Black Figure Floral Ware is an understudied style of pottery which was produced in Boiotia and the nearby regions of Euboia and Phokis during the fifth and fourth centuries B.C.E. Floral Style vases are painted with compositions formed predominantly of palmettes and lotuses rendered in black gloss without the incised details which are typically associated with Black Figure pottery. The corpus of Boiotian Floral Ware is divided into two sub-styles: the Northern Style and the Southern Style. The Northern Style is thought to have been produced in the area North and West of the Kopais while the Southern Style was chiefly produced in the Thespiai-Thebes and the Tanagra regions. To date our understanding of the development of the Southern Style has been based on systematically excavated floral evidence from Rhitsona (Ancient Mykalessos) and the Thespian Polyandrion and random vases from the Skhimatari Museum. Previous research incorrectly identified Tanagra as the primary source of Southern Floral Ware with little regard for Thebes as an important producer. Newly discovered ceramic evidence from four Theban cemeteries now indicates that Thebes was in fact a major producer of Floral Ware. The excavations have brought to light new floral groups and have provided evidence which indicates that vases previously identified as Tanagran or Euboian are more likely to be Theban. / This dissertation chronicles the morphological and iconographical development of the Southern Floral Style according to the systematically excavated floral vases from Rhitsona and the Thespian Polyandrion. Rim and base profiles from the Thespian Polyandrion, Thebes and Haliartos are classified and floral motifs from datable contexts are assigned to types. The evidence indicates that it is the overall shape of the vase and the decorative details within the compositions, rather than a specific rim or base type or compositional layout that identifies regional differences, if any. Newly excavated vases from Haliartos are presented not only to provide a contrast for the Southern Style Floral Ware, particularly in terms of their shape, but also in order to establish a bridge between this dissertation and any future studies of the Northern Style Floral Ware.

Black and red figured pottery is a captivating, while also a vast and demanding subject of research. For decades, vases were primarily studied as valuable art objects and scenes depicted on them considered as testimonies of ideas and lives of their creators and users. Many researchers focussed on interpreting the scenes captured on these vessels. When studying works by our research predecessors, it can be noted that their methods and conclusions were often influenced by the socio-cultural context in which they lived and worked. The aim of this thesis is not to create new, surprising interpretations of selected scenes or to point at erroneous interpretations of other researchers. The aim of this work is to draw attention to how contemporary society has influenced researchers and the methods they use and conclusions they draw when interpreting scenes considered for long periods as immutable, final and undisputable. While re-evaluating adopted conclusions I drew on gender studies and gender analysis which require a multidisciplinary approach to research and interpretation of vase paintings. In four subject areas I pointed out to what extent the dichotomies within which we are used to think and with which we work, i.e. dichotomies of masculine - feminine, public - private, exterior - interior, but also...

M.A. / During the second half of the fifth-century B.C. there was a sudden proliferation of Attic vases depicting adornment scenes. These scenes showed groups of women making themselves desirable and for the first time women were eroticised within the context of marriage. Some scholars have argued that this sudden abundance reflected a change in the Attic attitude towards women, reflecting their increased social standing. These scholars proposed various hypotheses. It is conjectured that Perikles' Citizenship Law of 451/450 increased the social standing of Athenian daughters. The Peloponnesian War that raged from 431 to 404 BCE might also have forced women to take on more public responsibilities; to fill the gaps left by the military men's absence. This would explain why private activities of women became the subject matter of vase paintings at that time. According to this viewpoint women became the new customers of the potters. There are even scholars who maintain that these scenes contain hints of sexual liaisons between women. A competing hypothesis is that these scenes were used to impose a patriarchal ideal of femininity onto girls preparing themselves for marriage. Both these approaches imply that women were the primary viewers of these scenes. The aim of this study is to evaluate these hypotheses and to explore whether there may be other explanations. In order to investigate these issues a visual semiotic analysis was performed of thirteen painted vases representative of a variety of painters and vase shapes. This analysis was done in two parts: a structural analysis and a pragmatic analysis. The structural analysis consisted of a syntactic and semantic analysis, and helped to identify the pertinent signs and what they refer to. Artistic principles and the theory of Gestalt played an important role in identifying key signs. The pragmatic analysis delved deeper and was used to establish what message Athenian men and women might have read into these painted vases. This brought to light the master narrative prescribed by the patriarchy as well as women's acceptance thereof and how women used it to condition their daughters. A new hypothesis is proposed to explain the increase in this type of subject matter on painted vases. It is concluded that the buyers of the vases were mostly men but that the consumers of these artistic scenes were both male and female. It is also probable that after the Peloponnesian War these vases depicted a return to basic patriarchal values that may have degenerated during the war. It was also found that Perikles' Citizenship Law would have contributed more to the social standing of the male guardian, than to that of a girl of marriageable age. The eroticisation of women within the confines of marriage would thus have propagated the message of procreation within the patriarchal family structure, rather than referring to erotic encounters between women. These scenes, instead of showing the increased social standing of women, reflect a reinforcement of patriarchal values.

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L’étude du corps offre un angle d’approche privilégié pour appréhender les représentations théâtrales comiques de l’époque classique à Athènes et en Grande Grèce. Seule une analyse croisée des sources textuelles et iconographiques permet de faire toute la lumière sur la manière dont le corps comique était mis en scène, perçu et imaginé. Les conclusions de la thèse reposent en particulier sur la confrontation des comédies grecques du Ve et du IVe siècle av. J.-C. et de la céramique italiote à sujet comique, entre lesquelles elle établit un lien étroit. Le premier chapitre est consacré à la présentation des corpus et à leur mise en relation. Le deuxième décrit les aspects matériels du costume comique. Les troisième et quatrième portent sur la sémiologie du costume : sont d’abord étudiés les codes propres au genre, puis les éléments qui concourent à la caractérisation sociale et morale du personnage. Le cinquième et dernier chapitre traite de la fonction dramatique du geste comique. / Analysis of the body provides an effective means of capturing comic performances in classical Athens and Magna Graecia. Textual and iconographic sources ought to be considered together to shed light upon the staging of the comic body as it was perceived and imagined. In particular, the conclusions of this work are based upon the comparison of Greek comedies from the 5th and 4th centuries B.C. and South-Italian vase-paintings of comic subjects. The first chapter presents the two corpuses and the questions raised by their comparison. Chapter two describes the material characteristics of the comic costume. The third and fourth chapters focus on the semiotics of the costume ; the signs of the genre are treated first, followed by a discussion of the social and moral characterization of the personages. The final chapter pertains to the dramatic function of the comic gesture.

Revision of the author's Thesis (doctoral)--Universität Mannheim, 1985. / At head of title: Deutsches Archäologisches Institut. Includes bibliographical references (p. 13-16) and index.

Revision of the author's Thesis (doctoral)--Universität Mannheim, 1985. / At head of title: Deutsches Archäologisches Institut. Includes bibliographical references (p. 13-16) and index.

No description available.