Open AccessCultural memory and recollections in Athenian vase paintings
Author(s) -
Jan Bažant
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
letras clássicas
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2358-3150
pISSN - 1516-4586
DOI - 10.11606/issn.2358-3150.v0i8p11-26
Subject(s) - painting , iconography , vase , mythology , art , storytelling , george (robot) , art history , visual arts , literature , history , narrative
In this paper, I deal with the traditional division between myth and reality on ancient Athenian vases. I ask what happened in the late 6th century BC Athens that made classical archaeologists think that vase painters and their customers started to be interested in reality. There is no doubt that in the century or so around 500 BC iconography of Athenian vase underwent a radical change, but my point is that this makeover was misinterpreted. There was a revolution in storytelling, but the entirely new stories with which Athenian vase painters started to amuse their patrons were not genre scenes or depictions of everyday subjects, as scenes of reality are sometimes called.