Macmillan aryballos
The Macmillan aryballos is a Protocorinthian pottery aryballos in the collection of the British Museum. Dating to about 640 BC, it is 6.9 cm high and 3.9 cm in diameter, and weighs 65 grams.[1]
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The vase is attributed to the Chigi painter.[lower-alpha 1][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 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]
Notes
- Also known as the Macmillan painter and the Ekphantos painter[2]
References
- British Museum.
- Amyx 1988a, p. 31.
- Smith 1890, p. 173.
- Smith 1890, p. 167.
- Smith 1890, p. 168.
- Amyx 1988b, p. 370.
- Smith 1890, p. 172.
- Salmon 1977, p. 88.
Works cited
- Amyx, D. A. (1988a). Corinthian Vase Painting of the Archaic Period. 1. Berkeley: University of California Press.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Amyx, D. A. (1988b). Corinthian Vase Painting of the Archaic Period. 2. Berkeley: University of California Press.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- "British Museum Collection Online: The Macmillan Aryballos". British Museum.
- Salmon, John (1977). "Political Hoplites?". Journal of Hellenic Studies. 97.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Smith, Cecil (1890). "A Protokorinthian Lekythos in the British Museum". Journal of Hellenic Studies. 11.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)