Warren G. Moon, Greek Vase-Painting in Midwestern Collections

Boulter Collection (Moon No. 85)

Lent by Mr. and Mrs. Cedric G. Boulter.

The Vase: h. 14.3 cm; d. of body 5.5 cm. Crack around middle, small hole at back; otherwise the condition is good.

Decoration: Negro warrior with outstretched arms, head facing left, feet to the right, wears trousers, a mantle over his shoulders, and a cuirass over a short chiton. In his left hand he carries a bow and in his right a battle ax. The artist has attempted to render ethnic facial features and hair, the latter with a series of small black dots. At the back of the vase is a stool and above, to the right, a quiver/bowcase (gorytos).

Forty-five Negro alabastra are listed (Mertens 1977, 132 ff.) and the problems of dating and iconography are discussed in the previous entry (Champaign 72.13.3). Fragments of one or more alabastra have been found in the "pre-Persian" debris on the Athenian Acropolis which dates this type before 480 B.C. As alabastra contained perfume or unguent, one scholar has suggested that this particular group, which has figures drawn in a quick, sometimes crude style, could have been a device for advertising an Egyptian or at least an exotic product (H. Winnefeld, "Alabastra mit Negerdarstellungen," AthMitt 14 [1889] 49). That such vases and their contents were popular, seems implied by the wide distribution of their find spots, from Spain to Rhodes. For iconography: J. Vercoutter et al., L'Image du Noir dans l'art Occidental (Paris 1976); Beardsley 1929; Snowden 1970. For these alabastra, E. Bethe, "Zu den Alabastra mit Negerdarstellungen," AthMitt 15 (1890) 243-245. For a particularly interesting example, depicting an Amazon: Classical Antiquity, André Emmerich Galleries, Inc. (November 22, 1975-January 10, 1976) no. 18 (with additional bibliography and discussion of the Syriskos Painter).

Bibliography

W. G. Moon