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Hellenistic relief vessels from southern Russia
(1908 article in Jahrbuch des archäologischen Instituts vol. XXIII, pp. 45-77)
I
owe it to Herr Vogell's great kindness that I was able to document and
photograph the rich treasures of Hellenistic and Hellenistic-Roman
ceramics in his collection, which he had built up in southern Russia,
before they were scattered. For those who are not fortunate enough to
be familiar with the large holdings of the Russian museums through
their own eyes, these specimens of the younger types of vessels found
in southern Russia offer welcome material for study and for comparison
with corresponding finds and products from other countires in the
Graeco-Roman World. I am publishing here first a number of relief
vessels, almost all of which belong to the class of the so-called
Megarian cups and were found in Olbia [1]. You may further see my
remarks on the sherds of Priene (Wiegand-Schrader, Priene p. 401 ff.),
and expect a summary treatment of this whole interesting genre
that I am planning.
From
the mass of beakers, two vessels stand out in terms of clay, varnish,
shape and decoration. They correspond with beakers from Greece [2]. The
color of the clay is lively light brown, there is very little mica, the
varnish is black-brown or violet-brown, dense and even, with a matt
sheen, slightly iridescent in places. The pelvis of the cups is rather
deep, the rim high and slightly curved outwards.
Vessel 1.
Height 0.08, diam. 0.14 m. At the beginning of the rim, rather crushed
by turning it, is a row of small spirals with palmettes above, as in
Watzinger, Ath.Mitt. XXVI
1901 pp. 60, 19. Decoration includes a string of pearls and an egg and
dart motif of peculiar formation. The inner part of the individual
limbs tapers to a point at the bottom and is jagged at the top,
probably meaning calyxes. The body is divided into individual fields by
lancet-shaped leaves and slender palmettes, between which small,
differently shaped ones grow below. These alternately fill the
following groups twice, which were very weakly impressed in the bowl
mold:
Fig.1: Vessel 1, with photo showing the pot form, and drawing of its relief decoration.
This (p.46) group certainly goes
back to a statuary work. The multiple repetition on relief vessels
speaks for its popularity, for example on the shard of a Megarian cup
in Berlin (Vas. Inv. 4822), on a bucket belonging to this type from
Olbia (v. Stern, Iswestja der Arch. Komm. Heft. 3 15, Atschot der Arch
56, 1), finally with minor transformations on Gallic sigillata vessels
in Dechelette, Les vases ceramiques ornes de la Gaule romaine
II, p. 55 no. 306 (similar to no. 307. Cf. p. 263 no. 50). Dechelette
also thinks of a statuary model. It might seem tempting to look for
this in the work of Praxiteles, briefly mentioned by Pliny, the Liber
Pater with the Ebrietas and the Satyr (N. H. 34, 69; Overbeck, Scriptures
No. 1203). However, we cannot place the origin of our group, with the
closely intertwined figures, before the Hellenistic period [3].
b)
A naked, beardless man sitting on a rock, holding on his lap a much
smaller, naked girl who seems to be resisting and looks away from him.
The same group in Furtwangler, Saburoff collection, plate 73; Benndorf, op cit., Plate 60, 3. 4; Watzinger, op. cit., P. 64 d 2.
c) A bearded, naked man, with high boots, struggles with a boy and looks back at a large eagle at his back. (See Watzinger, op. cit. p. 65, f 2.) The same group, but without the eagle, recurs on a cup from Delphi (Perdrizet near Homolle, Fouilles de Delphes V. p. 176 no. 425 figs. 737, 738).
Dionysian
masks are above to the right and left of the groups. A beaded ribbon is
under the picture frieze. On the ground, surrounded by a small bulge
and a wreath, is a youthful head from the front, with a hair bow or
wings (?). Below the rim of the mouth and around the circular image,
are narrow, clay-ground circles scraped out of the still soft
varnish, and colored crimson.
Fig.2: Vessel 2, with photo showing pot form and drawing of its relief decoration.
In these two vessels we can see
imported pieces from Greece, perhaps from Attica. I also add to these a small
cup, which is very similar in tone, coating and shape:
Vessel 3.
Height 0.048. diam. 0.092 m. (p.49) Below the narrow, strongly
outwardly curved rim between two bulges is a surrounding wreath with
very pointed leaves, which has almost shriveled to a bone pattern. On
the body alternately lanceolate leaves and free-growing tendrils, both
carved freehand with the stylus into the mold bowl; only the small
palmettes at the tips of the leaves are stamped. Below a double calyx
of small pointed leaves and a circle of small rosettes. On the bottom,
surrounded by a cord bulge and a smooth bulge, a small head of
Parthenos from the front. Between the two bulges and the beginnings of
the rim, is a clay-ground, red-colored circle as above.
Fig.3: Vessel 3, showing relief decoration on the base of the cup..
The
remaining cups prove to belong together. The clay is very brown in
color unless it has turned gray from smoking. Varnish is usually not
very good, it has different shades, black, gray, dark and light brown,
red. Usually the discoloration is found in the following manner: when
the upper part of the outside is black, the lower part and the inside
appear gray or brown-grey; if the upper part of the outside is brown,
the remaining surface is red or tan. This phenomenon is related to the
fact that the pots were stacked on top of each other in the oven. The
fire affected the clay and coating as rich in drafts and has a brown or
red uncovered and different on the covered surface [4].
In
terms of their overall technical characteristics, these southern
Russian vessels are confusingly similar to those found in Asia Minor,
especially those found in Priene. However, the signature KIRBEI [5]
appearing on several vessels to be described speaks against the
possible assumption of an import from Asia Minor. These precise
barbaric names on sts with the genitive on et are characteristic of
southern Russia [6]. The signature is always associated with the bust
(p.50) of Tyche with the mural crown, whose head also appears on coins
from Olbia [7]
In addition to the cup shape with the rim slightly
curved outwards - it will be designated A - there is a second one in
which a deep, hemispherical or low, flat basin is joined by a more or
less sharply defined, inwardly inclined, straight rim , Form B (e.g.
Fig. 7). There will not be a chronological difference between the two,
it seems to be a question of different or changing tastes of the
potters.
(p.51) In the decoration, the dainty continuous
tendrils and the beautiful calyx formations, which were developed from
the Egyptian lotus flower by partial, manifold replacement of the
individual leaves [8], are noticeably in the background. In the finest
development, however, they appear on two almost identical cups:
Vessel 4 and Vessel 5:
form B. Height 0.13, diam. of the mouth 0.13 m. Below the rim is an egg
and dart motif, then a surrounding vine tendril. Arranged on the lower
part around a pretty base rosette, alternating with each other, are
bent acanthus leaves in a symmetrical position and broad,
longitudinally ribbed lotus petals. The only difference between the two
cups is the different size of the base rosette and the fact that the
lotus leaves are the same width on one and two wider and two narrower
on the other.
Fig.5: Vessel 5, showing relief decoration on the base of the cup..
The Berlin Museum has an almost exactly
corresponding vessel from Montefiascone (Furtwängler No. 2896). A
fourth, very similar specimen, only with a different edging, from
Megara, now in the Athenian Museum, is in Benndorf (p.52) op.cit., Plate 59,1 illustration 8a).
The individual parts of the
decoration of the Berlin cup and of the two above, when measured with a
compass, agree perfectly with each other in dimensions. The bowl forms
of these three vessels were made with the same stamps. The tone of our
pair of cups cannot be separated from the other South Russian pieces;
the cup from Montefiascone, on the other hand, has a somewhat finer,
denser tone, and one would not want to assume that it was imported from
the Crimea to Italy.
So here we have a pretty example, which
can rarely be verified, of finished molded bowls (p.54) being sold to
foreign potteries [9]. The fact that the molds were made in an
important pottery center in Greece or Asia Minor also explains the
superior taste that these cups have over other southern Russian
products. For the same reason, I assume the import of the shape for the
following cup as well:
Vessel 6.
Form B. Height 0.065. diam. of the mouth 0.13 m. Below the edge of the
egg motif ,a large acanthus spiral tendril with vine leaves and
grapes, arranged around a fine rosette in the base, occupies the entire
body [9a]. Also with some other beakers, which show the leaf cup motif in
different variations, the thought of external origin of the shaped
bowls seems to me to be possible:
Fig.6: Vessel 6, showing relief decoration including rosette on base.
Vessel 7. Form B. Height 0.065. diam. the mouth 0.13
m. On the edge bead, then alternately folded acanthus leaves, arranged
one on top of the other, and flask-shaped leaves, separated by rows of
oblique lines. A large rosette on the bottom, in the middle of which a
slender kantharos is specially stamped.
Fig.7: Vessel 7, showing relief decoration on the base of the cup.
Vessels 8 and 9:
Shape B. Two almost identical cups. Height 0.06. diam. 0.13 m at the
mouth. Stripes with rosettes at the top, then a wide wreath composed of
bunches of laurel leaves with fruit, underneath, already pushed back by
the other decorations, the leaf calyx. In one vessel, bent acanthus
leaves alternate with lanceolate and diamond-shaped leaves, in the
other (p.56) all leaves are wider, therefore less, the acanthus leaves
are not bent [10]. On the bottom, surrounded by a slight bulge, a
double rosette of leaves.
Fig.8: Vessel 8, sho
Vessel 10.
Shape B. (p.58) Height 0.06. diam. of the mouth 0.125 m. Strip with
rosettes, ovule, frieze of small palmettes and birds,alternating with
each other, double calyx of lanceolate leaves with pearled midrib. On
the bottom, surrounded by a bead, double rosette.
Fig.10 Vessel 10, showing relief decoration on the base of the cup.
A similar stock of ornaments, but of lesser execution, often
without a feeling for tasteful distribution, applied in an overloaded
abundance, show vessels in which we can probably see some very unique
products of political ceramics [11]. Figurative motifs often appear
between the sepals [12]
Footnotes:
8.
Cf. about these bottles the comment Dragendorffs Bonner
Jahrbücher 101 p. 144 note 2, which has announced a treatment of the whole
group.
[Continue to part 2]
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