![Athena Herakles Staatliche Antikensammlungen 2301 B full](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5b/Athena_Herakles_Staatliche_Antikensammlungen_2301_B_full.jpg)
Bilingual vase painting is a special form of ancient Greek vase painting. The term, derived from
linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...
, is essentially a
metaphor
A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide (or obscure) clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are often compared wit ...
ical one; it describes vases that are painted both in the
black-figure
Black-figure pottery painting, also known as the black-figure style or black-figure ceramic ( grc, , }), is one of the styles of painting on antique Greek vases. It was especially common between the 7th and 5th centuries BCE, although there are ...
and in the
red-figure
Red-figure vase painting is one of the most important styles of figural Greek vase painting.
It developed in Athens around 520 BCE and remained in use until the late 3rd century BCE. It replaced the previously dominant style of black-figure vas ...
techniques. It also describes the transitional period when black-figure was being gradually replaced in dominance by red-figure, basically the last quarter of the 6th and the very beginning of the 5th century BC. Their appearance may be due to the initial uncertainty of the market for the new red-figure style, although that style subsequently became dominant rather fast.
History
Bilingual vase painting was almost entirely restricted to
belly amphora
An amphora (; grc, ἀμφορεύς, ''amphoreús''; English plural: amphorae or amphoras) is a type of container with a pointed bottom and characteristic shape and size which fit tightly (and therefore safely) against each other in storag ...
e of type B and to
eye-cup
Eye-cup is the term describing a specific cup type in ancient Greek pottery, distinguished by pairs of eyes painted on the external surface.
Description
Classified as '' kylikes'' in terms of shape, eye-cups were especially widespread in Ath ...
s. In some cases, either side of an amphora bore a depiction of the same motif, one in black-figure, the other in red-figure (e.g. on the
belly amphora
An amphora (; grc, ἀμφορεύς, ''amphoreús''; English plural: amphorae or amphoras) is a type of container with a pointed bottom and characteristic shape and size which fit tightly (and therefore safely) against each other in storag ...
by the
Andokides Painter
Andokides was an ancient Athenian vase painter, active from approximately 530 to 515 B.C. His work is unsigned and his true name unknown. He was identified as a unique artistic personality through stylistic traits found in common among several pai ...
,
Munich 2301). Eye-cups usually feature a black-figure image on the interior, and red-figure motifs on the external surface. An exception to this is a ''
kylix'' by the Andokides Painter in
Palermo
Palermo ( , ; scn, Palermu , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan ...
,
[Archaeological Museum, Inv. V 650] on which the exterior is painted half in black-figure and half in red-figure. Apart from the
Andokides Painter
Andokides was an ancient Athenian vase painter, active from approximately 530 to 515 B.C. His work is unsigned and his true name unknown. He was identified as a unique artistic personality through stylistic traits found in common among several pai ...
, bilingual works were produced primarily by
Psiax
Psiax was an Attic vase painter of the transitional period between the black-figure and red-figure styles. His works date to ''circa'' 525 to 505 BC and comprise about 60 surviving vases, two of which bear his signature. Initially he was allocat ...
(especially belly amphorae), as well as by
Epiktetos
Epiktetos was an Attic vase painter in the early red-figure style. Besides Oltos, he was the most important painter of the Pioneer Group. He was active between 520 BC and 490 BC. His name translates as "newly acquired", which is most probably a ...
and
Oltos
Oltos was a Late Archaic Greek vase painter, active in Athens from 525 BC to 500 BC. About 150 works by him are known. Two pieces, a cup in Berlin ( Antikensammlung F 2264) and a cup in Tarquinia (Museo Nazionale Tarquiniese RC 6848), are sign ...
(eye-cups). Usually, both paintings (in both styles) on one vase are produced by the same artist. In some cases, however, this is controversial. This applies especially to the Andokides Painter, whose black-figure work is ascribed by some scholars to the
Lysippides Painter
The Lysippides Painter was an Attic vase painter in the black-figure style. He was active around 530 to 510 BC. His conventional name comes from a kalos inscription on a vase in the British Museum attributed to him; his real name is not known.
...
, who, in turn, is sometimes seen as identical with the Andokides Painter.
Bibliography
* Irma Wehgartner: ''Bilingue Vasen'', in ''
Der Neue Pauly
Der or DER may refer to:
Places
* Darkənd, Azerbaijan
* Dearborn (Amtrak station) (station code), in Michigan, US
* Der (Sumer), an ancient city located in modern-day Iraq
* d'Entrecasteaux Ridge, an oceanic ridge in the south-west Pacific Ocean ...
'' Vol. 2 (1997), Col. 677
Other examples
Andocides painter 530 BC. Black figure side of "Bilingual" vase: Athena and Herakles.Lysippides painter 530 BC. Black figure side of "Bilingual" vase: Herakles & sacrificial bull.
References
{{Greek vase painting
Ancient Greek vase-painting styles
Archaic Greek art
Attic pottery