin Magna Graecia was that the artists steeredtheir own course, introducing a reper- toire of forms and imagesthat distinguishedthem early on from the Attic models, whose influence was limited only to the start of their activity. The result is a treasuryof artistic creationswhich must be consideredutterly unique. In the strict sense,by "Italiot" vase-makingwe meanthe production of ceramics- in Apulia and Lu- cania as from ca. 440 B.C.,and a little later, i.e., as from the fourth century B.C.,in Campaniaand at Paestum - using the red-figure technique acquired from the mother country, instead of the earlier black-figure technique.Red-figure vases were alsoproduced in Sicily from the late fifth century B.C. This kind of artistic production developedtherefore in the cultural climate of the cities founded by the Greek colonists,in specificmilieus that differed to a greateror lesserextent from thoseof Main- land Greece.Among the characteristicspeculiar to thepoleis was the highly profitable exchangeswith the local populationsliving in the neighborhoodof the Greek settlements.While on variousoccasions this proximity culminatedin warfare, did howeverprevail peacefulcoexistence and reciprocal influ- encefor periods of varying length. The spreadand useof Italiot vases,even in remotesettlements in the interior, togetherwith their uti- lization in local necropolisestogether with other indigenousceramics and products, are clearproof of the great influence of Italiot culture in Magna Graecia.Moreover, the role of thesevases as carriers and interpretersof ideasand imagesshould not be underrated.The way in which theseimages were assimilatedby the local population providesus with significantinformation about the cultural level of the latter. It certainly cannotbe said that the Greek cities in southernItaly were surroundedby "sav- ages"without little or no civilization of their own. The shapesand decorationof severalItaliot vases reflect the taste of their local customers.Traditional, non-Greek shapes(in particular, the nestorts, knqwn as the "trozzella" in Italian) havebeen found decoratedwith the red-figure techniquebut il- lustrating people dressedin native costumesand bearinglocal weapons(for example,the Messapiiin Apulia, the Oscansand Samnitesin Campania). Tarentum(Taras) and Paestum(Poseidonia) provide two oppositesillustrating the relationsbetween the descendantsof the Greek settlersand the nativepeoples. On the one hand, we havethe old colo- nial city of Spartanorigin, in constantcontact with the mother country,with rich traditions and a so- phisticatedHellenic culture, and on the other, a city which was dominated,in the period we are ex- amining,by the Lucani. The whole of the Paestanproduction of red-figure vaseslies within this Lu- canianperiod, excluding a brief interlude, from 336-332 B.C.If we considerPaestum as a "Lucanian Messapic black. figure nestoris [two. handled storage jar] 500-475 B.C. Cop'enhagen Ny Carlsberg Glyptothek Cat.138 Mes~apic black-figure nestoris end 6th cent. B.C. Lecce, Museo Provinciale Cat.139 443 Southern Italian and Sicilian Vases Black-figure amphora from Campania 500-490 B.C. Siena Museo Archeologico NazionaIe Cat.140 city," the classificationof the subjectmatter becomeseven more interesting,since the knowledgeof the contentsof the ancienttragedies has apparently remained unchanged. Evidence of this is provided by the vase-paintingreferring to Aeschylusor, more frequently,to Euripides. Highly amusing,extraordi- nary scenesfrom the comic theaterare alsopresent on Paestanvases. The only two Italiot vase-painters who signedtheir wares,Assteas and Python (no other signatureshave survived from the other South Italian workshops)were activein "Lucanian" Paestum.These two leading vase-painters- who were probably potters aswell- worked in one of the most important Paestanpotteries. To return for a mo- ment, to the beginningsof Italiot vases,in Athens the transition from black-figure to red-figure vase- painting took placeas far back as the last quarter of the sixth century B.C.Why then did the produc- tion of red-figurevases only start in southernItaly severalgenerations later, that is, toward 440 B.C.? The answerto this questionis particularly complex and we must considerboth external and internal causes.We will dealwith the external causesfirst. Mter the long PeloponnesianWar, toward the end of the fifth centuryB.C., the flow of imported waresfrom Athens declined drastically.Until then buy- ers in Magna Graeciahad preferred to purchaseoriginal ceramicware from Attic potteriesinstead of stimulating local workshopsto adopt the Greek techniques(a fairly suitablecomparison to this situ- ation hassometimes been made with the modem phenomenonby which only authentichaute couture direct from Pariswill satisfycertain tastes),now they had to try to satisfytheir wishesby other means. At first the demandcould be more or lessmet by the production of potters who had emigratedfrom Athens when the changedconditions of their own city forced them to seektheir fortunes elsewhere. The fact that the first Italiot vasesare hardly different from the Attic onesleads us to believethat they were indeed produced by theseAthenian immigrants.One stimulus- though not the only one - was "probablyoffered by theioundation of the Panhelleniccolony of Thurii in theW'e'S'terrra~Of:th-e't:jT1lr of Tarantoin about443 B.C. The new settlementgrew up near the site of the once famous city of Sybaris,which had been destroyed.Athens played a major role in establishingthe colony and there- fore Athenian culture was able to spreadin a more immediateway, without the time-consumingvoy- agesacross the sea.As early as 1893Adolf Furtwiingter upheld the view that it was the very founda- tion of the new colony that was decisivein starting the local production of red-figure vases.Furtwiin- gler's theory need not be altogetherdiscarded, although to the presentday there have not been any discoveries(traces of kilns or suchlike) in the areaof the ancient city to confirm it. However,in the areaof the city of Metapontum, situatedfurther east,excavations have brought to light material that provesthe presenceof an ancientworkshop with fra~mentsof vasesthat datefrom the time of the ear- 444 ~ Southern Italian and Sicilian Vases Red-figure amphora ly-LucanianAmykos Painter to the Dolon and Creusa Painters,of a slightly later date.In order to un- from Nola derstandthe internal causesof the delay in the spreadof red-figure vase-painting,we should makea fIrSt half 5th cent, B.C. careful examinationof the earlier production of pottery in southernItaly. Unlike the Greek mother- VaticanCity Museo Gregotiano Etrusco land it seemsthat there wasa lack of real interestin theseareas in representingthe human figure. The Cat. 141 products of the ancient local potteries are all characterizedby the preferencefor relatively abstract, ornamental,geometric designs. Even during the periods of closer contactswith Italiot vase-painting, Red-figure amphora with the birth of Helen the useof figurative subjectsremained an exception (as for instanceon very few Daunian and Mess- from Paestum apic vasesin Apulia). This characteristicappears to be applicable to the assimilationof the earlier ca. mid 4th cent. B.C. black-figure techniqueas well. While, for example,in the late sixth centuryB.C. various workshops in Paestum Museo Archeologico Nazionale Etruria produced somehighly original black-figurevases, in southernItaly similar attemptswere spo- C:at.216 radic. Black-figurevases from Campaniawere influencedby Etruscanware, while the rare local Apu- lian black-figure production proposedoriginal but simplified silhouettefigures, which differed from the attemptsat characterizationfound in the ancientAttic models.It is interestingto note the survival of the black-figuretechnique in the production of one type of vasein particular,the smallPagenstecher lekythoi. Theselekythoi seemto havebeen produced from the late 4th century B.C.at various places in Campania as well as in Sicily and the most successful examples prove that this style - only appar- ently obsolete- could nonethelessresult in aestheticallysatisfying results. A particularly delightful exampleof probable local production but of a much earlier date, from the end of the 6th century,is the black-figure amphoraof ca. 520 B.C.(Museo Nazionale,Taranto). The subjectmatter is a lively sceneof a bird hunt with an owl asa decoy. Early attemptsat introducing the red-figure technique,dating to a previousperiod or, partly contem- porary with the developmentof Italiot vases,are even rarer. One of the reasonsfor this could lie in the fact that this kind of techniquewas relatively difficult, and required the acquisitionof certain skills. There is proof however that an isolated workshop in the province of Campania - the so-called "Owl- Pillar-Group" - was attemptingto createred-figure vases before the mid-fifth century
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