The depiction of violence has always been and will always be a fascinating but horrifying subject. Violence shown on ancient vase paintings has been the subject of multiple authors’ works. This study analyzes the depiction of violence against children in mythological scenes on vases from the ancient world by analyzing and comparing 39 scenes where the subject is rendered and explores the question of what happens if the interpretation of the vase painting lays the focus on the child. This is done by examining how the children die, the iconography of their deaths and the traces of violence left on their bodies, their relationship to the perpetrators, the importance of the perpetrator and the spectators in the scenes, how the iconography relates to the myth as known from literary sources, as well as the chronological and geographical evolution of the motifs. The essay focuses on five mythological children, Troilos, Astyanax, the children of Medea and Opheltes, who all are the object of violence and early death in their respective myths and on vase paintings. The comparison between the vase paintings is divided into the scenes that depicts the children about to be killed and scenes showing the children as already dead. An account of the relationship between the children and the perpetrator as well as the perpetrators motive for killing the child and how their appearance in the scenes compare to each other is presented. The results of the comparisons are used in a discussion also including the ancient attitudes towards children and violence and if the children's deaths could be interpreted as human sacrifice. The study concludes that the interpretation of the role of the children in representations of violence is complex and that there are many aspects that affect the understanding of the vase paintings as a whole. Changing the focus to the child will not change the overall interpretation of the mythological motif, however, the innocence of the child will add more horror and gruesomeness to the overall impression of the vase painting. / <p>Uppsatsens illustrationer har inte tagits med i den digitala versionen.</p>

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The antics of Helen of Sparta, famous both for her beauty and her adultery, have fascinated ancient and modern audiences alike. The subjects of her abduction from Sparta and recovery from Troy are explored in various ancient discourses. This study investigates the iconography of Attic vase-paintings, c. 550-350 BCE, that show (or have been identified as depicting) these two events in the life of Helen. My approach seeks to investigate their subtexts or metanarratives of emotion through a rigorous methodology. This process first involves engaging in a close reading of the vase scenes in order to identify their visual language, especially their emotional vocabulary. The second process contextualises the vases in the society that produced and used them. By reading them in their original context of production and reception, one can extrapolate a range of meanings these scenes could have had for their original audience. In doing this, there are two main goals: to establish which emotions are pertinent to the ancient audience in these two episodes (emotional content), and how emotions – in essence invisible – are communicated in the vase images (emotional language). Applying this methodology to the scenes yields significant results. The identification of the most typically emotional indicators includes the following: gesture; stance; gaze; clothing, physical attributes and icons; divinities and personifications; and contextual icons or information. The emotional content that emerges includes, in particular, the emotion of eros – its potentially destabalising and emasculating consequences – and the appropriateness of orgē and revenge. Another significant result is in relation to the traditional identification of the scenes. While most of the traditional identifications of Helen’s recovery stand firm, the opposite is true for the abduction. My rejection of the majority of images identified as Helen’s abduction by traditional scholarship is necessary due to a lack of evidence – inscriptional or iconographic – and the marked incongruity of these depictions with their context. These results demonstrate the merits of a solid methodology that takes the language of images seriously, as well as the social, political and ideological context in which the vases were produced and viewed.

Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2013. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: During the fifth century BCE there were three defining periods in Athenian history that challenged its society: the Persian Wars (490 – 479 BCE); Periclean Athens (mid-fifth century); and the Peloponnesian War (431 – 404 BCE). As the development of identity is a reactionary process, these three periods had a profound effect on the Athenian identity and led to the redefinition of this self-image along the primordialist models. Two premises are combined in this study. Firstly that comparisons to contrary ethnicities are vital to the development of identity, and secondly that the visual articulation of an identity is essential to the reinforcement and maintenance of this self-image. This can be applied to the development of Athenian identity during the fifth century BCE as reflected in Attic vase painting. Through a study of the "other" imagery produced in this century, with special attention given to Amazons, it is possible to see the development and nature of the Athenian identity during each of the three periods. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Tydens die vyfde eeu vC was daar drie omskrywende periodes in Atheense geskiedenis wat hul samelewing uitgedaag het: die Persiese Oorloë (490 – 479 vC); Perikleiese Athene (mid-vyfde eeu); en die Pelopponiese Oorlog (431 – 404 vC). Omdat die ontwikkeling van identiteit 'n reaksionêre proses is, het hierdie drie periodes 'n diepgaande indruk op die Atheense identiteit gehad en het bygedra tot die herdefiniesie van hierdie selfbeeld volgens die primordialis modelle. Twee stellings word gekombineer in hierdie studie. Eerstens dat vergelykings aan teenoorgestelde etnisiteite essensieel is vir die ontwikkeling van identiteit, en tweedens, dat die visuele artikulasie van 'n identiteit noodsaaklik is vir die versterking en onderhoud van die selfbeeld. Dit kan toegepas word by die ontwikkeling van Atheense identiteit gedurend die vyfde eeu vC soos in Attiese vaas versiering uitgebeeld is. Deur middel van 'n studie van die "ander" beelde geskep in die eeu, met spesiale aandag aan Amasone, is dit moontlik om die ontwikkeling en karakter van die Atheense identiteit gedurend elk van die drie periodes te verstaan.

Teilw. zugl.: Kiel, Univ., Habil.-Schr., 1996/97

Dans le cadre du programme de renouvellement des approches en histoire de l’art grec mis en place dans l’équipe de recherche PLH-CRATA, je me suis engagée dans une thèse sur « L’aspective sur la céramique attique du VIIIe siècle av. J.-C. au premier quart du VIe siècle avant J.-C. ».Ce concept, élaboré par les égyptologues, désigne une construction de l’image qui n’est pas régis par le procédé de la perspective. Les différentes techniques de représentation en perspective ont toutes pour buts de représenter la vue d’objets en trois dimensions sur une surface donnée, en tenant compte des effets de l’éloignement et de leur position dans l’espace par rapport à l’observateur. Les Grecs nous ont légué leur vision perspective avec des figures conçues depuis un seul endroit en un seul moment. Toutefois, ce mode de représentation ne s’est mis en place que très progressivement, entre la fin du VIe siècle et le milieu du Ve siècle. Avant cette période, l’art de nombreuses cultures est régi par les principes de l’aspective. Cette notion associe plusieurs points de vue dans la représentation d’un même personnage. Elle peut aussi regrouper plusieurs moments d’une même histoire dans une image unique. L’artisan représente les parties comme si chacune d’entre-elles était isolée, s’affranchissant du regard subjectif de l’observateur. Il y a bien dans l’art archaïque grec une aspective. Il faut en déceler la présence, mais aussi en dégager les spécificités. C’est à cette tâche que je me consacre, dans une thèse conçue avec des gros plans sur certaines périodes clés. Les résultats sont particulièrement étonnants, puisqu’ils mettent en évidence, dans l’art géométrique, une présence plus marquée des procédés perspectifs qu’au VIIe et VIe siècle, au sein d’une image construite, par ailleurs, selon des procédés aspectifs. Les résultats montrent ainsi que, dès le départ, les deux conceptions de l’espace graphique connaissaient des interpénétrations. / As part of the renewal program study of history of Greek art developed in the research team PLH-CRATA, I am carrying out a thesis entitled : « The aspectivity in attic vase-painting : 900 – 575 ».This concept, elaborated by Egyptologists, refers to the construction of the image in graphic spaces which are not governed by perspective. Aspectivity is a close but distinct notion of what Waldemar Deonna called "primitivism". The perspective vision is the one that is natural for us. All the different techniques of perspective representation have in common the intention of representing the view of objects in three dimensions on a given space. They take into account the effects of the distance and the position in space with respect to the observer. The Greeks bequeathed us their perspective vision with figures conceived from a single place in a single moment. This representation is at the origin of the spatial and temporal unity. However, this mode of representation only took place very gradually between the end of the 6th century and the middle of the 5th century.Before this period, the art of many cultures is governed by the aspective principles. This notion, belonging to semiology, associates several points of view in the representation of the same character, whereas in natural vision we have only one. The aspective can also group together several moments of the same story in a single image, which can be read in one moment. The artist represents the parts as if each of them was isolated, as an enumeration of the various characteristics of the subject, freeing themselves from the subjective gaze of the observer placed in a certain place. The works do not seek to show a representation in time and space, but to show what must be, even if the events are not linked in time. The image becomes more a construction than a representation.There is, in Greek archaic art, as in the Egyptian and Near Eastern arts, an aspective. It is necessary to detect its presence, but also to identify its specificities. It is to this task that I dedicate myself, in a thesis conceived with close-ups on certain important periods. The results are particularly surprising, since they show, in the art of the Geometric period, a stronger presence of perspective processes that in the seventh and early sixth century BC. J.-C. within an image constructed otherwise by aspective processes. The results thus show that, from the start, the two conceptions of graphic space know some interpenetrations.

The principles of ancient Greek architecture have persevered through millennia, their impact ebbing and flowing perhaps, but still considered a fundamental layer on which Western architectural traditions have been built. Keeping in mind the pragmatic, aesthetic, and ideological influence Greek architecture has continued to have, my dissertation turns to contemporaneous sources to gauge the Greeks’ reception of their own sacred architecture. Scholars of Greek religion tend to agree that the temple was not a necessary component of ritual – boundary stones delineating sacred space and an altar on which communication with the divine was sought through sacrifice and non-sanguinary offerings were enough for religious rites. Why, then, were considerable effort and funds put towards the construction of temples, often monumental and virtually ubiquitous across the Greek landscape? Paradoxically, why is Greek literature, an art form that valued ekphrastic accounts of artworks (Homer’s description of the shield of Achilles [Iliad 18.478-608] is an oft-cited example) mostly silent on sacred architecture save for few laconic and formulaic appellations and rather dry descriptions (Greek traveler Pausanias, for instance, focused on sanctuary histories and votive offerings but was rather disinterested in architecture)? There appears to be a disparity between etic and emic perceptions of Greek sacred architecture, but, in fact, ancient evidence proves otherwise and demonstrates that artists were mindful of the potency of sacred structures. My dissertation pieces together their visual testimonies, particularly in vase painting which is arguably the most prolific and far-reaching medium of Greek art. Through an exhaustive perusal of museum collections, archives, and pottery-focused publications, the present study assembles a collection of nearly three-hundred vase paintings with depictions of sacred architecture and covering a time period of around three centuries from the Archaic period (seventh-century BCE) to the end of the Late Classical period (late fourth century BCE). The majority of the objects originate in Athens and its environs (Attika) and Magna Graecia. Based on this chronological and geographical scope, the study examines the images in four chapters: Attic black-figure vase paintings, Attic red-figure vase paintings with non-mythological subjects, Attic red-figure vase paintings with depictions of myth, and South Italian vase paintings. Within these chapters, the typology of architectural elements (e.g., freestanding columns, temple facades) and subject matter (e.g., myths, quotidian activities) constitute the primary criteria with which the images have been categorized. This extensive collection of vase paintings provides manifold insights into not only the reception of sacred architecture but also architectural elements as effective pictorial motifs. A great number of the depictions can be connected to “real” prototypes and, in some cases, distinct religious practices. While previous studies have taken a similar approach only to fixate on the discrepancies between prototypes and what architectural depictions can tell us about ancient building practices, the present study argues that vase painters rarely, if at all, intended to reproduce existing structures. Thus, the evidence should be used to study the ways in which artists reflected and refracted how buildings shaped and were shaped by the needs of their users. Creating an autonomous visual language built on abbreviation, elision, and synthesis, artists, in fact, rendered structures fit for the pictorial world. Their aim was not exactitude but rather verisimilitude – temples, shrines, portals, sanctuaries that were guided by but never unequivocally subservient to reality. The semiotic analysis of architecture, meanwhile, considers the aesthetics of vase painting and the objecthood of the vase. Beyond their face value (i.e., signifying sacred structures), elements like columns and simplified temples configure the surface of the vase into distinct zones, thus denoting spatio-temporal transitions, and hierarchize figures within the depicted events. Moreover, there are numerous instances where the pictorial frame is transformed into a built environment itself with the use of architecture – a practice that urges the viewer to contemplate the tension between the flatness of the ‘canvas’ and the habitable spaces defined by the juxtaposition of figures and structures.

Figures who turn their heads frontally and gaze outwards from Archaic Greek artworks look back at the viewer and destabilize the typical relationship between viewing subject and viewed object. These frontal characters were especially effective for viewers who encountered them during the Archaic period, when the profile perspective was conventional and vision was understood to be a tactile sense. Frontal-facing figures have often been interpreted as carrying protective power or having the ability to threaten the viewer with their attention. While some frontal figures are intimidating, frontality and the represented gazes it engenders do not provoke a single, universal reaction. Instead, these images’ interactions with ancient viewers were shaped by the type of frontal figure represented, the figure’s representational context, and the real context in which the figure was originally encountered. This dissertation takes a contextual approach to the study of Archaic frontal figures to arrive at a more nuanced understanding of their functions and effects. The frontal figures that are represented on vases made between 700 and 480 BCE are comprehensively examined. Frontal-facing characters that decorated temples in the same period are also considered. By inspecting each individual type of frontal figure in turn, we can better comprehend the differing responses the figures elicit, which include humor and horror in addition to terror. This project also examines how frontality was employed by innovative vase painters to create images that directly engage viewers and shape their viewing experiences. While a few figures were conventionally frontal in the Archaic period, the majority were represented frontally only by the most experimental artisans who were eager to surprise their viewers and distinguish their work from that of their colleagues. This investigation of Archaic frontality in multiple media demonstrates the power of the perspective in its original context and the inventiveness of the craftsmen who used it.

Scholars have examined visuality, or cultural modes of sight, in the ancient Mediterranean, especially in Greece and Rome. Their work has revealed how ancient sight operated differently. However, the Etruscans have been absent from these studies, likely due to the dearth of extant texts describing vision and its mechanics in Etruscan. This dissertation examines objects that harness an artifactual vision. These include faces of various forms, including face antefixes, bucchero face appliqués, and the surfaces of Etruscan black-figure pottery that integrate the contour eye motif. By considering of their modes of making, their visual impact on their surrounding spaces, and prevailing decorative conventions, this project argues that a fraction of a larger, more complex Archaic Etruscan visuality can be reconstructed. This approach acknowledges the ability for representations of the visible world to recursively influence it. From this perspective, the collected body of objects that gaze at the human world actively participate in shaping it.