Greek Culture in South Italy Skyphos Woman and Oscan Warrior 350-325 BC painted terracotta Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
Greek Culture in South Italy Skyphos Woman and Oscan Warrior (side view) 350-325 BC painted terracotta Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
Greek Culture in South Italy Volute Krater Medea at Eleusis 340-330 BC painted terracotta Princeton University Art Museum |
Greek Culture in South Italy Volute Krater Medea at Eleusis (side view) 340-330 BC painted terracotta Princeton University Art Museum |
Greek Culture in South Italy Volute Krater Death of Penthesilea, Amazon Queen, in the arms of Achilles 370-350 BC painted terracotta Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
"The big volute kraters of the Ornate Style seem destined for Greek graves, and some graves were dug with separate compartments to receive them. The vases could hardly have been used for a symposium, unless perhaps at some funeral feast, but this is difficult to envisage, and we have noted that several shapes, and not only the largest, were made bottomless, decidedly not for use. . . . One wonders who viewed them and when, except at burials. If they were bespoke for particular burials we are at a loss to determine what provoked the choice of one scene rather than another, and might have to find an occasion for the committal to the grave some time after the actual burial. The design and execution of such vases must have taken days and, if some scenes were thought to have specific importance for a particular burial they could hardly come from stock. Some of the decoration of the kraters is funerary in character, heroizing the dead; these need not have been bespoke, but were surely expensive. Many, however, also or only present big tableaux of mythological events, acted by groups of figures. . . . Many of the big Apulian vases survive intact and their, to modern eyes, rather unpleasing shapes, and the crowding of figures, too readily disguise the extremely high quality of draughtsmanship."
– John Boardman, The History of Greek Vases (Thames & Hudson, 2001)
Greek Culture in South Italy Kylix Athlete 410-380 BC painted terracotta Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
Greek Culture in South Italy Hydria Return of Hephaestus to Olympus 525 BC painted terracotta Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
Greek Culture in South Italy Hydria Grave Stele with Mourners 340-320 BC painted terracotta Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
Greek Culture in South Italy Hydria Naiskos (Funerary Shrine) 330-300 BC painted terracotta Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
Greek Culture in South Italy Hydria Naiskos (Funerary Shrine) (back view) 330-300 BC painted terracotta Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
Greek Culture in South Italy Hydria Naiskos (Funerary Shrine) (side view) 330-300 BC painted terracotta Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
Greek Culture in South Italy Neck Amphora Orestes about to slay Clytemnestra 340 BC painted terracotta Getty Museum, Los Angeles |
Greek Culture in South Italy Dinos Banquet Scene 375-350 BC painted terracotta Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
Greek Culture in South Italy Dinos Banquet Scene 375-350 BC painted terracotta Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
Greek Culture in South Italy Fragment Muse with Lyre 350 BC painted terracotta Getty Museum, Los Angeles |