Multi-layered Time and Place: Temples and Statues in Vase-Painting in later 5th Century Athens (original) (raw)

2022, J. Neils and O. Palagia (eds.), From Kallias to Kritias: Art in Athens in the Second Half of the Fifth Century B.C

Athenian vase-painters of the 5 th century have left a wealth of images that invite us to enter their world and see it as they did. It is strange, therefore, that they are so rarely enlisted when we seek to know about the constructed environment of the city. Through their eyes, their "gaze", we can in fact tour the Acropolis, encounter the important sculptures set in the Agora, and even view cult buildings in the outer city. 1 Their images may be careful depictions or looser reflections, but they are all valuable as they offer the dimension of the "eye witness" to enhance both archaeological results and later literary sources. Most of these images on vases are embedded in scenes of the regular life of the city and show contemporary structures, buildings and sculptures, but a few appear in imaginary myth-historical scenes and events. The aim of this paper is to explore the manner in which Athenian vase-painters approached the physical environments of their imagined narratives and how they became entangled with those that they actually knew, leading them to create simultaneously multiple identities and multiple moments in time, evoking complex ideas and emotions in the minds of their eventual users. 2 This exploration will also require simultaneous consideration of the connections between vase-painters and their fellow painters of larger, flat surfaces, whether wall, panel or stage-set, for we may be able to observe the former reflecting the works of the latter at several moments in the 5 th century. Note: I should like to thank Polly Lohmann and Ann Grosch (Heidelberg), Dennis Graen (Jena), Anne Coulié, Martine Denoyelle and Christine Merlin (Paris) and Jochen Griesbach (Würzburg) for so very kindly supplying or helping to supply images of the objects illustrated here. Several friends have helped in various other ways: Norbert Eschbach, Jasper Gaunt, Natacha Massar, Rainer Vollkommer and Susan Woodford. I should also like to thank Maria Tourna and Susanna Ipiroti (American School of Classical Studies at Athens) for kindly scanning various articles for me during the confinement. Finally, I am very grateful to the editors for their immense patience during all the difficult months of 2020.