7 - Les Images de la Cité – The Vase Painter’s Gaze

Summary

For François, gentle friend and constant inspiration

INTRODUCTION

The initial focus of this chapter is the vase painter and the variety of inputs into his images, their creator, and their ‘first viewer.’ These may perhaps best be seen as a cloud of encircling infl uences – an iCloud, if you will (Fig. 7.1) – which we sketch here, grouping the infl uences into four cardinal sectors. The same could be done for other crafts – and such diagrams would not differ greatly, although that for the vase painter would no doubt be the most elaborate, since his iconography was the most diverse and his constraints the least. First, at the top, is the vase painter's learned ‘language’ of images and forms, a matter of training, with the language being essentially that of vase painting, but also with an awareness of, and occasional borrowings from, other crafts. The second area, that on the left, concerns the stories of gods and heroes, which the craftsman learned from his family, his early friends, and later his colleagues at work, a stock that could be augmented both aurally and visually by new works of contemporary poets, dramatists, and other technitai. These should also be associated with what we call historical events, although such events might well be manipulated for individual or group benefit, as well as to echo myth or ritual. This is perhaps best thought of as ‘para-history,’ although we are now offered such concepts as ‘post-truths,’ supported by ‘alternative facts’ and ‘evidence free’ claims, resulting in ‘alternative realities,’ as fiction trumps fact.

A third area of impact is shown on the right – the consumer. The infl uences here could be the result of public commissions, such as that of the Panathenaic prize amphorae, or of more private ones, by individuals or by groups, whether of local or foreign origin. In this area also belongs the impact of current fashions, the result of group ideas and preferences. Vase painters’ images may well have been directed by such fashions, whether as the result of personal observation or external suggestion. Finally, at the bottom of the diagram, there is the vase painter's environment. This may be divided into the natural environment and the constructed environment, and within these environments the vase painters envisaged, most importantly, people in action, whether in the city or in the chora.