Cleveland
66.114
Attic White-Ground Lekythos
Douris
ca. 500-490 B.C.
(Not exhibited)., The Cleveland Museum of Art; purchased from the
Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Bequest (66.114).
The Vase: h. 32.5 cm; d. of body
12.2 cm; d. of rim 7.2 cm; d. of foot 8.8 cm. Intact. The black glaze has mostly
fired brown. Some of the floral ornament has been repainted.
Decoration: Atalanta wears a
himation and a long, transparent but beautifully bordered chiton, the hem of
which she daintily lifts with her left hand to facilitate her running. She is
chased by three individualized Erotes on the wing, each carrying ornate tendrils
and one a garland as well. The lower border alternates two clockwise meanders
with one checkerboard. The upper border alternates two clockwise meanders with a
single, dotted foursquare. The shoulder is decorated with palmettes, and on the
neck, a tongue pattern. (On the unique decoration of this vase, see
Kurtz 1975, pp. 29 ff., and 78, n. 2).
Beazley dated the vase 500-490 B.C. and indeed both in composition
and in detail the vase fits well into this period. The figures are given some
breathing space and great attention is paid to complex embroidery patterns and
delicate, curvilinear floral vines. The frontal Eros displays hook-ended
clavicles or collarbones and the two other Erotes and Atalanta bear the oblique
ankle designations which are Douris' trademarks during this period. The pose of
Atalanta's upper body and the drawing of her face are very similar to the Athena
on the Vienna kylix,
Vienna 3695, dated to
Douris' early middle period. The borders on both these vases with their double
meanders are precociously ornate for their dates.
José Dörig has pointed out the nearly identical
proportions of the Cleveland lekythos to a similar vase in a Swiss private
collection and concludes that they were both made by the same potter (
J. Dörig, Art
Antique, Collections priveés de Suisse romande [Mainz
1975] no. 205, pp. 179-182). The vase is in a private collection in
Geneva. The scene itself, the arming of two hoplites, is far less kinetic than
the Atalanta scene. Yet the drawing of figures and drapery and especially of the
shoulder decoration demands a date contemporary with the Atalanta vase.
The exact meaning of the main scene on the Atalanta lekythos is
unclear. The central action takes place between Atalanta running towards the
right (the direction of victory) while she glances back over her shoulder toward
the well-muscled Eros, who stretches to overtake her. Boulter believes that this
Eros is taunting Atalanta with the alternatives of Love should she decide to
lose her race. Eros holds the garland representing the joys of Love in his left
hand and in his right hand he holds an improperly restored flail representing
the torments of Love (See
CVA, p. 21).
Atalanta flees from him, reaching out her right hand to stave him off, "while
flying from delightful wedlock, gift of golden Aphrodite" (
Theognis,
1283-1294). She seems not to realize that there are still two more Erotes
awaiting her around the body of the lekythos.
It is this need for the cylindrical shape of the lekythos to portray
the drama of Atalanta's race that drew Douris away from his unusual form, the
kylix. The sharply curving surface isolates the scene into facets; the
overlapping of these facets causes the observer to turn the vase, thereby
instilling movement into the drama.
The action begins just to the left of Atalanta with the powerful
upward diagonal of a lavishly articulated Eros. His body stretches around nearly
one-half of the vase's circumference. The forceful 45-degree angle of his body
directs the observer's gaze from the toes of his right foot through his torso to
the moment of interaction between Atalanta and himself at the intersection of
their two arms. Atalanta's running figure covers more than a quarter of the vase
on the most important side opposite the handle. The second Eros awaits to the
right. The observer is drawn into turning the vase toward this new figure by the
upward curving lines of Atalanta's heavily bordered skirt-hems below, by the
windblown curve of her head cloth above, and by the direction of her race. The
third, a red-haired Eros, hovers on the back of the vase below the handle, and
seems capable of turning in either direction. He is closer to the second Eros
behind him yet he is separated from the first Eros, whom he faces, by a series
of tendrils. Thus, compositionally, he provides a two-directional link
completing the circle and continuing the conundrum of Atalanta's race.
The inscriptions are as follows: above and to the right of her head;
above the heads of the first and third Erotes; and in reverse in front of the
second Eros. In his review of Boulter's
CVA,
USA 15, Cleveland 1, Frank Brommer suggested that all of the
inscriptions might not be entirely ancient and that the name of Atalanta might
be an imperfect restoration of the name Aphrodite (
F. Brommer, review in Gnomon
46 (1974) 426-7). Cedric Boulter replied that under ultra-violet
examination the inscription appears untouched (
C. G. Boulter, "The Douris Lekythos in Cleveland," AJA 79 [1975] 282-3). Furthermore, it is far more
plausible to consider Atalanta, rather than Aphrodite, as fleeing from the
Erotes.
Bibliography
J.D. Cooney, "Atalanta in
Cleveland," CMA Bulletin 53 (1966)
318-325;
Para., 376, no. 266
bis;
CVA, USA 15, Cleveland 1,
pp. 21-23, pls. 32-34 and 35, 1, with additional bibliography;
Kurtz 1975, 27, 29 ff,. 78, n. 2, 128,
200, pls. 10.2 and 11;
Boardman
1975, 229, ill. 294.
Arielle P. Kozloff, The Cleveland Museum of Art
