The Macmillan aryballos is a Protocorinthian pottery aryballos in the collection of the British Museum. Dating to around 640 BC, it is 6.9 cm high and 3.9 cm in diameter, and weighs 65 grams.[1]
| Macmillan aryballos | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Material | Clay |
| Height | 6.9 cm |
| Width | 3.9 cm |
| Created | c. 640 BC by the Chigi Painter |
| Discovered | before 1890 Greece |
| Present location | British Museum, London |
The vase is attributed to the Chigi Painter.[a][2] Its provenance is uncertain: Cecil Smith reported that it was acquired by Malcolm Macmillan at Thebes, and suggests that it was originally found in a tomb outside the town;[3] but the British Museum Register records it as having been acquired by Macmillan in Corinth.[1] It was gifted to the British Museum by Macmillan in 1889.[4]
The vase is made out of a yellow coloured clay, and painted in shades of brown and purple. Fine details are incised into the clay.[4] The upper part of the vase is in the shape of a lion's head,[1] which appears to have been modelled rather than cast from a mould.[5]
The vase is painted with a floral chain at the shoulder, three bands of figurative decorations, and rays at the base.[6] The top band is 2 cm high, and painted with a scene of eighteen warriors engaged in combat.[7] Unlike on the Chigi vase, another work by the same artist, where two phalanxes are depicted, the Macmillan aryballos shows hoplites engaged in single combat.[8] It stretches all the way around the aryballos, and has no clear beginning or end.[7] Each warrior wears a crested helmet and greaves, carries a round shield (each of which is decorated with a different device), and is armed with one or two spears.[7] The army coming from the right-hand side is depicted as victorious; the soldiers coming from the left are defeated.[b][10]
The second band is 1 cm high and depicts a horse race, with six horses galloping from right to left. Beneath one of these horses there is a swan and a crouching figure, possibly an ape.[7] The third band is 4 mm high and is decorated with a hunting scene, in which a hunter and hounds chase a hare and a fox or jackal.[3] Jeffrey Hurwit interprets the three scenes as depicting different stages in a man's life: the hunting scene for boyhood, the racing for young men, and the battle scene for fully adult men.[11]
-
Macmillan aryballos on display in the British Museum -
Diagram of the decoration of the Macmillan aryballos -
Detail of the Chigi Vase, another vase by the same artist depicting warriors in battle
Notes
editReferences
edit- ^ a b c British Museum.
- ^ a b Amyx 1988a, p. 31.
- ^ a b Smith 1890, p. 173.
- ^ a b Smith 1890, p. 167.
- ^ Smith 1890, p. 168.
- ^ Amyx 1988b, p. 370.
- ^ a b c d Smith 1890, p. 172.
- ^ Salmon 1977, p. 88.
- ^ Arafat 2015, p. 126.
- ^ Schwartz 2002, p. 54.
- ^ Hurwit 2002, p. 17.
Works cited
edit- Amyx, D. A. (1988a). Corinthian Vase Painting of the Archaic Period. Vol. 1. Berkeley: University of California Press.
- Amyx, D. A. (1988b). Corinthian Vase Painting of the Archaic Period. Vol. 2. Berkeley: University of California Press.
- Arafat, K. W. (2015). "The Chigi Painter at Isthmia?". Hesperia Supplements. 48: 119–132. JSTOR 24637426.
- "British Museum Collection Online: The Macmillan Aryballos". British Museum.
- Hurwit, Jeffrey (2002). "Reading the Chigi Vase". Hesperia. 71 (1): 1–22. doi:10.2307/3182058. JSTOR 3182058.
- Salmon, John (1977). "Political Hoplites?". Journal of Hellenic Studies. 97: 84–101. doi:10.2307/631024. JSTOR 631024.
- Schwartz, Adam (2002). "Order or Disarray?". Classica et Mediaevalia. 53.
- Smith, Cecil (1890). "A Protokorinthian Lekythos in the British Museum". Journal of Hellenic Studies. 11.