Ancient Greek Women and Art: the Am Terial Evidence Brunilde S

Bryn Mawr College Scholarship, Research, and Creative Work at Bryn Mawr College Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology Faculty Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology Research and Scholarship 1987 Ancient Greek Women and Art: The aM terial Evidence Brunilde S. Ridgway Bryn Mawr College, [email protected] Let us know how access to this document benefits ouy . Follow this and additional works at: http://repository.brynmawr.edu/arch_pubs Part of the Classical Archaeology and Art History Commons, and the History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology Commons Custom Citation Ridgway, Brunilde S. 1987. Ancient Greek Women and Art: The aM terial Evidence. American Journal of Archaeology 91:399-409. This paper is posted at Scholarship, Research, and Creative Work at Bryn Mawr College. http://repository.brynmawr.edu/arch_pubs/8 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Ancient Greek Women and Art: The Material Evidence BRUNILDE SISMONDO RIDGWAY to more than one interpretation.My own task is much Abstract more limited in scope, since I do not plan to write Ancient Greek women and their relationshipto the vi- specificallyon the status of women in ancient Greece; sual arts are here discussed on the evidence of the solely yet the resultant picture may lead to a more balanced extant monuments,rather than on the informationof the view of women's role in their What I literary sources. Although this review makes no attempt society. attempt to be complete, several forms of the relationship are ex- to do is to draw together a sample group of extant plored. The most importantis that of women as sponsors monuments that can be demonstrablyconnected with of architecturalprojects; second is that of women as dedi- women in various ways. Women may have either cators of statues and other the offerings. Finally, objects commissionedor dedicatedthe items in question;they meant to be used by women, or those that representthem, could have used or even have been are included, although the men of the family might have simply them, the been responsible for the commission and the funding. subject representedon and by them. This last area- The survey follows a chronologicalarrangement. women as depictedin the visual arts-is, of course,too extensive for the scope of a brief survey which makes In the wake of the feminist movement, a great deal no claim to completeness.Women as artistic subjects, of attention has been focused in recent years on wo- therefore,will be includedonly as a way of suggesting men in antiquity. Most such studies, however, have their relativeimportance, thus fleshingout what to me based their conclusions on literary sources, which by is the more interestingaspect of this research,women their very nature either dramatize or are slanted ac- as patrons of art and architecture.1 cording to a specific bias. Even those studies that have Obviously, if by patronageone visualizes the com- used contemporary depictions on vases, or other ar- plex relationshipsof Renaissancewomen with artists tistic evidence, have often drawn inferences colored by and poets, no such condition seems to have existed in literary knowledge, since many of the painted scenes ancient Greece, at least before the Hellenistic period. are less explicit than it may seem, and can be subjected Even the more limited role played by Roman women IAn oral version of this study was delivered as part of a many helpful comments.Other useful studies are M.R. Lef- symposium on "Women in the Ancient World" held on 1 kowitz, Heroines and Hysterics (New York 1981) and S.B. February 1986 at Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas. I Pomeroy,Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves (New York am indebtedto Prof. C. Valone for her invitationto partici- 1975); in the latter, however, the archaeologicalevidence, pate in the symposium and for her suggestionthat I address becauseof the compassof the study, has been condensedand the issue of Greek women as patrons. In keeping with my simplifiedto the point of being occasionallymisleading (e.g., archaeologicaltraining, I tried to approach the topic from p. 46, on Archaic Attic gravestonesof women; not only is the tangible evidence alone, using literary sources only as there some evidence that stelai just for women existed, but supporting information. Since delivering the paper, I have no grave relief, to my knowledge, shows a woman with a received several requests for my text, and I have therefore warrior). attempted to put it into article form, although without the In my text, all dates should be taken as B.C., unless oth- help of the many illustrationswhich accompaniedthe origi- erwise specified. Referencehas been made to general hand- nal presentation;it must still be consideredin the nature of books or sources of illustrations, to facilitate consultation. commentsrather than a thorough study, and primarily use- The following abbreviationsare used throughout: ful for pointing the way for potential future research. Boardman J. Boardman, Greek Sculpture. The Ar- For a helpful collectionof literary sourceson women, see, chaic Period (London 1978). for instance, M.R. Lefkowitz and M.B. Fant, Women'sLife Jeffery L.H. Jeffery, "The Inscribed Gravestones in Greece and Rome (rev. ed., Baltimore 1982). But trage- of ArchaicAttica," BSA 57 (1962) dies, historical accounts, and legal recordsare likely to deal 115-53. only with extreme cases, and not with common, everyday Lazzarini M.L. Lazzarini, "Le formule delle dediche life. For interpretationof scenes on vases see, e.g., E. Keuls, votive nella Grecia arcaica,"MemLinc, The Reign of the Phallus (New York 1985), but that differ- ser. 8, vol. 19 (1976) 47-354. ent interpretationsare also possible is shown, e.g., by G.F. Raubitschek A.E. Raubitschek, Dedications from the Pinney, "Money-Bags?"AJA 90 (1986) 218. For a more Athenian Akropolis(Cambridge, Mass. moderateapproach see also A. Cameron and A. Kuhrt eds., 1949). Women in Images of Antiquity (Detroit 1983); I owe this Ridgway B.S. Ridgway, The ArchaicStyle in Greek reference to R. Hamilton, to whom I am grateful also for Sculpture (Princeton 1977). 399 AmericanJournal of Archaeology91 (1987) 400 BRUNILDESISMONDO RIDGWAY [AJA91 in the dedication of buildings and monuments easily ation, nonetheless, with some finds from earlier fe- surpasses that of their Greek counterparts. On the male burials that attest to the honors paid to women. other hand, the Greek evidence is significant in vari- One is the cremationgrave of a "RichAthenian Lady" ous respects, and seems to exist even for the early found some years ago in the Agora of Athens. A date periods after the Dark Ages; it also appears to show around 850 is suggested by the Geometric pottery remarkably little regional variation, despite the fact placed in the rock-cut cist, the ash urn as well as the that Ionian women are invariably assumed to have burial gifts. The urn is a belly amphora,a vessel often enjoyed greater freedom and privileges than those of found associatedwith female remains;among the gifts the Greek mainland proper. Inevitably, wealth may is a neck amphora of much smaller size, which may have been a factor in producing what monumental imply a male child, and perhaps even death in child- evidence we have today, but occasionally we get birth.3 That the main occupant of the grave was a glimpses of the common woman or the middle-class woman is confirmedby anthropologicalanalysis of the family, especially within the polis and away from the bones and by the presenceof faience and goldjewelry, monarchicalcenters. some of it with sophisticatedgranulation, which be- speaks contacts with the Near East and a degree of THE NINTH-SEVENTH CENTURIES wealth hitherto unsuspected for Athens of the ninth The earliest unequivocalevidence of "patronage"is century. Even more significantof female importance, providedby the over-life-sizedstatue dedicatedby Ni- since the object was meant for use by a woman, is kandre, which may represent the goddess Artemis. another find among the grave goods:a large terracotta Not only is it remarkable for its size (1.75 m.), but chest/pyxis surmountedby five ovoid shapes. These especially for the fact that its date, around 650, makes have been interpretedas models of granaries,and as a it one of the earliest pieces of Greek large-scalemarble possible indication of the social standing of the dead sculpture extant and, in all likelihood, one of the ear- lady's family. Although 850 is considerably earlier liest made. Given the paucity of monumentalcarvings than the Solonic reforms, an agricultural wealth of at that time, the statue must have been commissioned, 500 medimnoicould be postulatedif each model gran- rather than being the work of a sculptor looking for a ary were to symbolize a capacity of 100 medimnoi. buyer. In fact, the master is not mentioned in the in- The family of the woman who owned such a chest scription, which however gives the names not only of would thus belong to the pentakosiomedimnoi who Nikandre of Naxos, the dedicator,but also of her fath- formed the first-ranking class of citizens in Solon's er Deinodikes, her brother Deinomenes and her hus- codification.The lawgiver is thought simply to have band Phraxos, in that order. After her patronymic, made official a long-standing measure of family dis- moreover,Nikandre adds of herself: "excellentamong tinction.4If the ranking pertainsto men, the elaborate others,"a boast of self-worth in keeping with the value pyxis itself was unquestionablyused by, and made for, of her dedication.2 the woman buried in the grave. The listing of her family connectionssuggests that A secondinstance is providedby one of the most fa- Nikandre was a member of the Naxian aristocracy, mous amongthe Dipylon vases,the greatbelly ampho- and it is in the sphere of the wealthy that one expects ra Athens N.M.

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