Macmillan aryballos

Macmillan aryballos
MaterialClay
Height6.9 cm
Width3.9 cm
Createdc. 640 BC by the Chigi Painter
Discoveredbefore 1890
Greece
Present locationBritish Museum, London

The Macmillan aryballos is a Protocorinthian pottery aryballos in the collection of the British Museum. Dating to around 640 BC, it is 6.9 cm high and 3.9 cm in diameter, and weighs 65 grams.[1]

The vase is attributed to the Chigi Painter.[a][2] Its provenance is uncertain: Cecil Smith reported that it was acquired by Malcolm Macmillan at Thebes, and suggests that it was originally found in a tomb outside the town;[3] but the British Museum Register records it as having been acquired by Macmillan in Corinth.[1] It was gifted to the British Museum by Macmillan in 1889.[4]

The vase is made out of a yellow coloured clay, and painted in shades of brown and purple. Fine details are incised into the clay.[4] The upper part of the vase is in the shape of a lion's head,[1] which appears to have been modelled rather than cast from a mould.[5]

The vase is painted with a floral chain at the shoulder, three bands of figurative decorations, and rays at the base.[6] The top band is 2 cm high, and painted with a scene of eighteen warriors engaged in combat.[7] Unlike on the Chigi vase, another work by the same artist, where two phalanxes are depicted, the Macmillan aryballos shows hoplites engaged in single combat.[8] It stretches all the way around the aryballos, and has no clear beginning or end.[7] Each warrior wears a crested helmet and greaves, carries a round shield (each of which is decorated with a different device), and is armed with one or two spears.[7] The army coming from the right-hand side is depicted as victorious; the soldiers coming from the left are defeated.[b][10]

The second band is 1 cm high and depicts a horse race, with six horses galloping from right to left. Beneath one of these horses there is a swan and a crouching figure, possibly an ape.[7] The third band is 4 mm high and is decorated with a hunting scene, in which a hunter and hounds chase a hare and a fox or jackal.[3] Jeffrey Hurwit interprets the three scenes as depicting different stages in a man's life: the hunting scene for boyhood, the racing for young men, and the battle scene for fully adult men.[11]

  • Macmillan aryballos on display in the British Museum
    Macmillan aryballos on display in the British Museum
  • Diagram of the decoration of the Macmillan aryballos
    Diagram of the decoration of the Macmillan aryballos
  • Detail of the Chigi Vase, another vase by the same artist depicting warriors in battle
    Detail of the Chigi Vase, another vase by the same artist depicting warriors in battle

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ Also known as the Macmillan painter and the Ekphantos painter[2]
  2. ^ This arrangement with the victorious army on the right is typical of vases from the Chigi Group; later in the archaic period it was more typical to show the victorious army on the left.[9]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c British Museum.
  2. ^ a b Amyx 1988a, p. 31.
  3. ^ a b Smith 1890, p. 173.
  4. ^ a b Smith 1890, p. 167.
  5. ^ Smith 1890, p. 168.
  6. ^ Amyx 1988b, p. 370.
  7. ^ a b c d Smith 1890, p. 172.
  8. ^ Salmon 1977, p. 88.
  9. ^ Arafat 2015, p. 126.
  10. ^ Schwartz 2002, p. 54.
  11. ^ Hurwit 2002, p. 17.

Works cited[edit]

  • Amyx, D. A. (1988a). Corinthian Vase Painting of the Archaic Period. Vol. 1. Berkeley: University of California Press.
  • Amyx, D. A. (1988b). Corinthian Vase Painting of the Archaic Period. Vol. 2. Berkeley: University of California Press.
  • Arafat, K. W. (2015). "The Chigi Painter at Isthmia?". Hesperia Supplements. 48. JSTOR 24637426.
  • "British Museum Collection Online: The Macmillan Aryballos". British Museum.
  • Hurwit, Jeffrey (2002). "Reading the Chigi Vase". Hesperia. 71 (1). JSTOR 3182058.
  • Salmon, John (1977). "Political Hoplites?". Journal of Hellenic Studies. 97. doi:10.2307/631024. JSTOR 631024.
  • Schwartz, Adam (2002). "Order or Disarray?". Classica et Mediaevalia. 53.
  • Smith, Cecil (1890). "A Protokorinthian Lekythos in the British Museum". Journal of Hellenic Studies. 11.
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