St. Louis
167.1925
Etrusco-Corinthian Neck-Amphora
The St. Louis Painter
ca. 600-580 B.C.
Lent by The St. Louis Art Museum (167:1925), Ex collection Harold
Parsons; from Cerveteri.
The Vase: H. 63.9 cm; W. 42.0 cm;
D. of mouth 23.7 cm; D. of base 20.6 cm. Excellent condition; handles
reattached. The vase is covered with a pink-buff slip; a creamy white slip is
used for the background of the friezes. The neck has three red bands the edges
of which are incised. The band below the neck consists of two double "S" loops,
with dots above and below their tangents; connecting the two spirals is a motif
consisting of an angle above, seven horizontal lines and an inverted angle
below. An arrangement of bands of purple, wide red, and another purple is placed
above the first animal frieze, between the two friezes and beneath the second
animal frieze. The lowest frieze consists of opposed vertical "S" loops
connected by crossed lines and a double horizontal line with inserted leaves.
The base of the egg-shaped amphora tapers up to a sharply molded rim. Around the
outer edge of the base there is a sharply raised molding which reflects the
shape of the lip. Around the base a red band is flanked by two white bands.
Underneath the base there is a flat ring base with a conical recess — to
a depth of 4.5 cm — with a slightly convex center.
Decoration:
Animal friezes. Upper: Sphinx, winged lion,
boar, panther, grazing stag (all to the right and alternating with large
rosettes). Lower: double-bodied panther, bird, winged horse, lion, boar, bull
(all to right, rosettes as before).
Added red:
on the petals of rosettes and randomly on animals.
Added white: petals of rosettes and dots on shoulders of animals and
on feathers of the bird, alternating with feathers in black and red. In the
lower frieze the pattern of "S" loops was painted in a diluted yellowish-brown.
The style of the St. Louis Painter was identified by Professor J.
Szilágyi and of the three vases presently given to the painter, besides
the name vase here, another is in the Midwest:
Cleveland 24.872 (
CVA, USA 15,
Cleveland 1, pls. 41.1 and 42.1). Both vases—and a third in
Paris,
Louvre E 634—are potted by the
same hand. "The twofold technique which the St. Louis Painter uses to render the
inner details of the animals is particularly characteristic: surprisingly thin
lines of incision on the hindquarters and head, sometimes the ribs as well, and
white added dots on the chest" (
Szilágyi, "St. Louis Painter," infra,
p. 8). Dots on the necks of animals appear in East Greek
vase-painting (see
Columbia 71.113) but the
St. Louis Painter's use of white dots seems to bring out, in a unique way, the
inner structure of the chest, shoulders and back (
ibid.）
In his article (difficult to locate in American libraries)
Szilágyi provides insight into the numerous stylistic forces which bear
upon the Etrusco-Corinthian vase-painter's craft. For instance, a Chimaera on
the Paris amphora appears to be unique as a particular type in
Etrusco-Corinthian vase-painting and closely follows Corinthian models. Another
motif, the "kneeling bull," on the Paris amphora, is an old and wide-spread
motif in Near Eastern art and it originally seems to have indicated an attacking
gesture in a fight with a beast or hero. In Greece this motif appears variously,
e.g. an archaic pediment found on the Acropolis of Athens (
Athens, Acr. 4).
On the Cleveland amphora the rendering of the eye of a grazing stag
(in the top frieze) is reserved, with a black dot for the pupil, in a way known
in East Greek pottery. Grazing here is indicated not only by the inclined head
but by the leaf in the stag's mouth and this motif exists in orientalizing
Etruscan art and elsewhere. However, the motif on the Cleveland vase is unique.
Instead of eating the usual vegetable matter, the stag grazes on a petal of the
large rosette directly in front. "The large rosette... is transformed from a
space-filling decoration into something alive: it sprouts small rosettes and the
leaf as well which the stag is about to chew off" (
"St. Louis Painter," infra, p.
9). This active genre group is repeated on the Paris amphora. The
ornamental motif which, in this configuration, fills the bottom register on the
St. Louis vase and on the other two amphorae as well, appears to be unique.
That the St. Louis amphora and the Paris vase were by the same hand
was noticed by Betty Grossman (
Greek Vases in the Collection of the City Art Museum of
St. Louis [unpublished M.A. thesis, Washington University, St.
Louis 1951] 134-140, figs. 27-28). The Louvre amphora is published by
J. Bousquet and P. Devambez, "New Methods
in Restoring Ancient Vases in the Louvre," Museum 3 (1950) 177-179. The St. Louis Painter belongs to
the School of Vulci which includes the American Academy Painter, The Feoli
Painter and The Boehlau Painter; the potter belongs to the Group of Vatican 127
(
C. Albizzati, Vasi
antichi dipinti del Vaticano [Rome 1925-1939] pl. 14, no.
127).
Bibliography
J. G. Szilágyi, "The St.
Louis Painter," Acta Classica Univ. Scient.
Debrecen. 10-11 (1974-1975) 5-14, and
Etruszko-Korinthosi
Vazafestészet (Budapest 1975) 254, n. 42.
W.G.M.
