The Athena complex; A comparative study of Greek vases 540-450BC. Illustrate your essay with specific examples.

“In the absence of significant examples of the major art of Greek painting, pottery has assumed an importance even beyond its own great intrinsic value”. Between 540-450BC Greek culture flourished and the arts of this period reflect the developing creative concerns, naturalism evolved and new techniques were employed. Vases (as today), were functional objects and their decoration did not preclude their purpose but were auxiliary to their various uses. The region of Attica, with its capital city Athens, had become the centre of the civilisation and accordingly the heart of the artistic community, due to its commercial success. Athens is eponymously named after the Olympian Goddess Athena, and this essay will focus on her portrayal on Greek vases, primarily sourced from the collection housed at the British Museum, London. The social, political and historical context during the years 540-450BC will be examined to evaluate the prevalence of the pictorial depictions of Athena.
Athena was the “Goddess of Wisdom … and knew more than anyone else about pottery, weaving, and all the useful arts … [She] was also a Battle Goddess, yet never went to war unless forced … and when she fought, always won”. By the mid sixth century BC the representation of the Gods and Heroes had an established iconography. Vase painters depicting Athena knew what her attributes were. She, as the other gods, was more than myth to the ancient Greeks; she was a living and accredited part of their history, which was especially pertinent to the Athenians as she was their patron goddess. Comparing figure 1a and 2, vases decorated with the Birth of Athena, respectively circa 570-560BC and circa 470-460BC, one can see that the iconography is principally the same. Athena springs forth from Zeus’s head, fully armoured, with shield, spear and helmet, to the right is Eileithyia the goddess of childbirth. Hephaestus, who split open the head of Zeus, is also central to the action, but whereas in figure 1 his astonishment has been conveyed with a static running motif (second to the left of the birth), in figure 2 the artist has successfully captured his surprise through an emotive look. Although both originating from Attica there is evidently a huge demarcation in the pictorial style and the actual ware itself.
The red figure technique was supposedly invented by the painter Andokides (figure 3) around 530BC and Greek pottery was transformed. Attic clay is particularly rich in iron producing red hues when fired, figure 1 was created using the black figure technique where the embellishment of the pottery was added after the primary firing using a peptised liquid clay that would turn black after oxidisation and further firing, with the details incised. The red figure technique (figures 2 and 3), is essentially the reverse of this method; simply, the natural hue of the clay was retained for the figures while the background was painted black. There are a variety of other minor techniques but they do not contribute to the discussion. By the end of the sixth century the red figure technique had virtually replaced the black figure technique but continued to be used for one important type of vase, the Panathenaic prize Amphora (figures 4, 4a, 5). Rather frustratingly there appears to be no explanation as to why the black figure technique was reserved for these amphorae, perhaps in deference to tradition and Athena’s mantle as the patroness of potters.
The reorganisation of Panathenaic games, part of a larger festival, by Peisistratos commonly dated to 566BC “proclaimed Athens’ emergence as a leading commercial and military power in Greece, under the protection (one might say ‘aegis’) of a city goddess whose own inclination was towards handicrafts and war” (H. A. Shapiro). As Stansbury-O’Donnel has argued “the Panathenaic amphorae themselves are a concrete manifestation of this emerging civic identity”. As can be gleaned from the many surviving Panathenaic vases, they were inscribed with the adage TON ATHENETHEN ATHLON “one of the prizes from Athens”. As well as the inscription being the same, there is once again archetypal even emblematic iconography. A fully armoured Athena, bearing her aegis embellished with snakes (figures 4 and 5), fills the intercolumniation of two Doric columns surmounted by cocks, the opposing side was painted to correspond with one of the many events. Figure 4a shows a pentathlon; although the athletes are two-dimensional the artist has clearly made great efforts to render the contours of the muscles and has a created a variety of poses that, taken as a whole, makes a convincing and comprehensible composition. This vase is an excellent example of some of the more common features found in the black-figure painting, white and red were used as ‘accessory colours’ to highlight hair, clothing and other features. Women, as Athena is here, were usually painted in white.
Inscribed on Athena’s shield EUPHILETOS KAROS “Euphiletos is beautiful”, he was not necessarily the artist but inscriptions of individuals can often be found on vases ‘providing valuable chronological evidence’. One might also consider that as this was an all Greek festival, and that the oil contained within these vases was of value, the painters and the potters must have been acclaimed in Athens since they were commissioned by the state. An interesting aspect of Panathenaic amphorae is the various images employed on Athena’s shield, for example in figure 4 there is a wheel perceptibly relating to her sponsorship of the craft.
Connoisseurship is a murky method of appraisal in the history of art, even in modern times where there is access to extant supportive documentation. When analysing Greek vases though, one is fundamentally left bereft of contemporary records exempting the vases themselves. Sir John Beazley undertook, as a labour of love, the cataloguing of artists and styles of Greek vases, which has illuminated and advanced the study. The Kleophrades painter is one of the more notable artists he classified; pertinent to this discussion is that he always emblazoned his shields with the winged horse Pegasus (figure 5). Kleophrades seemed to have specialised in ‘the making and decorating of large pots’ his style is distinct (figures 5 and 6) characterised by powerful figures achieved through a strong use of line.
Other shield devices are intrinsic to certain painters, the Berlin painter used the Gorgoneion motif and the Eucharides painter used the snake motif. Literally, they relate to the Perseus myth, the hero whom Athena endowed with a gift of a shield that protected Perseus from and allowed him to decapitate Medusa, in return he gave the goddess the Gorgon’s head. Symbolically they refer to Athena’s role as Promachos protector of heroes, those who ‘fight first’. Indeed Athena’s image in this period is frequently found on vases that depict the heroic myths, particularly those featuring Herakles and Theseus. As Boardman has stated the “Athena-Heracles image was proportionately far more popular in archaic Athens than in any other part of Greece” despite the Athenians having nothing to do with his adventures. This is because the image had been appropriated in the early sixth century by Kleisthenes King of Sicyon to imply that the war he waged and won against Delphi was comparable to the myth of Herakles fighting Apollo for the Delphic tripod (figure 7). In this vase Athena appears rather passive compared to Artmeis (Apollo’s sister) who is directly involved in the action but an inscription reveals Athena encouraging the hero to fight. Vases depicting wrestlers is not an uncommon image to be found on vases and the goddesses here ensure that the scene is recognisable. Hegemonic practices are reliant on propaganda. When Peisistratos was brought to Athens to become leader, it was arranged for him to enter into the city on a chariot led by a girl dressed as Athena, the allusion to the apotheosis of Herakles to Olympus would have resonated with the Athenians.
The Peisistratid tyrants in the sixth century utilized Herakles (figures 3 and 7) until the dynasty ended violently in 510BC. While “Athenian democracy’s interest in Theseus in the fifth century [also] appears to have been politically motivated”. However as Stansbury-O’Donnel has stated “…one should not overemphasize the political motivation behind Athenian cult activity at the expense of its civic motivation…”. The cult of Athena was certainly cultivated by the authorities the Panathenaic vases were exactly that, but the ancient Greeks were religious and it would have been an act of piety to devote votive gifts to their governing deity. “The vase painters simply dedicated scenes which found a response in their public because they were of stories which poets, priests and politicians had used to glorify and justify civic events and successes”. Consequently a huge number of vases with images of Athena can be found on the Acropolis.
Not all vases depict Athena as a bulwark of heroes or as a civic deity, a hydria (water vessel) depicting the Judgment of Paris circa 460BC (figure 8) shows a more feminine side to the goddess. Her helmet is gone and she wears earrings, she still holds her spear and wears the aegis but in this scene they really serve only to identify her and distinguish her from the other goddesses present, Hera and Aphrodite. The style of the painter is fluid and the details on the goddesses’ drapery are finely crafted giving them form, the pastoral setting is realistically conveyed, Paris languidly sits on a rock playing his lyre while in the forefront a sheep roams. Comparing figure 8 to the earlier vases one can see there is clearly an evolution in the pictorial style. However comparing the hydria to figure 2 produced at roughly the same time, the technique and skills of the painters are entirely different. The decorative element (the acanthus motif) on the pelike feels awkward and the gods are cramped, whereas in the hydria the ornamentation (the meander motif) is complimentary to the scene, highlighting the vases natural qualities. If the artist had depicted Zeus sitting in his throne as in figure 1, it would have allowed room for Athena’s birth and would have created a much more spatially accomplished composition. The Andokides vase (figure 3) underlines this with an innovative and exciting action scene. The other side of this vase was done in the black figure style by the painter Andokides partner Lysippides. Known as bilingual vases they bridge the transition between the two techniques until red-figure became more fashionable.
Vase painting did not develop separately from the other arts of the period between 540BC and 450BC. The architectural and sculptural programme on the Acropolis “was a concrete visualization of Athens’ emergence and an expression of civic pride and identity”. The Athenians famous victory over the Persians in 490BC and their subsequent victory in 480BC after a siege by the Persians, contributed to the Athenians’ dominance in Greek culture. Their military prowess also provided them with the spoils to build arguably the greatest monument in ancient Greece the Parthenon, which was to house Pheidias chryselephantine statue of Athena Parthenos, a amanifistation of Athena par excellence. The Acropolis would have been a place of pilgrimage for all-Greeks; indeed the frieze around the Parthenon depicts the very procession that took place on the last day at the Panathenaic festival. Furthermore the athletes who won the amphorae came from all over Grecian empire and as discussed, with the vases “image of the city goddess … serves to promote visually the identity, piety, and prestige of the city all at once”
The provenance of Athenian vases found all across the Mediterranean, Africa, Europe and Asia Minor suggests that the vases being portable objects were popular art forms, and the extant number of those surviving testifies to their high quality. It was a natural predilection for the Athenians to show their devotion and piety to their divine namesake and protector, who had given the potters the very ‘crafts’ to create.