127-138

Representations of warriors and hunters on byzantine vases

• Ιωαννιδάκη-Ντοστόγλου, Ευαγγελία

Throughout the period of its production, from the 7th to the 15 c., Byzantine pottery was decorated, chiefly on the interior, with motifs from the animal and vegetable kingdon and the world of geometric shapes, rendered in a stylized manner.Human representations were at first rare and isolated; the earliest examples were made by the technique of stamping and date to ca. 800-900.Later, around the end of the 12th c,, human representations became predominant and supplanted all the other forms of stylized decoration. The figures mainly depicted were warriors and hunters with long curly hair falling onto their shoulders, wearing characteristic dress. They decorated the interior of shallow plates with open sides and low ring bases or goblets with high feet and deep round sides. Such vessels have been found in the Athenian Agora, and at Corinth, Thebes, Sparta, etc.The decoration is developed freely, covering the interior surface of the vase, and is not confined within a central medallion or a decorative band around the rim. This free development of the subject on the vase, the frequency of human representations and the stratigraphic evidence from excavations in the Agora (coins of the period of Manuel I. Comnenus) and at Corinth constitute the characteristics of a group of pottery first identified by Charles Morgan and named by him the Free Style Group.In the group may be classified the sherds T. 2543, T. 2546, T. 2552, T. 2554, T. 2561 and T. 128 in the Byzantine Museum, most of which came from Thebes. They can also, in the absence of stratigraphic data, be dated to the last decades of the 12th c. on the grounds of shape, technique and decoration. These sherds are from shallow plates with low ring bases, and their decoration preserves parts of human figures wearing either a full-length fitted garment, a skirt with folds and a sleeved cloak, or a cuirass. Their weapons consist of shields of different sizes, swords and pointed spears.The decoration is effected by a combination of incision and flat relief, and the glaze varies from ochre to Nile green and Naples yellow. The costumes and weapons of the figures, as well as the successful rendering of fast movement, lead to the conclusion that they are men hunting or fighting with imaginary beasts.Similar subjects are met with on ivory consular diptychs (5th-6thc.), on the frescoes of the stairways of Ayia Sophia at Kiev (early 11th c.), in manuscripts, etc., although these cannot be compared with the pottery representations either in the rendering of the figures or in their chronology.One may reasonably ask, then: what was the late 12th c. craftsman trying to convey in this group of vases?.Memories of a splendid Hippodrome where wild animal hunts or battles were enacted? Memories of the Acritic songs and the 10th c. epic of Digenis Acritas? Or are they perhaps just a continuation of the long tradition of imitating earlier models?

• History and Archaeology

• Αρχαιολογία
• Decorative arts
• Πολιτισμός, Βυζαντινός

Ανακοίνωση στο Τρίτο Συμπόσιο Βυζαντινής και Μεταβυζαντινής Αρχαιολογίας και Τέχνης που οργάνωσε η Χριστιανική Αρχαιολογική Εταιρεία στην Αθήνα (29-30 Απριλίου - 1 Μαΐου 1983)., Περιέχει 1 σχέδιο. Πίνακες 57-62 βλέπε τέλος τεύχους, Το άρθρο περιέχεται στο τεύχος: Μέρος Α'-Μελέτες