User:JoeyMacLennan/sandbox

I evaluated an article regarding Exekias and a general description of his work as pottery artist. The sources seemed to be un clickable and would simply direct you back into the article itself. The external links were linked to youtube videos which to me isnt the most reliable source in comparison to a .org or .edu source from a scholarly site.

I am choosing to do the Chigi Vase article for my project.

For this project I want to add to beef up the info given in this article. At a first glance I see that all aspects of this article can be improved including the amount of sources that can be used for the information itself. I think it would be interesting to add more information about the artist who made this vase and created the various scenes portrayed on it. In one of the first sources that i found, I noticed already that Exekias was involved in creating this vase and that resonated with me because of the past readings we have done so far in class. Specifically, he made the Achilles and Aeis scene playing dice and it would be interesting to add a section to this article comparing this work of art to others that are similar or by exekias.

Sources: Outline:
 * 1) Bookidis, N. (2015). THE CHIGI VASE. Classical Review, 65(1), 256-258. doi:10.1017/S0009840X14001693
 * 2) The Chigi Vase. (1916). American Journal of Archaeology, 20, 226.
 * 3) Pemberton, E. (1974). R. Ross Holloway, A View of Greek Art. Art Journal, 33(4), 372-376
 * 4) Hurwit, J. (2002). Reading the Chigi Vase. Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, 71(1), 1-22. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/3182058

Intro section: more about the vase and where it came from as well as some facts about it.

Artist section: Create a more sound back ground on the artists related with this work of art.

Four Friezes: The individual scenes on the work are only briefly discussed.

-hunts

-horseman

-judgement of paris

-hoplite battle

Influences

Intro

The Chigi Vase is one of the earliest examples of vases created and the style was also known as an olpe - “an ovoid or sagging pitcher with a flaring mouth and a vertical ribbed handle that is fixed to the rim with a pronglike feature ending in circular disks”. (4)

The vase was recovered from a tomb and was likely placed in befroe the tomb was done being used.

My Article:

The Chigi Vase is one of the earliest examples of vases created and the style was also known as an olpe - “an ovoid or sagging pitcher with a flaring mouth and a vertical ribbed handle that is fixed to the rim with a pronglike feature ending in circular disks”. It was found in an Etruscan tomb at Monte Aguzzo, near Veio, on Prince Mario Chigi’s estate in 1881. The vase has been variously assigned to the middle and late protocorinthian periods and given a date of ca. 650-640 BC; it is now in the National Etruscan Museum, Villa Giulia, Rome (inv. No.22679). The dating of the vase indicates that it may have been made in Corinth and had the purpose of being a commissioned item rather than an ordinary item. The vase stands 26 cm (10.2 inches) tall, which is modest compared to other Greek vases. Some three-quarters of the vase is preserved. It was found amidst a large number of potsherds of mixed provenance, including one bucchero vessel inscribed with five lines in two early Etruscan alphabets announcing the ownership of Atianai, perhaps also the original owner of the Chigi vase. The Chigi vase was a very important piece and left many perspectives of what its original purpose may have been. For some the vase follows an order and is a strong representation of Corinthian elitist power and for others, the vase falls away from any relation to Corinth.

Mythological scenes
The Chigi vase itself is a polychromatic work decorated in four friezes of mythological and genre scenes and four bands of ornamentation; amongst these tableaux is the earliest representation of the hoplite phalanx formation – the sole pictorial evidence of its use in the mid- to late-7th century, and terminus post quem of the "hoplite reform" that altered military tactics.

The lowest frieze is a hunting scene in which three naked short-haired hunters and a pack of dogs endeavour to catch hares and one vixen; a kneeling hunter carries a lagobolon (a throwing cudgel used in coursing hares) as he signals to his fellows to stay behind a bush. It is not clear from the surviving fragments if a trap is being used, as was common in depictions of such expeditions. The next frieze immediate above suggests a collocation of four or five unrelated events. First a parade of long-haired horsemen, each of whom is leading a riderless horse. Possibly these are squires or hippobates for some absent cavalrymen or hippobateis; the latter, it has been conjectured, may be the hoplites seen elsewhere on the vase. The riders are confronted with a two-bodied sphinx with a floral crown and an archaic smile. It is not clear if the creature is participating in any of the action in this frieze. Behind the sphinx is a lion-hunting scene in which four youths wearing cuirasses (save for one who is nude, but belted) spear a lion which has a fifth figure in its jaws. Whether there were indigenous lions in the Peloponnese at this time is a matter for speculation. moreover the shock-haired mane of the lion betrays a neo-Assyrian influence, perhaps the first such in Corinthian art and replacing the previously dominant Hittite forms. Finally in this section, and just below the handle, is a Judgement of Paris scene. Above is another hunting scene, albeit of animals only: dogs chasing stags, goats and hares.

In the highest and largest frieze is the scene that has attracted the most scholarly attention – a battle involving hoplite warfare. However this characterization is not without its problems. For one thing, the hoplites shown here meeting at the moment of othismos (or "push") do not carry short swords, but instead like their Homeric forebears have two spears; one for thrusting and one for throwing. Further, Tyrtaeus (11.11-14 West) does not mention a supporting second rank as it may be represented; it is far from self-evident this is a second rank depicted on the vase or that it supports the first. To render the phalanx tactics unambiguously the painter would have had to have given a bird's-eye view of the action, a perspective unknown in Greek vase painting. Consequently it is not clear if the hoplite formation shown here is the developed form as it was practiced from the 6th century onwards. Lastly flautists and cadenced marching are not attested in literature from the Archaic Period, so the flute-player drawn here cannot have served in reality to keep the troops in step: what function he had, if any, is open to speculation. However, Thucydides does state that a Spartan phalanx in the Battle of Mantinea was accompanied by flutists in order to keep step as they approached the opposing army, which may suggest that they were used in the same way at the time when the vase was made.

Judgement of Paris
The Judgement of Paris on the Chigi vase is the earliest extant depiction of the myth, evidence perhaps of knowledge of the lost epic Cypria from the 650s. The figure of Paris is labelled Alexandros in the Homeric manner, though the writer might not be the same as the painter since the inscriptions are not typically Corinthian. This scene, obscured under the handle and “painted somehow as an afterthought” according to John Boardman. invites the question whether the events on this vase (and vases generally) are random juxtapositions of images or present a narrative or overarching theme. In line with recent scholarship of the Paris structuralist school Jeffrey Hurwit suggests that reading upwards along the vertical axis we can discern the development of the ideal Corinthian man from boyhood through agones and paideia to full warrior-citizen, with the sphinx marking the liminal stages in his maturation. The scene is also thought to represent Beauty, decision, and Marriage; creating suspicion that the vase itself could have been a wedding gift. The scene works as well to draw “attention to Aphrodite as Corinth’s City Goddess”. The scene is also thought to represent Beauty, decision, and Marriage; creating suspicion that the vase itself could have been a wedding gift. The scene works as well to draw “attention to Aphrodite as Corinth’s City Goddess”. The vase can be viewed as a symbol of different perspectives. It is important to realize various scenery point to different ideology so that interpretation can be determined.

Interpretations of the Chigi Vase
The Chigi Vase has been looked over by few people in comparison to other major works of art. Hurwitt was the first commentator to have looked at thew vase and thought of all of its scenes to have a connecting thread that would give a cohesive movement through each frieze as shown on the vase. In further study of the vase and the scenes shown on its surface, commentators such as  E. Mugione and D' Acunto have proposed that the three friezes relate to one another by showing a boy progress from boyhood to manhood as he is shown in various scenes of hunting.