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THE ‘PERSEUS DANCE’ VASE REVISITED
Author(s) -
HUGHES ALAN
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
oxford journal of archaeology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.382
H-Index - 31
eISSN - 1468-0092
pISSN - 0262-5253
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-0092.2006.00269.x
Subject(s) - iconography , vase , dance , comedy , comics , art , skepticism , literature , art history , history , visual arts , philosophy , epistemology
Summary. For 70 years the image of an apparent comic actor performing on a simple stage has been known primarily from the drawing by Gilliéron. This paper is founded on the first direct study of the Vlasto chous since 1935. The author compares the vase with the drawing, showing that while scholars ought to have been sceptical of Gilliéron, he was reasonably accurate. Interpretations of the imagery from Caputo, who first studied the vase (1935), to Schmidt (1995) explain it variously as a scene of comedy or a manslaughter trial on a ship. The paper evaluates these views in the light of comparable iconography and fresh study of the vase, and concludes that it is indeed theatrical. However, some aspects of the imagery remain difficult to explain.