Popular Luxury in Southeastern Europe in the Long Eighteenth Century: A Case-study of Italian Ceramics and Ottoman Greek Clients (original) (raw)
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In: Pl. Petridis-An. G. Yangaki-N. Liaros-El.-Ev. Bia (eds), Proceeding of the 12th Congress of AIECM3 International Association for the study of medieval and modern ceramics on Mediterranean, (Athens Greece, 21-27 October 2018), Vol. II, 615-625, Athens 2021., 2021
A rescue excavation carried out in 2001, at a site at the southeast part of Lakedaimon,-the Byzantine Sparta-, in a distance from the inhabited "extra muros" area of the city, revealed a pit cut into the natural ground and filled with an assemblage of Byzantine pottery. The ceramic material, recovered from the pit, represents the decorative types of the incised-sgraffito ware and the champlevé ware, of high quality, dated from the late twelfth to the early thirteenth century. It also includes coarse ware, mainly "proto-geometric" jugs with slip-painted decoration. The decorative and chronological homogeneity of the deposit in the pit is impressive, together with the fact that it is quite unlikely to have been locally produced. In the proposed communication, the pottery will be presented and discussed in the perspective of the social, economic and everyday life: the productive activities, the economic development of the city during the twelfth-thirteenth centuries, the wider picture of the regional economy, in accordance with the existing maritime and route networks. Une fouille de sauvetage réalisée en 2001 sur un site situé dans la partie sud-est de Lacédémone-Spartes byzantine-, à une certaine distance de la zone «extra muros» habitée de la ville, a révélée une fosse creusée dans le sol naturel, remplie d'un assemblage de céramique byzantine. Le matériel céramique, récupéré de la fosse, représente les types décoratifs de la vaisselle incisée-sgraffito et de la vaisselle champlevé de haute qualité datant de la fin du douzième au début du treizième siècle. L'homogénéité décorative et chronologique du gisement dans la fosse est impressionnante, de même que le fait qu'il soit peu probable qu'il ait été produit localement. Dans la communication proposée, la céramique sera présentée et discutée dans la perspective de la vie sociale, économique et quotidienne: activités productives, développement économique de la ville aux douzième et treizième siècles, la vision d'ensemble de l'économie régionale.
Monumental fountains in Venetian Crete: significant artistic sculptures and their role in the open public space 10.30-10.45 Katerina MANOUSOU-NTELLA Elements of building decoration in the urban architecture of the Italian districts of the Burgos of Rhodes. A first approach 10.45-11.15 Questions-Discussion 11.15-11.25 Coffee Break 10th SESSION-Italian textiles in the East, 14th-15th c. Chair: Michela AGAZZI 11.25-11.40 Marielle MARTINIANI-REBER Décors et tissus italiens dans le monde byzantin à l'époque Paléologue 11.40-11.55 Maria Ludovica ROSATI Lucchese diasprum fabrics. An ancient unsolved problem 11.55-12.10 Christos KARYDIS The Sakkos of Ioannis Tzimiskis: an influential garment 12.10-12.25 Stella FRIGERIO-ZENIOU «Dal primo fino all'ultimo»: clothing fashion in Venetian Cyprus 12.25-12.50 Questions-Discussion 11th SESSION-Italian works of minor arts in the East Chair: Stella FRIGERIO-ZENIOU 12.50-13.05 Michela AGAZZI Da Venezia al Monte Athos: preziosi strumenti di preghiera 13.05-13.20 Dimitris LIAKOS The Venetian crystal rock reliquary at the monastery of Vatopedi, Mt. Athos 13.20-13.35 Andrea MISSAGIA Exploring Late Byzantine Goldsmithing (14th-16th Centuries): Translucent Enamel Decorations and Cross-Cultural Artistic Exchange 13.35-13.50 Theocharis TSAMPOURAS Luxury Aesthetics and Condensed Iconographies: The Milutin Diptych reconsidered as an Artifact of Venetian Trade Culture 13.50-14.20 Questions-Discussion 14.20-17.00 Lunch Break 12th SESSION-Italian Ceramics in Eastern Mediterranean Chair: Anastasia YANGAKI 17.00-17.15 Sauro GELICHI Italy abroad. New research on late and post-medieval Italian ceramics exported to the Mediterranean 17.15-17.30 Anastasia YANGAKI The study of Italian pottery in Greece: remarks and future research directions 17.30-17.45 Stephania SKARTSIS Italian imported pottery in Negroponte (Chalcis, Greece): discussion and comparative study 17.45-18.00 Eleni KANAKI Imported Italian Ceramics in Herakleion, Crete 18.00-18.10 Break 18.10-18.25 Sevinç GÖK, Akın ERSOY Italian Ceramics Found in Smyrna/İzmir Agora 18.25-18.40 Zeynep MERIÇ The role of Italian Maiolica and other ceramics from Smyrna Agora in the ceramic trade between the Ottomans and Italy 18.40-18.55 Edna J. STERN Venetian Pottery Narratives: Tracing Pilgrims and Merchants in the Holy Land (14th-16th centuries) 18.55-19.10 Questions-Discussion 19.10-19.20 Break 13th SESSION-Italian material culture in the East Chair: Paschalis ANDROUDIS 19.20-19.35 Anastasios ANTONARAS Italian Glass Vessels in the Ottoman Balkans 19.35-19.50 Eleni BARMPARITSA Italian influences on the dependence of the mounted warriors of the Latin States of Greece (13th-15th centuries) 19.50-20.05 Angeliki PANOPOULOU Made of Cretan timber and with Italian decoration: Testimonies for the production of chests in Venetian Crete 20.05-20.20 Paschalis ANDROUDIS, Eleftheria KONSTANTINIDOU Venetian secular woodcarvings in Greece (15th-16th c.) 20.20-20.40 Questions-Discussion 20.40 END OF THE CONFERENCE
Women, Consumption, and the Circulation of Ideas in South-Eastern Europe, 17th - 19th Centuries
In recent years, historiography on consumption, luxury, and fashion in the 17th and 18th centuries1 has focused on the exportation of luxury goods from Asia to northwestern Europe, especially to England and the Netherlands. Stimulating imagination and desire, these products were emulated among a widening sphere of consumers. From the late 17th century onwards, they were gradually integrated into a middle-class market of locally produced imitations and ultimately shaped new practices of middle-class gentility, femininity, and masculinity. Taste, demand, and fashion define "modern materiality" and situate "things" in the current historiographical account of the making of Europe since the Renaissance.2 Considering northwestern Europe as a "category",3 which leaves large parts of Europe and non-western societies out of the picture, this historiography draws a connection between affluence, women's capacity to increase
Fragments of luxury: Decorated glass from the Palace of Mystras, Greece
Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 2023
An assemblage of luxurious glass findings from the Palace of Mystras, Lakonia, Greece, was analysed via SEM/ EDS and Raman spectroscopy, aiming to determine their raw materials, manufacturing technology and likely provenance. Twenty five fragments of everyday use objects of exceptional quality were studied. All fragments are decorated (with white and blue trail or canes, enameled or filigrana glass). Their date cannot be determined with specificity but has to span between the mid 13th and mid 19th c. AD, the period since the construction of the site and throughout its continuous use as the administrative centre of the Despotate of Mystras. The examination of the glass body resulted in the distinction between two groups: soda and potash glass. The provenance of the soda glass cannot be specifically determined, but production in multiple workshops seems likely, based on the relative heterogeneity of the composition. The presence of manganese as a decolourant suggests that they probably date before the 17th c. All potash glasses are enameled and likely originating from Bohemia. The examination of the enamels further corroborates the likely provenance from Bohemia, since the enamels are produced using different manufacturing processes than the Islamic and Venetian. Overall, it seems that this group of glasses was selectively imported to Mystras to cover specific stylistic preferences of the higher ranking members of the Palace, as suggested by the recovery of the samples from Building E, the administrative centre of the Palace Complex. The present study contributes to the acquisition of new knowledge about the post-Byzantine glass production and trade in southern Greece. Further analyses will provide with significant insights into the commercial, artistic and technological interactions of Mystras with the Ottoman Empire and Europe.
Classical Pottery of the Northern Aegean and its Periphery (480–323/300 BC), 2019
In this paper we address the local appreciation of lesser Attic wares from the early fifth-century BCE. These vases are characterized by small size and hastily executed decoration. We consider evidence from a variety of findspots across Makedonia and Thraki and we present three case studies of burial assemblages from Gazoros, Aphytis, and the Thermaic Gulf. We contextualise the local demand for lesser Attic wares, primarily black-figured lekythoi, within a pull consumption model that was already in place in the late sixth century, as indicated by imitations of Attic black figure and by small vessels, such as the Mikra-Karaburun Group. The local productions may have predisposed buyers positively for fifth-century pieces. Salespeople, however, needed to scale up their marketing (language) to promote the high volumes of Attic wares supplied by the Athenian Kerameikos. Merchants may have highlighted the functional qualities of lesser pottery, such as its robustness, ease of transport, and contents (edible or perfumed oil for lekythoi, which was traded separately and packaged at point of sale). We envisage, moreover, that sellers were not mythic ‘sea people’ who stopped briefly at coastal locations, but business people knowledgeable about how lesser pots could be used in different regions. During the funeral, for example, lesser pots entered different regimes of value, as they were used alongside fine and non-Attic pottery and expensive and cheap metal plate. With our case studies we show that these regimes related also to gender preferences and to the customary use of groups of objects by the same artisan. Marketing the Attic brand, therefore, involved an understanding of its glocal relevance. Sellers and buyers appreciated Attic pottery both for its global (Aegean and Mediterranean) reputation and for the local possibilities it offered to construct meaning, e.g., about gender roles, social status, and conspicuous consumption.