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A Vase of Polygnotan Style

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A Vase of Polygnotan Style A VASE OF POLYGNOTAN STYLE. 117 A VASE OF POLYGNOTAN STYLE : M. d. I., XL, 38. THE krater which is the subject of this paper is preserved in the Louvre. It has been well engraved in the Monumenti1 of the Institute, and discussed by Helbig in the Bulletino (1881, p. 276), by Robert in the Annali (1882, p. 273), and by Winter in his Jilngere Attische Vasen (p. 45). My object in resuming the study of it is twofold. Firstly, the vase is so remarkable for beauty and distinction of style as to have scarcely an equal, and it will be a good thing to bring it in any way to the notice of English artists and archaeologists. And secondly, in spite of Professor Robert's able paper, it appears to me that it is susceptible of a more complete explanation than it has yet received. It was discovered at Orvieto2 in 1880, in a large tomb consisting of two chambers. In the same tomb were found several other vases, ranging in date from the early part of the fifth to the middle of the fourth century. Our vase was in that of the two chambers in which were for the most part later vases; but Professor Helbig states that the contents of the two chambers were broken, and so much intermingled that it was difficult to say that the vases lay in dis- tinct groups. It seems therefore that the circumstances of the finding do not compel us to assign a particular date to our vase. Professor Robert would give it to the first quarter of the fourth century. But since the recent excavations at Athens have taught us that even Hiero and Brygus worked in the first half of the fifth century, it would not now be possible to fix for it so late a date as B.C. 400. Indeed, since both Furtwiingler3 and Murray4 assign vases of far less severe style to the latter part of the fifth century, our vase should probably be assigned to the middle of that century. The drawing is through- out full of severity, and in the attitudes there is something of archaic stiffness. The warrior leaning on a spear on the left of the principal scene is at least as stiff in type as the so-called Choiseul-Gouffier Apollo,5 and shows nothing even of Polycleitan rhythm. In the case of some of the warriors we have long locks of hair falling on the shoulders, a thing not found in Greek representa- tions of mortals after the middle of the fifth century. The heads of Apollo and Artemis in the smaller scene have all the character of the pre-Pheidian 1 xi. 38—40. Our woodcut is based on a pi. lv. reduction of this lithograph. 4 Journ. Hell. Studies, viii. 3. - Helbig in Bull. d. Inst. 1S81, p. 276. 5 Ibid. i. pi. iv. 3 Sabourvff Collection. Text accompanying 31A1S -NLVIOiMOATOJ £0 tfSVA V 811 A VASE OF POLYGNOTAN" STYLE. 119 art. It is true that if we assign our vase to so early a time we must put it in a class by itself: other vases with any attempt at perspective are of later date. But in any case our vase stands quite by itself, and if it be really early will only become more interesting, because we shall have to trace in it the in- fluence not of contemporary vase-painters but of the more advanced fresco- painters, and particularly of Polygnotus of Thasos, whose work at Athens is supposed to have begun in B.C. 471. As to the place, of origin of our vase, there can scarcely be a doubt; it is of fine Attic work. It has not escaped either Robert or Winter that the composition of our vase is in the style of the great painter Polygnotus. But it seems to me possible to go further than this. A careful comparison of the vase with the descriptions given by Pausanias of the paintings by Polygnotus in the Lesche at Delphi seems to entitle us on the one hand to use the vase with some con- fidence in order to improve our knowledge of Polygnotus, and on the other hand to explain on Polygnotan analogies many of the details of the design which have hitherto been regarded as inexplicable. If in either of these attempts we have any measure of success there must be gain. For all the attempts as yet made to restore the designs of the Lesche can only be described by the word deplorable.1 We ought properly to consider the works of Polygnotus under three aspects : first as regards composition, secondly as regards drawing, and thirdly as regards colouring. But any discussion of the last-mentioned point must neces- sarily be almost useless. For frescoes of that age have not come down to us, and the paintings of sepulchral stelae2 and of polychrome vases3 have suf- fered so terribly from time and decay that they serve in this special point of colour rather to mislead than to instruct us. But in the other matters of composition and drawing extant Greek vases can afford us some notion of the style of Polygnotus, and none in a higher degree than the vase under discussion. If one reads in Pausanias4 his careful description of the paintings of the Lesche, one is at first confused by the way in which he returns to figures de- scribed some time before. In the scene of the Capture of Ilium Helen, says Pausanias, is represented as seated. He then mentions several wounded Trojans, and states that in the picture they were above Helen. To her he then returns, and says that next her was Aethra standing with Demophon the son of Theseus. Next Pausanias mentions Andromache, Nestor and others and then (ch. 26, ad init.) starts once more from Aethra and gives us a list of Trojan women who stood above her. After a time he comes back to Nestor and describes Neoptolemus as beside him. Such is his method throughout. 1 They will be found collected in the plates 4 x. 25—31. Whether Pausanias' description of the new issue of the Vienna Vorlegeblatter. be first-hand or second-hand is not of import- 2 See the dissertations of Loeschcke and ance in this connexion. In fact, the nearer one Milchhiifer in the Athenian ilittheilungen, vols. brings the origin of his descriptions to the time iv. and v. of Polygnotus, the more one will be inclined to 3 Especially the fine Attic lekythi with wliite trust them, ground. 120 A VASE OF POLYGNOTAN STYLE. And hence it is abundantly clear that in Potygnotus' painting the figures were ranged in rows, apparently three in number. True perspective was of course unknown to the Greeks of that time ; the figures in the upper tiers would be neither smaller in size nor less clear than those in the lower. If however these rows or tiers were arranged, as some have fancied, in even lines, a most unplea&ing composition would result; while by interlacing them up and down and carefully adapting figures to spaces a most pleasing result could be attained. The vase now before us is an admirable specimen of arrangement according to the Polygnotan system of perspective, and will show us better than any verbal discussion, how it was possible to make groups above and below one another without any harshness of arrangement. The lines of the sceneJ move irregularly across the field, and the actors stand at various levels according to the exigences of the composition and the space. If we assume a similar system of arrangement in the great frescoes at Delphi, we shall at once find order and method in the irregular flow of Pausanias' descriptions. Let us next turn to the subjects depicted on the vase before us. The smaller of the two scenes can be at a glance identified. In a mountainous scene appear Apollo and Artemis, he carrying a chlamys on his left arm, she clad in a Doric chiton, shooting down the unfortunate children of Niobe. The woods which cover the mountain are introduced in abbreviated form by the sketch of a pine tree, a representation quite in the manner of Polygnotus, with whom in his pictures at Delphi a tree stands for the grove of Persephone, and pebbles indicate the sea.2 One young man flies to left and one to right, both pierced by the shafts of the offended deities, one youth and a maiden lie slain in the foreground. Benndorf brings the body of this youth, partly hidden by the rocks, into relation with the phrase in which Pausanias de- scribes Polygnotus' figure of Tityus dfivBpbv ical ovBe 6\6/c~\.r)pov e'ihwXov ;3 and supposes that this phrase may be applied to a figure thus only partly visible ; but it seems very doubtful whether it can bear such a meaning; it seems rather to imply the dimness than the incompleteness of the figure men- tioned. The scene of the obverse of the vase has also been identified with general acceptance. The only two personages who can be at first sight made out are Athena and Herakles, and these two are not standing together but sepa- rated by a warrior who occupies an even more dignified position than that of Herakles, and is evidently the leader of the whole party. His relations towards Herakles are friendly, not hostile. Every one will agree with Robert that he cannot be Cycnus or any other foe of Herakles, but must be no other than Jason, whose leadership in the Argonautic expedition was accepted even by Herakles.
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