Analisi De Las Obras De Sophilos

Sophilos

<Overview

<Signed vases

< Detail of Wedding Scene on A1 and A2

<Three Style Phass

Early

Middle

Late

<Works not from Sophilos

<Sophilos and KX Maler

<Sophilos and Gorgonmaler

<Korfumaler

<Chronology

Sophilos was an Attisch black figure vase painter, and the first known painter to have signed his work. The Attisch black figure period was a time of rising artistic styles and development in greek art, around Athens. It is apparent as well, that some of Sophilos’ work was influenced by the Corinthian style as well. Attisch black figure technique is distinguished from the later, more advanced red figure painting style in that usually black figures were painted on to a red background before firing, and then could be detailed further after firing, by incisions and other methods. The work of Sophilos is dated to around 580 v. chr. His work as a painter and or potter was mainly limited to dinoi and lebes. While there were several different paters from this period that are contemporary with Sophilos, there are a few distinguishing factors that can be directly attributed to him. Sophilos’ main theme of work was animal friezes, consisting mainly of lions, panthers, sirens, and sphynxes, with boars making an appearence as well. While the majority of his work was dedicated to animal friezes, some of Sophilos’ most magnificent work is of a different variety; Grand wedding processions consisting of the mythical olympic gods, and other myth scenes, as the main depiction on several pieces. Typical of Sophilos is his use of red ink to sign his works, figures on his works being detailed in red, and certain details used in his representation of animals.

The Signed Vases

P1: Dinos from the Akropolis. Athens National Museum

P2: Dinos in the British Museum (counterpart of A1)

P3: Dinos from Pharsalos

P20: Ausguß Kessels from Menidi

P1 and P2 are counterpart piceces, each depicting the same scene as the main on the main field of the vessels, in this case a wine dinos, on a stand (which was painted as well,) most likely used for mixing wine at feasts, much like the wedding scene depicted on the main viewing area. The wedding shown in theis scene ist he mythical wedding of Peleus and Thetis, the parents of the hero of Troy, Achilles. The scene depicts a grand procession of Olympic gods as part of the wedding party. The scene starts at the entrance to a residence. In correlation to this house depicted, Iris suggests that the shape of the neck of the piece is built to represent an Antetempels Haus. On this house depicted, we can see the signiture, painted in red, of Sophilos between the antewall and the columns.

Another signed work of Sophilos is the Sinos from Pharsalos, with the first frieze being of particular interest. This frieze shows a depiction of the games of achilles, organized and held in honor of Patrokles, but unfortunately it is fragmented. The pieces that have been found show only parts of chariot race event, with parts of the horses first quarters, a part of the tribune with specatators watching the event, the hand of achilles, and Sophilos’ signiture distinguishable. Along with these fragments, a piece was discovered which contained a written description of the depicted events. It is accepted amongst esperts that the pices that would be filling in the missing areas most likely contain images of the other events of the games.

The Ausguß Kessels from Menidi shows a representation of the fight between Hekules and the Centaurs, and is the last of the four signed works of Sophilos that have been discovered so far. Painted on this vessel are three lines of text. Only a few letters remain in the first line, in the second line the name of the painter is written <Sophilos> but it doesn’t identify weather or not Sophilos ist he painter or the potter of the piece. There has been a debate between J.D. Beazley and J. Wolters as to whether or not a colon ( : ) comes after the name and before the designating followup of „painter“ or „potter“

On these vessels, the distinct style of Sophilos can be seen through his representations of animals, in particular lions, panthers sirens, and sphynxes. When looking at the lion figures across the works of Sophilos, we can see the relationship and closeness between taf. 6 Abb 10 and taf. 2 Abb 3. Also important to look it is the similarities between Abb12 and Abb1, and when comparing the lion or panther from Abb14 with lion or panther from Abb17, it is apparent that the lines of the hind legs are very like in both works. When comparing the panthers of the Sophilos, it is important to look at the detail of the moustaches, as well as the detailing of the tuft of hair on the end of the beasts tail. The sirens of the Erskine Dinos vary in the fact that they have 2 different hairstyles, and the way in which they are drayn show the free handwriting style of sophilos.. Sphynxes are drawn much the same way as lions, however they are given human heads. It is important to look at the way Sophilos outlines the bodies of the sirens, as well as defines the transistion between body and legs of the four legged animals, because it is typically Sophileisch that each of the aforementioned aspects are outlined by a two parallel lines forming one double line.

The Erskine Dinos shows three different styles of ornamentik, a lotus palmetten chain, lotus palmetten geschling, and füllrosetten. The lotus palmetten kette is found on the mouth band, as well as on the ball on the stand. The chain order goes from palmetten to lotusblüte. These palmetten are close to the palmetten from the akropolis dinos, but vary in some regards *******evidence. On the right side four lotus blossoms and 2 palms are shown, with two more palms hanging together . The Lotus palmetten geschling hangs between two sirens underneath the main picture scene. The sling is knotted with the bended stems of the lotus blossoms in two double lines. On the Pharsalos Dinos, a similar ornamentik can be seen, with a lotus palmetten geschling hanging between two lions, as opposed to two sirens. However in the erskine dinos, the blossoms are further bound together, done out of necessity due to a lack of space to work with, and therefore the painter shortened the image. Although it still shows the concept of the work, it does as well show an unsuccessful undertaking. On the 3rd frieze of the kessel, as well as the 4th and 5th friezes on the stand, we can see the decorated füllrosetten. Detailed like a sunflower, with large seeds in the center, we can see that the lines of seperation are not always drawn perfectly, and they dont always meet. If we compare these rosettes to those on the Ausguß Kessel from Menidi, or from the Pharsalos Dinos, it is noticeable that those of the latter two pieces are more oval shaped than those on the erskine dinos.

Because of the nature of the his work on the Erskine Dinos in the British Museum, and the Athener Dinos, these two pieces can be considered masterpieces of Sophilos. Because of the importance of these two counterparts, I would like to go into a little mor detail on the piece in the British museum, with the information coming both from D. Williams in his 1983 book Greek Vases in the John Paul Getty Museum and The British Museum’s own publication, The British Museum Quarterly, from the Autumn 1972 edition. The scene depicted on this vase is, as before stated, the wedding procession for the marriage of Peleus and Thetis, parents of Achilles. While the main frieze of this piece ist he wedding, the Dinos also is composed of the Sophileisch Animal friezes, as well as ornamented with lottus palmetten, and füllrosetten. This piece is not just the Dinos, but also the stand that holds it. D. Williams points out in his writing on the pice „One sees, ... how carefully the painter has arranged all elements of all the friezes on the front of the bowl both to emphasize the front view and to echo the outline of the bowl“ In this piece, there are 4 friezes, with the main scene being shown in the 1st, or top frieze. The next 3 friezes are the typical animal representations, as well as a large floral complex in the second frieze, with this design being used in other works of the painter as well. The frontal view of the work is established by the use of symmetrical anamal arrangement, with the sidelimits of the work clearly by the door of the house, and the end of the procession, which nearly touches the door after having wrapped around the whole Dinos. In the third frieze, there is a goat, facing the opposite direction of the movement, surrounded by two panthers. This also helps to define the center of the work, As is typical with the work of Sophilos, we can see that the wedding scene and its participants is the most mastefully done work on the Dinos, with the depictions of the animals and Ornamentik on the piece showing a „slightly looser approach“ In the main scene, we can see that Sophilos deliberately tries to use a 4th color in the scene, the natural orange of the vase. This is not just a mistake, and is evident in the figures of the procession, starting with the chiton of Dionysos. We know that this is not an instance of merely forgetting to paint an area because other figures on the vase as well, particularly the Hanoi, have their chitons left colorless as well, but their feet are painted in white, so we know that this absence of paint was done intentionally. The detail and care the Sophilos put into the main scene can be see through the amount of work taken to deliberately paint and trace the lines of the Chariot, it shows that Sophilos went through a

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