Exekias

1. Exekias The greatest black figure master of all time?

2. Proscribed Vases: Exekias Belly Amphora Side A Achilles & Ajax

3. Proscribed Vases: Exekias Belly Amphora Side B Return of Castor & Pollux

4. Proscribed Vases: Exekias eye kylix dionysus

6. Exekias Belly Amphora Vase: Belly Amphora Potter & Painter: Exekias signed Date: 550 - 540 B.C. Height: 61 cm Subject: Side A: Achilles & Ajax Side B: Return of the Dioskouri

7. Exekias Side A • Exekias signed both as potter and painter. His masterpiece is the belly amphora in Vatican, dated to c.540-530. Its detailed representation, especially the patterns on garments and armours, cannot be found any other painter's works.

8. The myth: Side A • Achilles was the brave Greek hero in Homer's Iliad. When Achilles was a baby his mother Thetis dipped him into the river Styx. The magic water protected his body, except for his heel, which his mother was holding. Achilles was killed in the Trojan War when Paris’ arrow struck him on the heel.

9. The Tragedy of Ajax • Ajax recovered Achilles body when Paris shot Achilles. • Athene gave achilles armour to Odysseus so he boasted he did not need the gods help • Athene drove him mad and he killed cattle in the belief they were the enemy. • Ajax committed suicide due to the shame

10. Subject side A: A game • This vase shows Ajax and Achilles two Greek heroes playing a game similar to backgammon. • Herodotus, the 5th century Greek historian believed board games came from Asia Minor. Counters, dice and game pieces made of stone, bone and clay have been found.

11. Composition Side A • The painter made viewer's eyes concentrate on the board at the centre led by the heroes' eyes, hands and spears.

12. Composition Side A • Also the spears lead our eyes to the handles.

13. Composition Side A • Although the figures are symmetrically arranged, Exekias differenciate both figures in every detail. • list the differences you can see

14. Composition Side A • It is also noticeable that depth is represented by overlapping spear, board, legs and mantles.

15. Composition Side A • The composition complements the form of the vase. • Figures are bent toward game and curve of their backs echoes curve of vase.

16. Composition Side A • Their spears lead the eye up toward the handles.

17. Composition Side A • The shields continue the vertical line of the bottom of the handle.

18. Composition Side A • Each man is shown with a helmet.

20. Treatment of the figure • Archaic frontal eye in profile head • Note the large eyeball and elongated whites of eyes.

21. Leather corset • Leather corset with plates at waist for protection and ease of movement • Worn with chiton underneath

22. Greaves and thigh guards • Greaves are like cricketers knee pads. • Fastened behind knee using thongs • Usually metal; bronze or iron • Note circled areas on the vase

23. Crest • Made from horse hair to distinguish fighters and make leaders more visible to their men • Achilles is wearing his to make him the larger figure. • Note the flopply crest and the tail trailing down the side of helmet

24. Treatment of the figure • Achilles Clothing • Label these items on your pictures in your books. • NB there is no 6

25. Side B: Return of the dioskouroi • Kyllaros, the horse tamed by Castor, dominates the scene. Behind is Castor. On the left side welcoming her sons is Leda and Polydeuces patting the hound. On the right is Tyndaros king of Sparta and servant boy carrying blankets/ cloacks and arabollos filled with oil or perfume for the travellers.

26. Da Vinci’s Leda

27. Leda and the swan; dali

28. The Myth in brief • Leda was the Spartan queen, wife of Tyndareus and mother of the double sets of twins, Castor and Polydeuces and Clytemnestra and Helen. • The best known story is that Zeus disguised himself as a swan and seduced Leda. Thus Leda's children hatched from two eggs that she produced. • It appeared that on a single night Zeus, in the guise of a swan, lay with Leda, who conceived Polydeuces (Pollux) and Helen "of Troy“. Later the same night her mortal husband, Tyndareus, king of Sparta, lay with his wife too, and she conceived Castor and Clytemnestra. • Thus one set of twins were wholly mortal Castor and Clytemnestra, the other set half-immortal Polydeuces and Helen "of Troy" .

29. Castor and Polydeuces • In Greek mythology, Castor (or Kastor) and Polydeuces (sometimes called Pollux) were the twin sons of Leda • They are called the Dioscuri (dios kouroi), meaning the "Sons of Zeus", • They are known as the Gemini, Latin for twins. • Polydeuces was a powerful boxer, and Castor a great horseman. • Castor and Polydeuces abducted and married Phoebe and Hilaeira, the daughters of Leucippus. In return, Idas and Lynceus, nephews of Leucippus (or rival suitors), killed Castor. • Polydeuces was granted immortality by Zeus, and persuaded Zeus to share his gift with Castor. Accordingly, the two spend alternate days as gods on Olympus and as deceased mortals in Hades.

30. Exekias Kylix Vase: Kylix Potter & Painter: Exekias signed Date: 535 B.C. Diameter: 30.5 cm Subjects Interior: Dionysus Exterior: pair of apotropaic eyes Exterior under handles: Hoplites fight over bodies of fallen. Foot signed by Exekias

31. Exekias Kylix • It was found in the Etruscan city of Vulci in Italy and is thus part of the abundant evidence of lively trade in the ancient Mediterranean. • It is now in the Staatliche Antikensammlungen of the Bayerisches Staatsministerium für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kunst in Munich.It is known as munich 2044

32. Signing vases • We know the names of some potters and painters of Greek vases because they signed their work. Generally a painter signed his name followed by some form of the verb 'painted', • While a potter (or perhaps the painter writing for him) signed his name with 'made'. • Sometimes the same person might both pot and paint: Exekias for example, sign as both potter and painter. • At other times potter and painter were different people and one or both of them signed. Like the francois vase • However, not all painters or potters signed all their work . Some seem never to have signed their vases, unless by chance signed pieces by these craftsmen have not survived.

33. Inscriptions • It is signed by Exekias, a potter and painter working in Athens in about 530 BC, .On foot of opposite side: see C&H pg 30 ECHSEKIAS EPOESE ("Exekias made it")

34. Shape • Cup for wine drinking • Exekias introduced new shape is so called ‘A type’ which has a shallow bowl with plain lip and a splaying foot offset from the bowl.

35. Interior decoration • The tondo has Dionysos lying on his ship surrounded by dolphins. Exekias filled around the tondo with coral red, though this technique was rarely followed.

36. Decoration Interior • Dionysos in a ship, sailing amongst dolphins.

37. Decoration Interior • Dionysos reclines like a symposiast in his ship, holding a keras or rhyton (drinking horn) in his right hand and leaning back on his left arm.

38. Decoration Interior • The white sail of the ship spreads above him, and climbing the mast of the ship, a grapevine with clusters of grapes fills the field of the cup.

39. Decoration Interior • The prow of the ship is decorated with eyes; the body of the ship with two leaping dolphins and the stern post bends up into a swan's head.

40. A random modern version of myth without Dionysus but a bear instead?

41. The Myth • Based on Homer’s ‘Hymn to Dionysos’ • Dionysus was kidnapped on the way to Greece by pirates. • He revealed his divine persona by turning the mast into a vine which grow vines which produced grapes, as Dionysus is the god of wine. • The terrified pirates jumped overboard and turned into dolphins.

42. Exterior decoration • On both sides A and B, large apotropaic eyes like those on East Greek cups, with eyebrows and diminutive noses.

43. Exterior decoration • Beneath and on either sides of the handles, battles over fallen heroes (fight for the body of Patroklos?).

44. Exterior decoration • The warrior has already been stripped of his armor. Armour is the prize of the victors

45. Exterior decoration • On this side, he is armed.

46. Development of Black figure • In Athens, in the Archaic period, potters made clay pots with mythological scenes on them. • Gradually the scenes grew and took over more of the pot, and the geometric decoration took up less and less space. • At the same time, a new painting technique developed.  Instead of painting figures of people in outline, the Athenian potters began to paint people in silhouette: this is called black-figure, because the people are all black.

47. Making and decorating Athenian black figure vases • The first stage in making a pot is to dig the clay out of the ground. Pieces of grit or plant matter must be removed before the clay can be used. This was done in ancient times, as it is today, by mixing the clay with water and letting the heavier impurities sink to the bottom. This process could be carried out as many times as necessary. When judged to be sufficiently fine, the clay was left to dry out to the required consistency.

48. Making a pot • To make a vase the potter kneaded a lump of clay of suitable size and placed it centrally on the flat surface of the wheel. As the wheel revolved, the potter drew the clay up into the required shape with his hands.

49. Making a pot • Scenes on the vases themselves show that potters' wheels were discs, presumably made of wood, clay or stone, about two feet in diameter, with socketed bases fitting over low, fixed pivots. It seems to have been usual to have a boy, presumably an apprentice potter, to turn the wheel by hand.

50. Making a pot • Particularly large vases were thrown in sections, and in the case of shapes such as cups, the foot would be thrown separately from the body. The handles of most shapes were hand-made. When all the components had been allowed to dry for about twelve hours, they were glued together with clay slip.