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Preliminary Sketch in Greek Vase-Painting

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 September 2015

P. E. Corbett
P. E. Corbett*
Affiliation:
University College, London
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Extract

The use of preliminary sketch in Attic red-figure is so widespread and so familiar that even in a detailed publication its presence often passes unmentioned, yet illustrations of it are not always easy to find. It may therefore be helpful to bring together some examples on which the sketch-work is of particular interest and at the same time to include instances of what is basically the same procedure, but applied to other techniques of vase-painting.

As is well known, the sketch is composed of shallow grooves made in the surface of the clay before firing; the lines are most obvious in the reserved areas, but it can sometimes be seen that they extend into the black background, and when they do, the shininess of the black in the grooves shows clearly that they were made before the black was applied. The exact nature of the instrument with which the sketch was drawn is not known; the grooves generally look as if they had been made with a small, blunt tool, though whether it was wood or metal or some other material cannot be determined. Each artist no doubt had his own favourite implement, but it is worth noting that occasionally, and above all on Apulian red-figure, the sketch-lines are narrow slits cut into the clay; this kind of line, at least, must have been made with something sharp, presumably a metal graver. The amount of detail in the sketch varies from man to man, and there may even be differences between works that can be attributed to the same hand, or between the two sides of the same pot. Sometimes the artist does no more than block out the general masses and arrangement of the figures; on other vases the preliminary work is very exact and on occasion may be more detailed than the final drawing.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 85 , November 1965 , pp. 16 - 28
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1965

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References

I acknowledge with gratitude the generosity of the authorities of University College London in making a grant of £100 from the Rosa Morison Fund toward the cost of the plates of this article. I am also indebted to the Trustees of the British Museum and to Mr D. E. L. Haynes, Keeper of the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities, for permission to publish pictures of vases under their care; to the Headmaster and Governors of Harrow School for permission to study the neck-amphora by the Kleophrades Painter and to publish drawings of it; to Professor Martin Robertson for his generosity in yielding to me his prior claim to publish a study of the preliminary sketch on that vase; to Professor Homer Thompson for permission to study the fragment of a calyx-krater in the Agora Museum at Athens and to publish a photograph and drawing of it, and for checking the drawing against the original; to Miss Alison Frantz for the photograph of the fragment; to Mr D. M. Bailey for his help on many occasions; to Miss Miller for the photographs used for plates IIa, IVa and IXa to Mr C. O. Waterhouse for preparing and subsequently bleaching the print used in making fig. 1, and for unlimited patient and invaluable advice and help in the preparation of the detailed photographs.

It would be expensive to include complete views of all the published vases of which details are illustrated in this article; for convenience selected references are given to published illustrations of many of the vases discussed; for a full list see the relevant entries in ARV and ABV. ARV means the second edition of 1963.

1 For some previous studies see the examples from Furtwängler and Reichhold listed in Appendix A; also Richter, G. M. A., The Craft of Athenian Pottery 38–9Google Scholar; Beazley, T. D., Potter and Painter in Ancient Athens 38 ff.Google Scholar (from PBA 30); Cook, R. M., Greek Painted Pottery 244.Google Scholar

2 It has sometimes been suggested that the sketch was drawn in some medium which burnt up and completely disappeared during firing, with the implication that the grooves were only produced incidentally, through excessive pressure—most recently, Noble, J. V., AJA lxiv (1960) 318.Google Scholar The suggestion is attractive, since it would explain why the sketch so often seems very incomplete, though it does not account for the areas where the lines dig deep into the clay, as for the satyr's finger-tips, plate III, and still less for the slit-like lines sometimes found on Apulian. There is no need to suppose that all artists worked in the same way.

3 Athens, Agora P 19291. Hesperia xviii (1949) pl. 45.5; p. 224; ARV 227, Eucharides Painter, no. 17. For the more complex rendering, see for instance London E 278; CVA iii, III I c, pl. 15.1 c; ARV 226, no. 2.

4 London E 65. FR pl. 47.2; ARV 370, Brygos Painter, no. 13.

5 Munich 2645. FR pl. 49; Lullies, and Hirmer, , Griechische Vasen pl. 66 Google Scholar, above; ARV 371, Brygos Painter, no. 15.

6 Harrow 55. JHS xxxvi (1916) pl. 6; pp. 123–4; xxx (1910) 50 for references to satyrs in battle; Beazley, , Kleophradesmaler pl. 29.1–2Google Scholar; ARV 183, Kleophrades Painter, no. 11.

7 Naples 2883. Hahland, , Vasen um Meidias pl. 10 a Google Scholar; ARV 1338. See also Euripides, , Cyclops, 5–9.Google Scholar

8 London E 377. ARV 501, Deepdene Painter, no. 35.

9 For the satyr compare the central figure on the reverse of the stamnos Munich 2406 (CVA v, pl. 238.2; ARV 207, Berlin Painter, no. 137); the central Amazon on the stamnos Brussels A 3092 (CVA iii, III I c, pl. 23.1a; ARV 291, Tyszkiewicz Painter, no. 21). For the maenad, cf. the lekythos Oxford 323 (CVA i, pl. 35.4; ARV 216, manner of the Berlin Painter, no. 17); the pelike London E 405 (BCH lxxxvi (1962) 72; ARV 486, Hermonax, no. 46); the neck-amphora Warsaw, ex Potocki (CVA Poland iii; Poland pl. 129.4a; ARV 487, Hermonax, no. 54).

10 For an even more marked change of mind by the same artist, see his amphora, Würzburg 507; ARV 181, no. 1; in the sketch the Oriental wore a himation and was, presumably, the father of the departing warrior; FR ii, 224; pl. 103.

11 London 1961.7–10.1. BMQ xxiv (1961) pls. 33–4; p. 99 for a possible reason for the change; ARV 592, Altamura Painter, no. 33 bis.

12 Vienna 3691. CVA pl. 2.4–6; p. 9; ARV 118, Epidromos Painter, no. 8.

13 London D 2. Pfuhl, MuZ fig. 498; Diepolder, , Penthesileamaler pl. 6 Google Scholar; Lane, Greek Pottery pl. D; Robertson, M., Greek Painting 113 Google Scholar; ARV 862, Pistoxenos Painter, no. 22. Sketch lines also on the whiteground oinochoe with the picture of a girl spinning, London D 13; ARV 403, Foundry Painter, no. 38.

14 As Professor Martin Robertson has pointed out, a similar kind of preliminary sketch is found in some Etruscan tomb paintings; JRS xlvii (1957) 264, review of Becatti, and Magi, , Monumenti della pittura antica scoperti in Italia; Tarquinia fasc. iii–ivGoogle Scholar; ‘Le pitture delle tombe degli Auguri e del Pulcinella’, esp. 24 ff., figs. 12–13. For a detailed study of sketch-work in Etruscan wall-painting, see Wit, J. de, Jdl xliv (1929) 31 ff.Google Scholar

15 Noted by Zahn on the hydria Berlin 1897; FR iii, 237; ABV 293, Psiax, no. 8.

16 London B 605. CVA i, III H f, pl. 2.3 and 6; pl. 6; ABV 411, Kuban Group, no. 4; Arias, Hirmer, and Shefton, , A History of Greek Vase Painting pl. xxviii Google Scholar; see also ibid. fig. 81 for preliminary sketch beside the back legs of the horses on another Panathenaic of the same group, London B 606; ABV 411, Kuban Group, no. 3.

17 The illustration also shows further remains of preliminary sketch on either side of the capital of the column.

18 London B 560. ABV 495, Class of Athens 581, no. 158.

19 London B 410. Beazley, , ABS pl. 1.4 Google Scholar; CVA ii, III H e, pl. 14.6; ABV 181.

20 London B 130. CVA i, III H e, pl. 1.1; JHS lxxx (1960) pls. 1–2; pp. 57–8 on the date. ABV 89, Burgon Group, no. 1.

21 Graef, , Die antiken Vasen von der Akropolis zu Athen i, 71 ff.Google Scholar on no. 611; preliminary sketch for Achilles' right arm and the horse's muzzle, both set rather lower than in the finished drawing; also, surprisingly, for the inscription.

22 ABV 4–5, Nettos Painter, no. 1; Beazley, , DABF 14–5Google Scholar; 106, n. 8; Arias, Hirmer and Shefton, A History of Greek Vase Painting figs. 18–20.

23 AD ii, pl. 45; the sketch shown by dotted lines.

24 Hamburg 444. Studi Etruschi xi (1937) 366 ff., figs. 5–6; pl. 39. 1. For preliminary sketch in Chalcidian see FR i, 166.

25 London B 158. CVA iii, III H e, pl. 27.2; von Bothmer, , Amazons in Greek Art, pl. 63.1 Google Scholar; ABV 368, Leagros Group, no. 105; ‘recalls the Achelöos Painter’. It is impossible to light the vase so that all parts of the sketch show clearly at the same time; the woman's left shoulder and arm overlap the lower part of the shield.

26 It is not ‘part of an original design abandoned’, as stated in the text of the CVA.

27 Madrid 11008. Pfuhl, MuZ fig. 264; CVA i, III H e, pl. 25.1; ABV 294, Psiax, no. 24.

28 Berlin 1655. FR pl. 122; iii, 8.

29 See Appendix B.

30 For the same procedure in Chalcidian see FR ii, 221. In Attic red-figure, too, there are sometimes traces of an initial outline in thin glaze, in addition to the outline stripe and the relief contour.

31 London B 601.23. JHS xlix (1929) 255, fig. 2.2. From the same plate, B 601.25, Oxford G 128.1 and 8, Toronto C 46; ABV 9–10, Gorgon Painter, no. 19.

32 FR i, 24; pl. 4, above; the amphora Munich 2301; ABV 255, Lysippides Painter, no. 4.

33 On the Nettos amphora, Athens 1002; ABV 4–5, Nettos Painter, no. 1. See Beazley, , DABF pl. 5.1 Google Scholar, where it is visible under magnification on the lobe of the Gorgon's left ear, on the tips of the wingfeathers to the right of the first three locks of the beard, on the eyes and nose. Traces also on the head of the other Gorgon. On the bowl of the krater from Vari, Athens 16384; ABV 6, ‘probably by the Nettos Painter, a late work’; on the lower contour of the right forearm of Herakles, along the hem of his sleeve and for part of his upper arm. On the bowl of a second krater from Vari, Athens 16382; ABV 3, below; for the peaked line which forms the forehead of the pantheress and for the line which runs from the animal's left ear to form the eyebrow and part of the nose. On a fragment of a krater, Athens, Kerameikos 154; ABV 3, Chimaera Painter, no. 3; in the ear and ruff of the lion's head.

34 See Appendix C.

35 London B 223. CVA iv, III H e, pl. 55. 2; ABV 284, near the Group of Toronto 305, no. 7.

36 London B 312. CVA vi, III H e, pl. 79. 1; AJA xxvi (1922) 187. Compared by von Bothmer with the hydria Boston 62.1185; Classical Journal lix (1963–4) 198, figs. 9–10; 200; 207, n. 13.

37 London B 323. CVA vi, III H e, pl. 84. 3; ABV 362, Leagros Group, no. 33 (Painter A).

38 London B 154. Rumpf, , Chalkidische Vasen 161 Google Scholar, Polyphemos Group, no. vi; pls. 202–3. Preliminary incision also reported on the Corinthian columnkrater with the Departure of Amphiaraos; Berlin 1655; FR iii, 12.

39 E.g., under the shield and between the legs of the figure on plate XIb.

40 The detailed photograph was taken with a highlight falling on the area so that the thin glaze and the edge of Odysseus' legs are lighter than the background, and the rough patch is darker.

41 For examples in other fabrics of corrections made by scraping off the glaze, see Appendix, D.

42 London B 241. CVA iv, III H e, pl. 59.1; AJA lviii (1954) pl. 58.16; ABV 373, Leagros Group, no. 175. Reichhold reports the presence of preliminary sketch for added white on the François vase; FR i, 12.

43 London B 238. CVA iv, III H e, pl. 58.2; ABV 392, Nikoxenos Painter, no. 9.

44 London 1900. 6–11.1. Mélanges Perrot 252; ABV 294, Psiax, no. 25; 669 and 674 on the kalosnames. A similar kind of preliminary sketch is found on two fourth-century Attic calyx-kraters in Munich, on which the figures are executed in applied white, the details being drawn with lines of dilute glaze; FR ii, 211.

45 London B 688. Walters, , History of Ancient Pottery i, pl. 35.1 Google Scholar; Haspels, , Attic Black-Figured Lekythoi 235 Google Scholar; Diosphos Painter, no. 74. Also on other lekythoi in the British Museum decorated in the same technique; B 687; B 690; 1910.4–5.1; 1910.4–5.2; 1914.5–12–2.