Review: [untitled] Author(s): Mark I. Davies Reviewed work(s): L'Ilioupersis dans la cramique italiote.

Les mythes et leur expression figure au $\text{iv}^{\text{e}}$ sicle by Jean-Marc Moret Source: American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 81, No. 3 (Summer, 1977), pp. 404-405 Published by: Archaeological Institute of America Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/503028 . Accessed: 26/03/2011 10:37
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the scenes on the vases, Moret quickly came to very different conclusions, following a method of inquiry Little attention is paid in this study to the icono- which owes much to the example of such scholars as of Apulianvase painting,those Panofsky and Gombrich and the latter's "linguistics graphicvocabulary stereotyped details and attributes of which in many of the visual image" in particular. In the course of his investigations into the sources of the scenes and cases the significance is unknown. There is no mention, for example, of the mysterious ladder-like object de- motifs of the Ilioupersis in South-Italian vase painting, scriptivelycalled the "xylophone" (pl. 3ob), found on Moret rightly concluded that the non-literary models hundreds of Apulian vases and of disputed symbolic and figurative traditions known to the artists were far more important than any direct literary influences. value. The black-and-white illustrations are clear and de- Perhaps the most important result of this study has tailed. Only the beautiful Alcestis loutrophoros is re- been the author's demonstration of the existence of produced in color, and for a full appreciation of the figurative traditions which thrive independently of the color magic of Apulian pottery, especially of its fantas- literary treatments of a given motif or theme and follow tic plant life, the reader will have to turn to other their own laws of evolution. Using the linguistic model, the author has concerned himself with the publications or to the vases themselves. This is a stimulating and learned contribution to language or dictionary of iconographical vocabulary one of the most mysterious chapters in ancient art. known to the vase painters, with little attention paid Not the least of its merits is excellent bibliography. to considerations of style or aesthetics. From the study of the figurative vocabulary of these artists emerges EVAKEULs something of a grammar of forms and motifs. THE NETHERLANDS FOR ADVANCED INSTITUTE STUDY In pursuit of these ends, Moret has divided his text into two complementary parts, of which the first treats the individual episodes of the lioupersis which apL'ILIOUPERSIS DANS LA CERAMIQUE ITALIOTE. LES MYTHESET LEUREXPRESSION FIGUREE AU IVe SIECLE, pear in extant South-Italian vase painting. The story of Laoco6n and his sons may now be added, as it apby Jean-Marc Moret. (Bibliotheca Helvetica Ropears on an unpublished vase which recently entered mana, no. XIV.) Vol. I: pp. xiv + 305, figs. 6 a German private collection. In the second part of his (line-drawings on p. 129); Vol. II: pp. vi + 41, study, the motifs themselves from which the scenes are composed receive close analysis: figure-types, charpls. 102. Imprimerie du "Journal de Geneve," acteristic positions, conventional characters, typical gesGeneva, 1975. tures, etc. The episodes studied in the first seven chapters are Two monographs of capital importance to students of Greek mythology, religion, and vase painting have the representations of Ajax and Kassandra, Helen and appeared recently in the distinguished series of the Menelaos, the Death of Priam, the Ilioupersis in Greek Bibliotheca Helvetica Romana: Claude Berard's Ano- art earlier than South-Italian vase painting, the Ilioudoi. Essai sur l'imagerie des passages chthoniens as persis in South-Italian vase painting, the theft of the Volume XIII in 1974, followed a year later by the Palladion, and the Palladion itself in art. Each chapter work here under review. Perhaps most noteworthy for contains a detailed discussion of existing scenes of their use of innovative methodology, these two stud- these episodes in South-Italian vase painting, which ies are likely to exert a considerable influence upon are listed at the outset in the form of a short catalogue the direction in which future iconographical research and grouped according to classification (Apulian, is pursued. Gnathian, Campanian, etc.). Plate-references in addition to, or even instead of, the catalogue-references in Moret's work on the Ilioupersis is divided into two volumes, facilitating its use by the reader. Volume I the text would have been helpful to the reader, particucontains the text, divided into two parts, while Vol- larly in the later chapters of the book. The early deume II presents a catalogue of 151 of the most impor- velopment of each theme in Greek art receives considerable attention, but the bulk of the discussion is tant vases and fragments under consideration, of which devoted to the interpretation of scenes and identifica90 are wholly or partially illustrated on 0o2 plates of excellent quality. Also included in Volume II are tion of the various figures represented on Southfive indices of mythological names, ancient authors, Italian vases. Moret is cautious in coming to concluprincipal monuments, museums, and South-Italian vase sions, and his arguments are closely reasoned. He can confess to aporia in the face of insufficient or conpainters, as well as a table of plates. In a short introduction, the author attributes the flicting evidence, and his attitude before the monuments inspires confidence in his results. Rarely can one origin of this study to his interest in re-examining the relationship between tragedy and the painted pottery improve upon his documentation and bibliography of South Italy in the light of the classifications pro- for a given piece, and despite an approach which some posed by Trendall. Proceeding with the expectation may find mechanical in its application to the details that the results would confirm the theatrical origin of and too "modern" in its use of linguistic models of

"Rhodope," but Schmidt's ingenious efforts to reconstruct the plot remain inconclusive.

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expression, Moret has by no means turned his back on the work of his predecessors. The breadth and depth of his reading are to be admired, and he has clearly benefited from the teachings, advice, and conversation of an outstanding circle of scholars (pp. vii-viii). In the second part, which constitutes more than two-thirds of the entire work, Moret isolates some of the motifs which are frequently found in the scenes of the Ilioupersis for an examination of their derivation, development, and evolution in earlier Greek art and their widespread use in South-Italian vase paintings of other subjects as well. The kneeling position assumed by numerous figures in different situations, the common figure of a priestess in flight, "hybrid" figures of Orientals, and the action of seizing a victim by the hair all receive detailed analysis in separate chapters and reveal much about the sources, the attitudes, and the methods of the South-Italian vase painters, and their relationship to earlier and contemporary works of art. It should be emphasized that the author has by no means limited the range of his investigations to themes from the Ilioupersis, but has made use of a very considerable number of scenes from other myths and legends in demonstrating how various "stock" motifs could be used in unrelated mythological contexts by vase painters decorating large numbers of vases in a short space of time. Moret rightly stresses that an individual vase painter drew very largely upon existing, contemporary, visual sources-frequently at his elbow in the workshop-for inspiration in his work and deemphasizes the importance of tragedy and literature in general as a direct influence upon the artist. Chapter ii, dealing with the contamination of scenes and some interchangeable motifs, and Chapter 13, on the relationship between tragedy and vase painting, contain most of the important conclusions reached by Moret in the course of his research. Faced with a difficult problem of interpretation for any given scene or motif, Moret had suggested earlier (p. 82) that "the answer, so far as one can be found, is not to be sought in the manuals of mythology, but in the related mythological scenes. We must abandon, for a moment, our philological point of view and try to adopt that of the painters; in other words, we must think in terms of iconographical forms." In turning away from the tragedians as immediate sources of inspiration for the vase painters, Moret nevertheless has much to say concerning the similarities in method of composition between Euripides in particular and the South-Italian vase painters. In his view, "there were not, from one medium to the other, direct borrowings and influences, [but rather] an identical conception of the mythological situations and similar procedures of composition, based in each case on the principal of analogy and association of ideas" (p. 240). A final chapter briefly explores the place of SouthItalian vase painting between earlier Greek sculpture

and vase painting and later Roman wall painting, describing succinctly both the shared characteristics and different attitudes to be found in the works of Greek, South-Italian, and Roman artists. The short Conclusion is important as a restatement of the methods used in these investigations and contains a brief discussion of parallel phenomena in Etruscan and medieval art. Moret has made a very important contribution to the discipline of iconographical studies in demonstrating the validity of an approach which demands that the viewer be active in retracing the creative process of composition experienced by these artists. The reader is warned (p. 272) that "philologists and archaeologists will always derive the greatest profit from the comparison of texts and images, but, in order that parallels may be drawn in a valid way, the two areas of investigation must be pursued in complete independence from each other. It is essential to gather first from the tragic fragments all that they can tell us, independently of the artistic monuments; conversely, one must try to understand the latter without imposing upon them the literary evidence capable of illuminating them." Only then should the results of this double inquiry be confronted and compared. Moret's study of the Ilioupersis, then, should have the effect of attracting greater attention to the artistic processes at work in the creation of these and other scenes and of leading scholars to depend less upon literary sources for more than partial explanation of iconographical problems. In the light of this investigation, in fact, the more philological approaches of such scholars as S&chanand Webster seem flawed and in some respects misdirected, and yet Moret's confident questioning of their methods and presumptions is tempered by a gracious acknowledgement of his and our considerable debt to their earlier contributions (esp. p. 272, n. 3). This brief summary hardly does justice to a publication of major importance to all students of classical art. The Swiss National Foundation for Scientific Research and the University of Geneva are to be commended for the support which made possible its appearance in a form which matches in excellence the contents. The book has also been reviewed by N.R. Oakeshott, JHS 96 (1976) 251-52.
MARK I. DAVIES
DAVIDSON COLLEGE

DIE ROMISCHEN BRONZENDERSCHWEIZ,II, AVENCHES,

by Annalis Leibundgut. Pp. xiv + 154, pls. 99. Philipp von Zabern, Mainz am Rhein, 1976.
DM 148. With this exemplary volume Switzerland enters upon a project to publish its entire holding of Roman bronzes, as is happening in France, Germany, and Austria. There are 207 items including a few now lost, the majority in the Mus&e Romain at Avenches, a few in other Swiss museums. Plan and format re-