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Notes on the Sequence and Distribution of the Fabrics called Proto-Corinthian1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

H. L. Lorimer
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Extract

Nearly every important excavation carried out in recent years on Greek soil has added to our knowledge of the proto-Corinthian fabric. Thera and Sparta have appeared as importers of the ware in its earliest days; Delphi, the Argive Heraion, and Aegina have illuminated its later stages, with the result that many fresh varieties are now included under this general heading. The provisional publication by Professor Gabrici of valuable material from Cuma has enriched our knowledge of the style in its early phases. None the less, the magnificent tomb-series of Syracuse and other Sicilian sites still afford the best, indeed, the only evidence other than that of style by which to establish the sequence and duration of the fabrics which pass under this name. Hence, though the Sicilian material affords but a partial view, it will be given the chief place in the following discussion, supplementary evidence being sought from other sources.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 32 , November 1912 , pp. 326 - 353
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1912

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References

2 Cenni sulla origine dello stile geometrico di Cuma, Napoli, 1911. The author's final publication will appear shortly.

3 Not. Sc. 1895, p. 179, Fig. 78.

4 A late geometric form from Corinth bears, however, some resemblance to it. A.J.A. 1905, Pl. XIV. B. 4.

5 Some long-necked vases of this form were found at Cuma (Gabrici l.c. Fig. 11) and are regarded by Gabrici as the earliest proto-Corinthian products; but as they differ from the certainly proto-Corinthian specimens in having no slip, and as they are absent from various sites where early proto-Corinthian abounds, it is safer to regard them as a distinct fabric. Possibly they are Cypriote imports; for other possible instances of contact between Cuma and Cyprus in this period see Gabrici, l.c. p. 48.

6 See Tombs CCXXIII., CCCVIII., CCCXXXVII., CDLVI. in the publication of the Syracusan excavations (Orsi, Cimitero del Fusco, Notizie deyli Scavi, 1893 and 1895).

7 One skyphos from Aegina has bands alternating with groups of fine lines in the Mycenaean style. Pallat, , Ath. Mitt. 1897Google Scholar, Fig. 8.

8 Gabriei, l.c. Figs. 15 and 17.

9 Not. Sc. 1895, p. 138, Fig. 16.

10 Not. Sc. 1895, p. 151, Fig. 37.

11 There is one example in the museum at Corneto and one in the Palazzo dei Conservatori from the cemetery of the iron age on the Esquiline. For the latter see Mon. Ant. Linc. xv. Pl. IX. 10.

12 Not. Sc. 1893, p. 473.

13 Ephem. 1910, Pl. IV. It will be noted that there is also a nearly spherical variety of the stirrup-vase.

14 I am indebted to Professor Myres for this observation.

15 Not. Sc. 1893, p. 474; Mon. Ant. Linc. xvii. Fig. 141.

16 A.J.A. 1905, Pl. XIV. cf. Pallat, l.c. Fig. 15. The use of black glaze is also a feature of Late Geometric.

17 E.g. on a vase published B.C.H. 1895, p. 275.

18 Not. Sc. 1895, p. 132, Fig. 10.

19 Not. Sc. 1893, p. 468.

20 Not. Sc. 1893, p. 478.

21 Arg. Her. ii. p. 128, Fig. 56: cf. Fig 93. In the museum at Eleusis there is a Geometric oinochoe (No. 697) which comes midway between these two. For various forms of the proto-Corinthian jug, see Not. Sc. 1893, p. 477; 1895, p. 153. The shape occurs in another fabric, which however there is no reason to connect with proto-Corinthian, viz., rough jugs which often have a stamped design. They have been found at Gela (Mon. Ant. Linc. xvii. Fig. 183), Megara Hyblaea, Menidi, Eleusis, Aegina, the Heraion, in Boeotia and in Thera. They have no slip, which dissociates them from proto-Corinthian, and as they are found at Gela and Megara Hyblaea, and not at Syracuse, they are probably of later date than the linear fabric. They generally have the body slightly rounded, as have also a few of the early proto-Corinthian examples: e.g. that of Arg. Her. ii. p. 159, Fig. 53, and Gabrici, l.c., Fig. 10.

22 See Not. Sc. 1893, p. 451, for an early instance of the two latter.

23 For typical lekythoi see Not. Sc. 1895, p. 142, Fig. 21; Mon. Ant. Linc., xvii. Figs. 115, 146.

24 For this motive see Not. Sc. 1895, p. 145, Fig. 26.

25 Arg. Her. ii. p. 127, Fig. 53.

26 Gabrici, Cenni, Fig. 13.

27 Mon. d. I. ix. Pl. 5, 1.

28 Not. Sc. 1895, p. 185, Figs. 86 and 87.

29 Gabrici, l.c., Fig. 16.

30 It is also noted on an early lekythos from Thera. Ath. Mitt. 1903. p. 196. K 41. Cf. Perrot et Chipiez, iii. Fig. 554, for a “Phoenician” silver bowl having a palmette design with volutes terminating in birds'-heads.

31 Cf. Not. Sc. 1893, p. 470 (terra-cotta protome) and the lion and deer of the griffin jug.

32 Gabrici, l.c., Fig. 14.

33 Gabrici, l.c., Fig. 3 a and b.

34 Arg. Her. ii. Pl. lix. 1.

35 Compare Arg. Her. ii. p. 138, Fig. 69 b with the proto-Attic vase of the New York Museum, figured in the Bulletin for April, 1912, and also published in this number of the J.H.S.

36 Arg. Her. ii. p. 139, Fig. 69 d,e,f.

37 Not. Sc. 1895, p. 137 (Fig. 14).

38 Arg. Her. ii. p. 146, Fig. 14, Fig. 86, Pl. lxvi. 11.

39 Arg. Her., ii. p. 146, Fig. 87.

40 In this form it is found in purple and white on spherical aryballoi, probably Corinthian, of a later date.

41 Not shown in the accompanying illustration. It is reproduced Arg. Her., ii. Pl. lxvi. 11.

42 Arg. Her. ii. p. 147, Fig. 88.

43 Earliest in type at least of the whole series with figure decoration is the curious lekythos in the Ashmolean Museum published J.H.S. 1904, p. 295. The style is purely Geometric, and finds a parallel in that of a fragment of a skyphos at Eleusis (Ephem. 1898, Pl. v. 3.). Both presumably represent the local Geometric style which proto-Corinthian superseded.

44 A.J.A. 1900, Pl. VI.

45 Vasen der Acrop. Pl. VIII, 234.

46 In the British Museum: figured in Excavations at Ephesus, p. 230, Fig. 57.

47 Mon. Ant. xvii. Fig. 76, the vase to the left.

48 Not. Sc. 1893, p. 476.

49 See Gabriel, l.c. Fig. 10, Arg. Her. ii, p. 130, Fig. 59, for specimens with more varied designs.

50 Not. Sc. 1895, p. 124, Fig. 5.

51 For complete examples see Not. Sc. 1895, p. 171, Fig. 167, and Karo, Strena Helbigiana, The Heraion yielded a good many fragments.

52 Not. Sc. 1895, p. 129, Fig. 8.

53 The head ornament of the sphinx is worth notice, combining as it does the long curl of Mycenaean and Rhodian sphinxes with the tripartite palmette and tendril form characteristic of Cyrenaic (= Laconian) art. This latter form is found on late proto-Corinthian in Aegina (unpublished): earlier the sphinx has as a rule no ornament in proto-Corinthian.

54 Anzeiger 1888, p. 248.

55 Ath. Mitt. 1903, der Arch. Friedhof, Beil. xxxvi. 3. Arg. Her. ii. p. 185, Fig. 101.

56 Gabrici, l.c. Fig. 3, a and b, and Fig. 14 supra for one of these.

57 Not. Sc. 1895, p. 167, Fig. 57.

58 Mon. Ant. Linc. i. col. 810.

59 Mon. Ant. Linc. xvii., Fig. 95. Ath. Mitt. 1897, pp. 278 and 293, Figs. 11 and 17; 1903, der Arch. Friedhof. Beil. xxxvi. 2.

60 Professor Gabrici publishes (Cenni, Fig. 4) yet another oinochoe from Cuma, which he regards as proto-Corinthian. Like the Berlin specimen it has a rope handle; the clay however is pink, that of the others pale, and certain peculiarities, especially the treatment of the mane and paws of the lion, seem rather proto-Attic than Proto-Corinthian. The lion of the proto-Attic vase in New York has the mane similarly treated; so also however the lion of the possibly proto-Corinthian sherd published Ath. Mitt. 1897, p. 309, Fig. 31, d.

61 Mon. Ant. Linc. xvii. Figs. 95, 146, 200, the last possibly a local imitation.

62 The long neck of a vessel with decoration partly linear, partly b.-f. published Mon. Ant. Linc. xvii. Fig. 199, is proto-Corinthian, and apparently belongs to a flat-bottomed oinochoe; but, as the decoration shews, the period of pure linear is over.

63 The material from Megara Hyblaea is exactly parallel to that from Gela, indicating that the final establishment of this colony is contemporary with the foundation of Gela.

64 Tombs LXXXV and CLVIII at Syracuse afford exceptionally late instances.

65a E.g. CVIII. and CLVIII.

66 They occur also at the Heraion.

67 Not. Sc. 1893, p. 471.

68 For the chronology see Karo, Bull. Pal. It. xxiv. and especially xxx.

69 The earlier Tomba del Guerriero at Corneto has already an imitation of a skyphos (not in bucchero), derived however from type b of Fig. 3, which is probably the older. See Montelius', Civ. Prim. en Italie, Série B. Pl. 290, 12.Google Scholar

70 Very probably a good deal of pottery was overlooked at the time, as happened in the case of the Regulini-Galassi.

71 Pinza, , Röm. Mitt. 1907, pp. 35 ff.Google Scholar

72 They contained fine punctured bucchero and impasto locale of the same type as that from the Regulini-Galassi.

73 For the type see Mon. Ant. Linc. xvii. Fig. 186; Gsell, , Fouilles de Vulci, p. 424.Google Scholar

74 Dragendorff, , Thera ii. p. 195Google Scholar. There is some ground for attributing the fabric to Rhodes: see Ath. Mitt. 1903, p. 168. The small group which occurs at Naucratis, sometimes with dedication to Apollo, is of a different though allied fabric, and therefore yields no evidence for the date of the foundation of the town. The bird bowl was found at Sparta, where the period of foreign importation ends by 650 at latest; one fairly complete instance is of a somewhat rough and perhaps early type (see Ath. Mitt. l.c.); two minute fragments belong to a finer specimen, similar to that from the Regulini-Galassi tomb. It has also been found in Aegina (Ath. Mitt. 1897, p. 272) and Rhodes, , Vases Ant. du Louvre, A 290Google Scholar, Pl. XI.

75 Pinza reckons as Corinthian the four fragments of the olpe type from the Regulini-Galassi tomb, and mentions another with the human figure, found by himself, but subsequently lost, which may have been of the same fabric. It is of course contemporary with the beginnings of Corinthian, and imitative of it.

76 Two rare vase forms have been found there (1) a ring vase, rectangular or partly rectangular in section, standing upright on a small foot, which has also been found at the Heraion (Arg. Her. ii. Fig. 83, p. 143), in Aegina and Rhodes. Examples in a different and unknown—possibly Cretan—fabric have been found in Thera (Dragendorff, p. 314, Figs. 501 and 505, cf. 499 f. (2) a flat-bottomed alabastron with bent neck: a very rude example of the form, which is possibly of Cypriote origin (see Gabrici, l.c. p. 48) is figured Dragendorff, , Thera, ii. p. 19Google Scholar, Fig. 18.

77 Mont. Ant. Linc. xv. Pl. xvii. 9; see also Fig. 89.

78 Rendiconti Linc. 1889, p. 79. Even this late contact has recently been questioned: see Meyer, E., Gesch. iv. p. 519Google Scholar and Caspari's criticism, C.Q. April, 1911.

79 Tarentum has also furnished a number of proto-Corinthian amphoriskoi, of the shape familiar in the Corinthian fabric. The sparing decoration consists of one or two lines and a narrow band of alternate dot on the shoulder, the rest of the vase having merely a cream slip. Little of the most archaic part of the cemetery has survived.

80 Ath. Mitt. 1897, Pl. VIII.

81 Ath. Mitt. 1897, Pl. IX.

82 Cf. Boehlau, , Aus Ion. u. It. Necr. Figs. 59 and 60.Google Scholar

83 Rev. Arch. 1898. Especially at Delphi excavation has added to their number (Fouilles de Delphes, v. pp. 151, 162, 155); there are two from Megara Hyblaea, unpublished, one from Gela (Mon. Ant. Linc. xvii. Fig. 241), one, fragmentary, from Sparta, two in the Florence Museum, and one, unnoticed by Couve, at Corneto.

84 A.J.A. 1900, Pl. V.

85 Rev. Arch. 1898, p. 213; also J. E. Harrison, Prolegomena, Figs. 95 and 96.

86 A.J.A. 1900, Pl. VI.

87 Other instances of these early attempts to deal with the human form will be found inadequately figured but fully described as follows: Arch. Anz. 1894, p. 33, lekythos from Rhodes, execution very rough: Arch. Anz. 1895, pp. 33 and 34, Figs. 4 and 5, much more advanced.

88 Arch. Zeit. 1883, Pl. X. 1.

89 Not. Sc. 1895, p. 156, Figs. 43, 44.

90 Arch. Zeit. 1883, Pl. X. 2.

91 Phylakopi, Pl. XXIII. 7.

92 Perrot et Chipiez, Cypre, Fig. 528.

93 Mon. Ant. Line. xvii. Fig. 116.

94 A.J.A. 1900, Pl. IV.

95 J. H. S. xi. p. 179.

96 Arg. Her. ii. p. 136, Fig. 69d.

97 Arg. Her. ii. Pl. LXIV. 2 a, b, c.

98 Perhaps, as Prof. Myres suggests to me, from some such Late Mycenaean motive as the iunuing bulls and lions on the edge of a caldron from Cyprus, partially reproduced Perrot et Chipiez iii. Fig. 355. Dogs pursuing a hare occur on a late Geometric vase (Arch. Zeit. 1885, Pl. VIII. 1, 6), but there is no need to regard the motive as taken by proto-Corinthian from a Geometric source: rather the converse may be true.

99 J.H.S. 1902, p. 49. Fig. 1. It will be noted that the figure does not represent an actual vase, but elements combined from a series of fragments.

100 A good many forms of Proto-Corinthian ornament are also to be found on Boeotian amphorae: cf. the long series found at Thera and published by Dragendorff. The resemblances however are most notable in a vase of unknown fabric reproduced in Figs. 419 and 420. The groups of numerous lozenges are common to the griffin jug of the British Museum and the Odysseus oinochoe from Aegina: in Khodian and proto-Corinthian the number so grouped is generally four. The vertical band of lozenges and half-lozenges occurs both in proto-Corinthian and proto-Attic (Burgon lebes). The relation of proto-Corinthian to proto-Attic, which is close, is certainly to some extent that of a teacher; but there may also be independent borrowings from common or related sources.

101 It is very sparingly employed in the palmette and tendril design of the oinochoe of Fig. 14.