PAESTUM RED-FIGURE

Bell Krater

c.400 BCE - 300 BCE

Terracotta

Height 42.4 cm | Height 16 3/4 in AM.0018

Paestum

Paestum (in antiquity Poseidonia), a city located near the Tyrrhenian Sea in the Campania region of Southern Italy, was founded in around 600 BC by Greek settlers. Strabo writes that at the end of the 5th century BC, the city was conquered by the Lucanians, a neighbouring Italic tribe. It remained under Lucanian control until 273 BC, when it became a Roman colony following the Pyrrhic War. It is known for its archaeological remains, including three incredibly well-preserved Greek Doric temples, two dedicated to Hera and one to Athena, as well as its painted tombs. It is also renowned for being the source of one of the five main regional styles of South Italian vase painting (the others being Lucanian, Apulian, Campanian, and Sicilian). The vases have been found primarily in tombs in Paestum itself and the surrounding area.1

Paestan fabric has been described as “probably the most consistent”2 out of these five styles, (Lucanian, Apulian, Campanian, and Sicilian) with the key features remaining the same throughout its period of production (the 4th century BC), aside from during the Apulianising phase, towards the end of the century. The bell-krater is the most popular shape, and its Paestan variation is distinguished by a near-cylindrical body, with tall, straight sides. Other common shapes include hydriai, neck-amphorae, lebetes gamikoi, lekanides, squat lekythoi, choes and skyphoi. Paestan clay can be identified by a particularly high mica content, and the orange-brown colour that it fires to (as opposed to Campanian clay, for example, which is more of a light brown colour).

Themes and subjects

Dionysiac themes are popular on Paestan vases. The god himself is usually represented holding a thyrsus and wearing an ivy wreath, and is sometimes accompanied by one of his followers, such as a satyr or a maenad. Theatrical scenes are also prevalent, particularly those associated with the Phlyax genre. No Phlyax plays survive in their entirety, but the information from fragments and visual representations suggests that the genre was a form of mythological burlesque, mixing divine figures from Greek religion with stock characters and themes from Attic New Comedy. Bridal preparation scenes are also a common choice for Paestan vases, especially on lebetes gamikoi, which were used in marriage ceremonies. Mythological scenes are not especially frequent, and funerary scenes are notably rare. The reverse sides of Paestan kraters and amphorae often depict two draped youths. These figures are usually holding something; sticks, eggs, and strigils are all common, as well as an object consisting of several white circles on top of each other which has been termed a “skewer of fruit”, but could also represent cakes.3 The latter is rarely seen on vases not produced in Paestum.

2 A. D. Trendall, Red Figure Vases of South Italy and Sicily, (London: Thames and Hudson, 1989), pg.196.

3 G. Schneider-Herrmann, ‘Eine Pästaner Weihgabe’ in BABesch 51 (1976), pg.74.

Decorative features

Paestan ware can sometimes be identified by the inclusion of distinctive decorative features, such as the wave pattern which often appears in a horizontal line beneath the images, as opposed to the meander and crossed square patterns which are common in other South Italian styles (although these latter two are also used in Paestan decoration). The scenes are often bounded by ‘framing palmettes’. This motif developed from the side-scrolls and palmette-fans seen in Sicilian decoration, which is viewed as the style from which Paestan evolved.4 Over time, it became more common for the side-scrolls to be further away or even separated from the palmette-fans, forming a border around the pictures. An addition to the scroll-work seen on vases thought to be painted by Asteas or his followers is a motif known as the ‘Asteas flower’, which features a white stamen emerging from a dark round centre. Laurel wreath appears as in this vase the standard decoration below the rim on kraters, or sometimes berried ivy on the obverse of larger examples, which has been seen as a Sicilian feature.5 The dot-stripe border pattern is frequently used on the edges of the drapery of ordinary figures, while divinities and mythological characters often wear highly decorated garments.

4 A.D. Trendall, The Red-Figured Vases of Paestum (British School at Rome, 1987), pg.16.

5 A.D. Trendall, The Red-Figured Vases of Paestum (British School at Rome, 1987), pg.17.

Paestan vase-painters

Paestan is unique among th South Italian fabrics in that painters sometimes sign their names, and therefore we have been able to establish a corpus of works attributed to two named painters, Asteas and Python. There are at least twelve vases signed by Asteas known to us today.6 Most are relatively large, and depict theatrical or mythological scenes. On signed works, the painters also add the names of the figures above their heads, allowing us to interpret the scene more easily. Multiple unsigned vases have also been attributed to Asteas on stylistic grounds. Python is generally considered to be a slightly later contemporary of Asteas, and there are two extant signed vases by him, as well as several unsigned examples which are considered similar enough to also have been by his hand. The styles of the two named painters are very similar, leading many scholars to conclude that their production occurred in the same workshop, along with several other painters whose names are not signed on any extant vases (although some individuals have been given modern identifications, such as the Aphrodite Painter and the Boston Orestes Painter).7

6 Erika Simon, “The Paestan painter Asteas,” in Greek Vases. Images, Contexts and Controversies. Proceedings of the conference sponsored by the Center for the Ancient Mediterranean at Columbia University, 23-24 March 2002, ed. Clemente Marconi (Leiden: Brill, 2004), pg. 113.

7 A. D. Trendall, Red Figure Vases of South Italy and Sicily, (London: Thames and Hudson, 1989), pg.204.