Campanian vase painting is one of the five regional styles of
South Italian
, altname =
, states = Italy
, region = Abruzzo, Apulia, Basilicata, Calabria, Campania, Lazio, Marche, Molise
, ethnicity = ''Mezzogiorno'' Ethnic Italians
, speakers = 5.7 million
, date ...
red-figure
Red-figure vase painting is one of the most important styles of figural Greek vase painting.
It developed in Athens around 520 BCE and remained in use until the late 3rd century BCE. It replaced the previously dominant style of black-figure va ...
vase painting
Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other ceramic materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. Major types include earthenware, stoneware and por ...
. It forms a close stylistic community with
Apulian vase painting
Apulian vase painting was a regional style of South Italian vase painting from ancient Apulia. It comprises geometric pottery and red-figure pottery.
The legitimate Iron Age sequel to the Neolithic and Bronze Age culture of Matera and Molfetta ...
.
Campania
(man), it, Campana (woman)
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produced red-figure vases in the 5th and 4th centuries BC. The sand-coloured to light brown clay (lighter than other South Italian clays) of Campania was covered with a
slip
Slip or SLIP may refer to:
Science and technology Biology
* Slip (fish), also known as Black Sole
* Slip (horticulture), a small cutting of a plant as a specimen or for grafting
* Muscle slip, a branching of a muscle, in anatomy
Computing and ...
that developed a pink or red tint after firing, creating an appearance very similar to that of
Attic vases
Ancient Greek pottery, due to its relative durability, comprises a large part of the archaeological record of ancient Greece, and since there is so much of it (over 100,000 painted vases are recorded in the Corpus vasorum antiquorum), it has exe ...
. The popular white or bright paints were visually especially striking on this. Women are usually by the use of white paint to depict their skin. The Campanian painters preferred smaller vessel types, but also ''hydriai'' and bell ''kraters''. The most popular shape is the bail-amphora. Many typical Apulian vessel shapes, like
volute krater
A krater or crater ( grc-gre, , ''kratēr'', literally "mixing vessel") was a large two-handled shape of vase in Ancient Greek pottery and metalwork, mostly used for the mixing of wine with water.
Form and function
At a Greek symposium, krat ...
s,
column kraters, ''
loutrophoroi'', ''
rhyta'' and ''nestoris'' amphorae are absent, ''
pelike
A pelike ( grc, πελίκη) is a one-piece ceramic container similar to an amphora.
It has two open handles that are vertical on their lateral aspects and even at the side with the edge of the belly, a narrow neck, a flanged mouth, and a sagg ...
s'' are rare. The repertoire of motifs is limited. Subjects include youths, women, thiasos scenes, birds and animals, and often native
Samnite warriors. The backs often show cloaked youths. Mythological scenes and depictions related to burial rites play a subsidiary role. ''
Naiskos
The naiskos (pl.: naiskoi; el, ναΐσκος, diminutive of ναός "temple") is a small temple in classical order with columns or pillars and pediment.
Ancient Greece
Often applied as an artificial motif, it is common in ancient art. It also ...
'' scenes, ornamental elements and polychromy are adopted after 340 BC under Lucanian influence. The bell-shaped flowers used as ornaments are very different from the ornaments used in other South Italian styles. At 4,000 known vases, the Campanian style is the second most common in the region (after Apulian).
Before the immigration of Sicilian potters in the second quarter of the 4th century BC, when several workshops were established in Campania, only the
Owl-Pillar Workshop of the second half of the 5th century is known. It imitated Attic red-figure products. Campanian vase painting is subdivided into three main groups:
The first group is represented by the
Kassandra Painter from
Capua, still under Sicilian influence, especially by the
Chessboard Painter. He was followed by the workshop of the
Parrish Painter and that of the
Laghetto Painter and the
Caivano Painter, who were influenced by
Paestan vase painting. Large vases by these workshops usually bore mythological motifs. Their work is characterised by a preference for
satyr
In Greek mythology, a satyr ( grc-gre, σάτυρος, sátyros, ), also known as a silenus or ''silenos'' ( grc-gre, σειληνός ), is a male nature spirit with ears and a tail resembling those of a horse, as well as a permanent, exa ...
figures with
thyrsos
A thyrsus /ˈθɜːrsəs/ or thyrsos /ˈθɜːrˌsɒs/ ( Ancient Greek: θύρσος) was a wand or staff of giant fennel ('' Ferula communis'') covered with ivy vines and leaves, sometimes wound with taeniae and topped with a pine cone, art ...
, depictions of heads (normally below the handles of ''hydriai''), decorative borders of garments, and the frequent use of additional white, red and yellow. The Laghetto and Caivano Painters appear to have moved to
Paestum
Paestum ( , , ) was a major Ancient Greece, ancient Greek city on the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea in Magna Graecia (southern Italy). The ruins of Paestum are famous for their three ancient Greek temples in the Doric order, dating from about 550 ...
later.
[Hurschmann: ''Kampanische Vasenmalerei'', in: DNP 6 (1998), col. 227f] The last representative of this manufacture was the
Ixion Painter.
The
AV Group and the
Capua Painter also had their workshop in Capua. Tjis manufacture, too, appears to have been founded by emigrants from
Sicily
Sicily ( it, Sicilia , ) is the list of islands in the Mediterranean, largest island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of the 20 regions of Italy, regions of Italy. The Strait of Messina divides it from the region of Calabria in Southern Italy. I ...
. Of particular importance is the
Whiteface-Frignano Painter, one of the first in this group. His typical characteristic is the use of additional white paint to depict the faces of women. This group favoured domestic scenes, women and warriors. Multiple figures are rare, usually there is only one figure each on the front and back of the vase, sometimes only the head. Garments are usually drawn casually.
[Hurschmann: ''Kampanische Vasenmalerei'', in: DNP 6 (1998), col. 228]
The workshop in
Cumae was founded very late. After 350 BC, its founder, the
CA Painter and his collaborators and successors worked there. The CA Painter is considered as the outstanding artist of his group, or even of Campanian vase painting as a whole. From 330 onwards, a strong Apulian influence is visible. The most common motifs are ''naiskos'' and grave scenes, dionysiac scenes and symposia. Depictions of bejewelled female heads are also common. The CA painter was polychrome but tended to use much white for architecture and female figures. His successors, the
CB Painter and
CC Painter were not fully able to maintain his quality, leading to a rapid demise, terminating with the end of Campanian vase painting around 300 BC.
Bibliography
*
Thomas Mannack
Thomas Mannack (born in 1958) is a German classical archaeologist.
Mannack obtained his Doctorate in 1992 with at the University of Kiel. The thema of his dissertation was ''Beazleys spätere und späteste Manieristen''. He is a specialist in t ...
: ''Griechische Vasenmalerei. Eine Einführung''. Theiss, Stuttgart 2002, p. 165f.
* Matthias Steinhart: ''Sizilische Vasen''. In: ''
Der Neue Pauly
Der or DER may refer to:
Places
* Darkənd, Azerbaijan
* Dearborn (Amtrak station) (station code), in Michigan, US
* Der (Sumer), an ancient city located in modern-day Iraq
* d'Entrecasteaux Ridge, an oceanic ridge in the south-west Pacific Ocean ...
''. vol 6, 1998, col. 226-227
* Arthur Dale Trendall: ''Rotfigurige Vasen aus Unteritalien und Sizilien. Ein Handbuch.'' von Zabern, Mainz 1991 (Kulturgeschichte der Antiken Welt Vol. 47), (esp. p. 178-222)
References
{{Greek vase painting
Ancient Greek vase-painting styles
Capua (ancient city)
Cumae (ancient city)