SOMA 2010

Proceedings of 14th Symposium on

Mediterranean Archaeology
Taras Shevchenko National University of Kiev,
Kiev, Ukraine, 2325 April 2010
Edited by

Yana Morozova
Hakan Oniz

BAR International Series 2555

2013

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SOMA 2010: Proceedings of 14th Symposium on Mediterranean Archaeology, Taras Shevchenko National
University of Kiev, Kiev, Ukraine, 2325 April 2010
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The place of the Dipylon Master in Attic Late Geometric pottery

of the mid-8th century B.C.
Konstantinos Galanakis

University of Birmingham, United Kingdom, Institute of Archaeology

Clay pottery before the 8th century B.C. is found almost

everywhere in Attica but showed great power of invention
in Athens. Many of these pots have been found in tombs and
the bigger ones were made to stand as monuments over the
graves. Many show obvious signs of earth wear and were
made deliberately useless before their placing as grave
monuments. The ancient custom of burying the dead with
pots can be traced all over Italy, Sicily, east Mediterranean
islands, Asia Minor and mainland Greece (Brann 1962:
111-13). Some of them, often less well-preserved, were
dedicated as offerings to the gods or lesser divinities in
Greek temples and shrines. Funerary vases constitute a
unique type of pots but are fewer in number due to their
exclusively votive purpose. The special character of their
decoration and their size reveal their purpose and usage.

Around 770 B.C., towards the end of the Middle Geometric

period, the painter of the grave krater New York 34.11.2.
from Kerameikos presented for the first time an extended
figure scene, a prothesis, where the deceased man lies in
state on his bier surrounded by mourners. Additionally, there
is a continuous frieze below showing an extended naval
battle where warriors fight each other with a sword, spear
and bow. It would not be an exaggeration if we assume that
this scene actually prepared the ground for what was about
to follow in Late Geometric art (Coldstream 1991: 46).
In the Late Geometric period, the vessels became of great
size four or five feet high and fitted with a pair of
horizontal handles on each side so that two persons could
lift them. The shapes offered wide areas to be covered
by decoration and the motifs were arranged in a semiarchitectural manner in order to help out and follow the vase
shape. The zone punctuated by the handles was normally
given particular attention, while the zone at the bottom
of the vessel was normally covered with heavy and thick
black stripes which served as a balance to the half-tone
decoration higher up on the vessels body. During the 8th
century B.C., the appearance of stylized animals and birds
reveals the wide range of innovations that were attained
by the Geometric painters. It is the first time that we are
able to discern different painters and individual styles by
observing technical and decorative details in the overall
composition. Unfortunately, the painters were unable to
sign their pieces Greece was still illiterate at the time
so their conventional names were manufactured by modern
scholars. The funeral scenes of a dead man on his bier under
a canopy surrounded by male and female mourners would
finally appear more complex during the Late Geometric Ia
period (760-735 B.C.), to which the Dipylon Master can
be dated. The name derived from the Dipylon cemetery (a
small aristocratic cemetery) which was initially excavated
in 1871 and offered a superb group of monumental vessels
which stood over the burials. The Dipylon Master with his
consistent, personal manner of drawing can be characterized
as the inventor of the rich Late Geometric style in Athens
(Knigge 1988: 20-24, pl. 13).

Already in the 10th and 9th centuries B.C., there are

few rare instances of Attic vases being used as grave
monuments, much enlarged beyond their normal size for
domestic use. With the beginning of the Early Geometric
style (c. 900-850 B.C.), one finds only abstract motifs in
what is commonly called the Black Dipylon style which
is characterized by the extensive use of black varnish. In
the Middle Geometric period (c. 850-770 B.C.), figural
decoration makes its appearance: they are initially
identical bands of animals (horses, stags, goats, geese, etc.)
which alternate with the geometric bands. In parallel, the
decoration becomes complicated and increasingly ornate;
the painter feels reluctant to leave empty spaces and fills
them with continuous meanders and swastikas. A perfect
example can be seen on the exquisite Middle Geometric
double-handled amphora NM A00216 by the Athens
Painter from Kerameikos (Kourou 1997: 43-53). This
phase is characterized by the horror vacui and will not
cease until the end of the Geometric period. At the same
time, the patterns become more complex and extended to
all areas of the vessel. Then human figures were introduced
in the ornamentation with images of chariot processions,
battles, funerals and other scenes. After the Middle
Geometric period, full figured decoration was introduced
into their repertory. The figures are represented as simple
dark silhouettes with profile heads and legs attached
to the full frontal body (Whitley 1991: 47-48, argues
that the earliest post-Mycenaean figural representations
(10th century B.C.) are to be found outside Attica, on the
archer vase and the tree of life krater from Lefkandi
in Euboea). As painters became more interested in figural
decoration, restriction of the Geometric style loosened and
they were ready to invent new styles.

The scenes of mourning, seafaring and battle possibly

led to a high demand for funerary pottery. Belly-handled
amphorae, larger versions of the normal cremation urn
for women, marked some rich female burials. The large
pedestal kraters with chariot processions, fully armed
warriors and scenes of fighting on land and sea were
designed for mens burials. For both types of monument,
it was the custom to pierce a hole through the base before
firing, so libations could be poured through the vessels

35

SOMA 2010
to the person buried below. The Dipylon Master elevated
the funerary type of decoration into a grand-scale work of
exceptional quality.

viewer to clearly understand the different scenes even by

compressing several episodes together.
The Dipylon Master used the silhouette technique in order
to depict the human body. His human figures are sketchy
silhouettes with a single eye occupying the face, shown in
profile. The triangular body is shown from the front with
broad shoulders and simple thick lines indicating the arms,
either raised towards the head in a gesture of grief (in the
prothesis and ekphora scenes) or carrying weapons
like the representation of a warrior with the Dipylon
shield in the krater fragments Louvre A547 (along with
a mourner figure) and A558 (fig. 7) (Richter 1915: 36785, pls. XVII-XX, XXIII, 1). The legs are elongated with
exaggerated thighs. It is possible that warrior figures are
represented naked with their sword and dagger hanging
from their middle section and holding one or two spears.
Women are always dressed with their breasts indicated by
two small lines (Boardman 2001: 34-5). In the prothesis
and ekphora scenes, there is no attempt at realism:
the body of the deceased and the chequered shroud are
depicted as if viewed directly from above although the
shroud seems to be held over the bier by two attendants like
an awning (figs 1, 3). The difficulties of lending a sense
of depth to the scene are circumvented by superimposing
different planes, a solution that remained widespread
until the discovery of perspective and the vanishing point.
With his newly introduced elements, the Dipylon Master
managed to overcome the old Geometric style with its
constant repetitions that led to a final exhaustion. Attic
Late Geometric pottery is probably the first fully fledged
Hellenic figural decoration. Although figural decoration
was not introduced by the Master himself, he was the first
to combine successfully truly geometric elements with
figures of canonical proportions and his innovations were
later copied by other painters who became his heirs and
established the Dipylon Workshop.

It is of some importance to describe the decoration of

the vessels in order to emphasize the importance of the
works of the Dipylon Master as the epitome of the Late
Geometric style. The belly-handled amphora NM 804 in
Athens (fig. 1) has a prothesis as its main scene (CVA
I: pl. 8; on the prothesis and ekphora subject, see
Ahlberg-Cornell 1971). The bier is surrounded by family,
friends and professional mourners, seated or kneeling with
their hands raised to their heads in a gesture of grief. A
subsidiary frieze of grazing and regardant deer on the
neck complement the main panel which is framed by
linear decoration and various types of meander patterns.
The Dipylon Master worked out artistically elaborate
decorative patterns like bands of antithetical cross-hatched
triangles enclosing a dotted-lozenge band, chequered
lozenges and detailed depictions of animals.
The belly-handled amphora NM 803 in Athens (fig.
2) is almost certainly another work of the Dipylon
Master. It carries a mourning scene in its central panel
but unfortunately it remains in a fragmentary state. It
represents the ekphora, the next stage in the funeral
ritual, where the body on the bier is conveyed towards
the burial ground in a four-wheeled hearse. In this scene,
two fragmentary horses are seen drawing a four-wheeled
wagon with the bier resting on it. The deceased woman is
surrounded by ten mourners in the rear panel, there are no
animal friezes but several birds appear as filling ornaments
under the wagon on the ekphora scene. The vessels
body is mainly covered by linear decoration and various
types of the meander pattern.
The pedestal krater Louvre A517 (fig. 3) in the section
between the handles shows again a prothesis scene,
with the body of the deceased laid on a bier surrounded
by family and friends, professional female mourners and
warriors (fig. 4). In this scene, the Dipylon Master found
a unique way to portray human activity: it presents the
currently earliest known gesture where the two persons
next to the bier seem to be raising the chequered blanket
or shroud with their extended hands so that we can see
below the deceased man, a gesture which does not
previously occur anywhere else. The decorative scheme is
completed by an escort of warriors in chariots making the
vessel a consummate expression of the militaristic values
of the Athenian nobility of the period (fig. 5). Under the
handle of the krater, there is a warship with four rowers
on it and fish in the sea below (fig. 6). Probably the scene
was associated with an extended naval battle which was
depicted on the reverse side of the vase and has not been
preserved. Boardman suggested that the extended naval
battles are in fact indications of the marine trading methods
of Attica at the time and not representations of dangerous
episodes during the Attic colonial migration (Boardman
2001: 37). In any case, the Dipylon Master in this krater
assimilates a birds eye view of the actions, allowing the

The restored splendid neck-handled Elgin amphora

(British Museum GR 2004.0927.1) is certainly a work of
the Dipylon Workshop, if not of the Master himself due to
the remarkable skill and precision of its painting (fig. 8).
The surface is covered with an intricate web of half-tone
decoration. It has elaborately painted geometric decoration
in black on a buff background combined with snakes
decorating the handles and bands of water birds filling the
narrow zone below the rim. An elaborate tapestry pattern
fills the widest zone around the middle, a chequerboard
motif decorates the shoulder, and an elongated double
meander emphasizes the elegant neck. The amphora was
probably used to hold wine at the funerary feast of a
wealthy individual and then placed in his tomb perhaps
along with some smaller vases (Williams 2009: no. 15).
In the years that followed, the apprentices in the Dipylon
Workshop continued fervently the advanced technique
and decoration of the Master. On the neck amphora
Munich 6080 (Boardman 2001: 47) with friezes of grazing
deer, the Dipylon Workshop shows its excellence in
decorative manners by using varieties of the meander as
36

Konstantinos Galanakis: The place of the Dipylon Master in Attic Late Geometric pottery
the sole geometric ornament on the vessel (fig. 9). The
oinochoe NM 152 with a slender grazing deer, forelegs
of horses and meanders as filling ornaments, follows the
Dipylon Masters tradition and should be correlated to
the Athens Agora fragments P10664 depicting remains
of a prothesis scene and a chariot procession. Both
fragments are often attributed to the Master himself, the
first by Kahane (Kahane 1940: 464-82) and the second by
Brann (Brann 1961: 93-146). Most notably, the Hirschfeld
Painter and his workshop went on to become around 750735 B.C. the most prolific imitator of the Dipylon Master
and his workshop by producing the elaborate terracotta
pedestal kraters NM 990 in Athens (Mannack 2002: 76)
and New York 14.130.14. (Marwitz 1961: 39-48, no. 29,
45; Picn, Hemingway, et al. 2007: 413, no. 29), both with
very lively ekphora and prothesis scenes respectively
but with stiff and frozen chariot processions (fig. 10). On
the Hirschfeld Workshops belly amphora in Basel, the
funeral scene has become now a monotonous version of
the Dipylon Masters protheses (fig. 11).

handled amphora which died out before the Late Geometric

I period. The Master insisted on rounded forms in spite of
the periods general spirit which preferred straight profiles
and small proportions. His innovative program included
the enlarging of the two most favoured vessel shapes,
the belly-handled amphora and the pedestal krater. He
transformed them into gigantic vessels with monumental
dimensions as funerary vessels and grave monuments.
The Dipylon Master succeeded in sweeping away the
Middle Geometric dark ground style by applying the
half-tone decoration which covered the whole surface of
the vessel (figs. 1, 8). The commonest decorative element,
the meander, played no longer a dominant role, while the
ornamental wealth did not obscure the underlying shape.
It was he who devised the famous tapestry design that
included a row of large separate dots, a chain of tangential
dots, sigmas, tall single zigzags, cross-hatched triangles
and combinations of all the above. He continued to apply
ornaments that had been already adopted in earlier periods
like the interlocking rows of hatched equilateral triangles,
the vertical wavy lines and the chequered zones. The
Master was surely an innovator but he did not reject the
tradition that had started before him. He managed to give
a breath of life to the old style which turned out to have
been a mere repetition of styles, shapes and plain figural
decoration without any varieties. His monumental vases
are always covered with bands of decorative motifs without
the fear of monotony and without the risk of obscuring the
underlying shape. His figures are delineated, taller than the
Middle Geometric ones, and the upper part of their body
becomes a tall isosceles triangle. The position of the arms
is usually indicative of the activities of the participants (as
described above in the fragmentary pedestal krater Louvre
A517, fig. 4). The peculiar angle at their waist and elbows
indicate mourning gestures and the fingers are sometimes
painted very expressively. Men are depicted mainly in
martial scenes, most of the times naked, and women are
mostly draped. Animals, especially horses, are delineated
and their use is sometimes decorative except when they
appear to draw chariots (fig 5). His overall compositions
appear in fact more complex and carefully studied than
they seem to be at first sight. With the works of the
Dipylon Master, the first consistent figural style appeared
consisting of sophisticated funeral scenes full of stability
and vigor and perfectly assimilated into their geometric
stylistic background. The Master represents the first link
of an unbroken line that ends with the Analatos Painter
(700-675 B.C.) and is usually termed as the classical
tradition. A parallel artistic movement is represented by
the works of other, lesser, local craftsmen influenced by
the main stream but not influencing it (the local styles are
described in detail in Coldstream 1968). It is obvious that
the Master was the first to introduce a consistent and rich
style in pottery which definitely influenced the local trends
in Athens at the time.

The artistic tradition before the Dipylon Master consisted

of painters executing mechanical repetitions of linear
geometric ornaments and decorative patterns. The Dipylon
Master perfected ornaments like the dotted lozenge and
the sunburst motif, and his artistic value is confirmed
by a sure brush that covers the whole surface of the vessel.
Earlier motifs like the wheel consisting of concentric
circles with central crosses -probably the commonest
panel filler during the Middle Geometric period- were
replaced in the Late Geometric period by the meticulous
Dipylon wheel which probably represents the sun disc.
Additional symbols were often taken at face value: on
the monumental Dipylon vases birds are primarily the
inhabitants of heaven while snakes are the guardians
of the underworld, both representing the complementary
forces of life and death. The Dipylon Master managed
to paint the symbols more carefully on the body of his
masterpieces with a craftsmanship almost flawless.
The Dipylon Workshop followed the main aspects of its
Masters craft (and also his mannerisms) but it seemed to
prefer a combination of his types and the innovations of
subsequent Late Geometric painters. Their productions
are characterized not by technical discipline but mainly
by narrative power in a period when the repertoire of
mythological subjects was gradually increasing. After
the peak of the Dipylon Masters career, some of the
commonest shapes, like the belly-handled amphora for
instance, died out. The Dipylon Master offered a final and
glorious lease of life to a shape that was already almost
obsolescent in his time.
The Dipylon Master was the inventor of three new shapes:
the pitcher, the giant oinochoe and the high-rimmed bowl
(the latter with an earlier parentage as a variation of the
Middle Geometric skyphos). His oinochoai with the taut,
spherical body crowned by a tall straight neck was a shape
inherited directly from the Middle Geometric lekythosoinochoe. The pitcher with rounded profile and thinner
body had also roots in the past, from the old shoulder-

In general terms, the rest of the Attic Late Geometric

pottery, although it shows new elements that differed from
the Middle Geometric tradition, seems to be without careful
37

SOMA 2010
Coldstream, J. N. (2008) Greek Geometric Pottery: A
Survey of Ten Local Styles and Their Chronology.
Updated 2nd ed. Exeter, Bristol Phoenix (first
published in 1968 by London, Methuen).
Davison, J. M. (1961) Attic Geometric Workshops. Yale
Classical Studies, 16, New Haven, Yale University
Press.
Knigge, U. (1988) Der Kerameikos von Athen. Fhrung
durch Ausgrabungen und Geschichte. Deutsches
Archologisches Institut Athen. (Greek translation
[1990]: . -. Athens, Krene Publications).
Kourou, N. (1997) A New Geometric Amphora in the
Benaki Museum: The Internal Dynamics of an Attic
Style. IN Palagia, O. ed., Greek Offerings. Essays
in Greek Art in Honour of John Boardman. Oxford,
Oxbow Books, 43-53.
Lemos, I. S. (2002) The Protogeometric Aegean. The
Archaeology of the Late Eleventh and Tenth Centuries
B.C. Oxford Monographs on Classical Archaeology.
Oxford, Oxford University Press.
Mannack, T. (2002) Griechische Vasenmalerei.
Eine Einfhrung. Darmstadt, Wissenschaftliche
Buchgesellschaft.
Marwitz, H. (1961) Ein attisch-geometrischer Krater in
New York. Antike Kunst, 4: 44, 39-48, no. 29, 45.
Picn, C. A., Hemingway, S., Lightfoot, C., Mertens, J.
R., Milleker, E. J. (2007) Art of the Classical World
in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, The
Metropolitan Museum of Art; New Haven and London,
Yale University Press.
Richter, G. M. A. (1915) Two Colossal Athenian Geometric
or Dipylon Vases in the Metropolitan Museum of
Art. American Journal of Archaeology, 19 (OctoberDecember), 367-85, pls. XVII-XX, XXIII, 1.
Schweitzer, B. (1969) Die geometrische Kunst
Griechenlands: Fruhe Formenwelt im Zeitalter
Homers (Unter Mitarb. von Jochen Briegleb hrsg. von
Ulrich Hausmann.). Kln, Du Mont Schauberg.
Snodgrass, A. M. (2000) The Dark Age of Greece:
An Archaeological Survey of the Eleventh to the
Eighth Centuries B.C. 2nd ed. Edinburgh, Edinburgh
University Press (first published in 1971).
Whitley, J. (1991) Style and Society in Dark Age Greece.
The Changing Face of a Pre-Literate Society 1100700 B.C. New Studies in Archaeology. Cambridge
University Press.
Williams, D. (2009) Masterpieces of Classical Art.
London, British Museum Press.

application and with hasty and careless brushstrokes

caused by the many orders that craftsmen had to fill. This
geometric routine consisted of exact patterns and shapes
with minor variations and is well represented by the Athens
Agora Well Groups in Agoraios Kolonos, Areios Pagos
and Peristyle Square. Their ceramic productions consist of
Late Geometric pottery with panels, unit rather than frieze
ornaments, and decorative animals. These products differ
from the works of the Dipylon Master who probably may
have worked at the same period after his apprenticeship in
a Middle Geometric workshop.
It has become apparent that the Dipylon Master was an
innovator who improved many of the aspects and features
that characterized the preceding Middle Geometric pottery.
He did not reject the tradition that had started long time
before him but he chose to apply different arrangements.
He succeeded in improving many decorative patterns
and he was the inventor of new shapes and motifs. The
first figural scenes like prothesis and ekphora (figs
1, 2, 4), the battle and martial scenes with their stylized
design (figs 5, 6, 7), show how curiously differentiated
from actual observation was the geometric concept of the
human figure at the time. The Dipylon Master has earned
an exceptional position in the history of Greek pottery as an
artist who showed great respect to tradition but managed to
innovate in some crucial factors in order to transform his
pieces of art to perfection. The earliest of the great Greek
vase painters was active in the Kerameikos area from 770
to 750 B.C. and was followed by his successful workshop.
The painted designs by his hands are so perfectly adapted
to the shapes of the vases that we may infer that he was
both the potter and the painter. So far, some fifty vases
have been attributed to his workshop including several
amphorae, kraters and oinochoai of large dimensions. We
expect to find many more in the future.

Bibliography
Ahlberg-Cornell, G. (1971) Prothesis and Ekphora in
Greek Geometric Art, Studies in Mediterranean
Archaeology, 32, Goteborg, Paul Astroms Forlag.
Brann, E. T. H. (1961) Late Geometric Well-Groups from
the Athenian Agora. Hesperia, 30, 93-146.
Brann, E. T. H. (1962) The Athenian Agora: Results of
Excavations Conducted by The American School of
Classical Studies at Athens. Vol. VIII: Late Geometric
and Protoattic Pottery: Mid 8th Century to Late 7th
Century B.C. Princeton (N.J.), American School of
Classical Studies at Athens.
Boardman, J. (2001) Early Greek Vase Painting. Greek
translation. Athens, Kardamitsa Publications.
Coldstream, J. N. (1977) Geometric Greece. London,
Ernest Benn.
Coldstream, J. N. (1991) The Geometric Style: Birth of the
Picture. IN Rasmussen, T. and Spivey, N. eds, Looking
at Greek Vases. Cambridge University Press, 37-57.

Sources of figures
Fig. 1 available from
<http://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/pottery/painters/keypieces/
geometric/default.htm>
Figs 3, 4, 5 and 6 available from <http://www.louvre.fr/
llv/oeuvres/detail_notice.jsp?CONTENT%3C%3Ecnt_
i d = 1 0 1 3 4 1 9 8 6 7 3 2 2 5 1 9 7 & C U R R E N T _ L LV _
38

Konstantinos Galanakis: The place of the Dipylon Master in Attic Late Geometric pottery
NOTICE%3C%3Ecnt_id=10134198673225197&FOLDE
R%3C%3Efolder_id=9852723696500782&baseIndex=14
&bmLocale=en>

Fig. 9 Boardman 2001: 47, fig. 48

Fig. 10 available from
< h t t p : / / w w w. m e t m u s e u m . o r g / w o r k s _ o f _ a r t /
collection_database/greek_and_roman_art/
terracotta_krater_hirschfeld_workshop/objectview.
aspx?collID=13&OID=130009382>

Fig. 7 available from

<http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Procession_
Dipylon_Louvre_A547.jpg>
Fig. 8 available from
<http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/
highlight_objects/gr/e/elgin_amphora.aspx>

Fig. 3: Pedestal krater by the Dipylon Master, Louvre

A517, Late Geometric Ia, 760-750 B.C., Louvre
Museum, Paris
Fig. 1: Belly-handled amphora by the Dipylon Master,
NM 804, Late Geometric Ia, 760-750 B.C., National
Archaeological Museum, Athens

Fig. 4: Prothesis scene on pedestal krater by the

Dipylon Master, Louvre A517, Late Geometric Ia, 760750 B.C., Louvre Museum, Paris
Fig. 2: Belly-handled amphora by the Dipylon Master,
NM 803, Late Geometric Ia, 760-750 B.C., National
Archaeological Museum, Athens
39

SOMA 2010

Fig. 5: Chariot procession scene on pedestal krater by

Dipylon Master, Louvre A517, Late Geometric Ia,
760-750 B.C., Louvre Museum, Paris

the

Fig. 8: The Elgin amphora by the Dipylon Master, GR

2004,0927.1, Late Geometric Ia, 760-750 B.C., British
Museum, London

Fig. 6: Warship scene on the pedestal krater by the

Dipylon Master, Louvre A517, Late Geometric Ia, 760750 B.C., Louvre Museum, Paris

Fig. 7: Mourners and warrior with Dipylon shield on

a fragment of the krater Louvre A547 by the Dipylon
Master, Louvre Museum, Paris

Fig. 9: Neck amphora by the Dipylon Workshop,

Late Geometric Ia, Munich 6080, Staatliche
Antikensammlungen Munich
40

Konstantinos Galanakis: The place of the Dipylon Master in Attic Late Geometric pottery

Fig. 10: Pedestal krater by the Hirschfeld Painter,

New York 14.130.14., Late Geometric Ib, 750-735 B.C.,
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Fig. 11: Belly-handled amphora by the Hirschfeld

Painter Workshop, Late Geometric Ib, after 750 B.C.,
Antikemuseum, Basel

41