Chapter 15
Ways of Looking at Greek Vases
François Lissarrague,
François Lissarrague
Search for more papers by this authorFrançois Lissarrague,
François Lissarrague
Search for more papers by this authorBook Editor(s):Pierre Destrée,
Penelope Murray,
Pierre Destrée
Search for more papers by this authorPenelope Murray
Search for more papers by this authorSummary
This chapter argues that the aesthetic potentialities of Greek painted vases can only be properly understood with reference to their usage. Treating the vases as material objects, the discussion analyzes the various ways in which images on Greek vases can be related to each other, depending on their shape, and how such images can be perceived by the user/viewer. These combinations – which can be narrative or structural, and use effects of homology, complementarity or disruption and surprise – are typical of the visual poetics of the vases used at the symposium, and a source of aesthetic pleasure.
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Further Reading
- On the connectivity of images two articles, one by Stupperich (1992), another more recent by Dietrich (2013), can be considered as pioneering. The most important work on the dynamic aspect of the vase as an image bearer is by Martens (1992) (as it is in French, it has not received the attention it deserves). Hurwit (1976) and (1977), on frame, are a landmark. Lissarrague (1990) explores the role of vases in the symposium; Neer (2002) gives the best account of the relation between vase painters and sympotic circles. More recently, the relation between shape and iconography has been explored by Schmidt (2005), whereas the monograph by Lynch (2011) is an interesting case of a sympotic set of vases found in an Athenian house.
- There is no study of the general structure of the repertoire of Greek vase painting; Metzger (1951) is still the only general survey for the fourth century; one can have a sense of the repertoire through the handbooks of Boardman (1974, 1975, 1989). The best general introduction to vase studies is Sparkes (1996).
