Review: [untitled]Author(s): Mark I. DaviesReviewed work(s):

L'Ilioupersis dans la céramique italiote. Les mythes et leur expression figurée au$\text{iv}^{\text{e}}$ siècle by Jean-Marc Moret

Source: American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 81, No. 3 (Summer, 1977), pp. 404-405Published by: Archaeological Institute of AmericaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/503028 .Accessed: 26/03/2011 10:37

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404 AMERICAN JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY [AJA 81

"Rhodope," but Schmidt's ingenious efforts to recon- struct the plot remain inconclusive.

Little attention is paid in this study to the icono- graphic vocabulary of Apulian vase painting, those stereotyped details and attributes of which in many cases the significance is unknown. There is no mention, for example, of the mysterious ladder-like object de- scriptively called the "xylophone" (pl. 3ob), found on hundreds of Apulian vases and of disputed symbolic value.

The black-and-white illustrations are clear and de- tailed. Only the beautiful Alcestis loutrophoros is re- produced in color, and for a full appreciation of the color magic of Apulian pottery, especially of its fantas- tic plant life, the reader will have to turn to other publications or to the vases themselves.

This is a stimulating and learned contribution to one of the most mysterious chapters in ancient art. Not the least of its merits is excellent bibliography.

EVA KEULs THE NETHERLANDS INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED STUDY

L'ILIOUPERSIS DANS LA CERAMIQUE ITALIOTE. LES

MYTHES ET LEUR EXPRESSION FIGUREE AU IVe SIECLE,

by Jean-Marc Moret. (Bibliotheca Helvetica Ro-

mana, no. XIV.) Vol. I: pp. xiv + 305, figs. 6

(line-drawings on p. 129); Vol. II: pp. vi + 41, pls. 102. Imprimerie du "Journal de Geneve," Geneva, 1975. Two monographs of capital importance to students

of Greek mythology, religion, and vase painting have appeared recently in the distinguished series of the Bibliotheca Helvetica Romana: Claude Berard's Ano- doi. Essai sur l'imagerie des passages chthoniens as Volume XIII in 1974, followed a year later by the work here under review. Perhaps most noteworthy for their use of innovative methodology, these two stud- ies are likely to exert a considerable influence upon the direction in which future iconographical research is pursued.

Moret's work on the Ilioupersis is divided into two volumes, facilitating its use by the reader. Volume I contains the text, divided into two parts, while Vol- ume II presents a catalogue of 151 of the most impor- tant vases and fragments under consideration, of which 90 are wholly or partially illustrated on 0o2 plates of excellent quality. Also included in Volume II are five indices of mythological names, ancient authors, principal monuments, museums, and South-Italian vase painters, as well as a table of plates.

In a short introduction, the author attributes the origin of this study to his interest in re-examining the relationship between tragedy and the painted pottery of South Italy in the light of the classifications pro- posed by Trendall. Proceeding with the expectation that the results would confirm the theatrical origin of

the scenes on the vases, Moret quickly came to very different conclusions, following a method of inquiry which owes much to the example of such scholars as Panofsky and Gombrich and the latter's "linguistics of the visual image" in particular. In the course of his investigations into the sources of the scenes and motifs of the Ilioupersis in South-Italian vase painting, Moret rightly concluded that the non-literary models and figurative traditions known to the artists were far more important than any direct literary influences. Perhaps the most important result of this study has been the author's demonstration of the existence of figurative traditions which thrive independently of the literary treatments of a given motif or theme and follow their own laws of evolution. Using the linguistic model, the author has concerned himself with the language or dictionary of iconographical vocabulary known to the vase painters, with little attention paid to considerations of style or aesthetics. From the study of the figurative vocabulary of these artists emerges something of a grammar of forms and motifs.

In pursuit of these ends, Moret has divided his text into two complementary parts, of which the first treats the individual episodes of the lioupersis which ap- pear in extant South-Italian vase painting. The story of Laoco6n and his sons may now be added, as it ap- pears on an unpublished vase which recently entered a German private collection. In the second part of his study, the motifs themselves from which the scenes are composed receive close analysis: figure-types, char- acteristic positions, conventional characters, typical ges- tures, etc.

The episodes studied in the first seven chapters are the representations of Ajax and Kassandra, Helen and Menelaos, the Death of Priam, the Ilioupersis in Greek art earlier than South-Italian vase painting, the Iliou- persis in South-Italian vase painting, the theft of the Palladion, and the Palladion itself in art. Each chapter contains a detailed discussion of existing scenes of these episodes in South-Italian vase painting, which are listed at the outset in the form of a short catalogue and grouped according to classification (Apulian, Gnathian, Campanian, etc.). Plate-references in addi- tion to, or even instead of, the catalogue-references in the text would have been helpful to the reader, particu- larly in the later chapters of the book. The early de- velopment of each theme in Greek art receives con- siderable attention, but the bulk of the discussion is devoted to the interpretation of scenes and identifica- tion of the various figures represented on South- Italian vases. Moret is cautious in coming to conclu- sions, and his arguments are closely reasoned. He can confess to aporia in the face of insufficient or con- flicting evidence, and his attitude before the monu- ments inspires confidence in his results. Rarely can one improve upon his documentation and bibliography for a given piece, and despite an approach which some may find mechanical in its application to the details and too "modern" in its use of linguistic models of

1977] BOOK REVIEWS 405

expression, Moret has by no means turned his back on the work of his predecessors. The breadth and depth of his reading are to be admired, and he has clearly benefited from the teachings, advice, and con- versation of an outstanding circle of scholars (pp. vii-viii).

In the second part, which constitutes more than two-thirds of the entire work, Moret isolates some of the motifs which are frequently found in the scenes of the Ilioupersis for an examination of their derivation, development, and evolution in earlier Greek art and their widespread use in South-Italian vase paintings of other subjects as well. The kneeling position as- sumed by numerous figures in different situations, the common figure of a priestess in flight, "hybrid" figures of Orientals, and the action of seizing a victim by the hair all receive detailed analysis in separate chapters and reveal much about the sources, the attitudes, and the methods of the South-Italian vase painters, and their relationship to earlier and contemporary works of art. It should be emphasized that the author has by no means limited the range of his investigations to themes from the Ilioupersis, but has made use of a very considerable number of scenes from other myths and legends in demonstrating how various "stock" motifs could be used in unrelated mythological con- texts by vase painters decorating large numbers of vases in a short space of time. Moret rightly stresses that an individual vase painter drew very largely upon existing, contemporary, visual sources-frequent- ly at his elbow in the workshop-for inspiration in his work and deemphasizes the importance of tragedy and literature in general as a direct influence upon the artist.

Chapter ii, dealing with the contamination of scenes and some interchangeable motifs, and Chapter 13, on the relationship between tragedy and vase painting, contain most of the important conclusions reached by Moret in the course of his research. Faced with a difficult problem of interpretation for any given scene or motif, Moret had suggested earlier (p. 82) that "the answer, so far as one can be found, is not to be sought in the manuals of mythology, but in the related mythological scenes. We must abandon, for a moment, our philological point of view and try to adopt that of the painters; in other words, we must think in terms of iconographical forms." In turning away from the tragedians as immediate sources of in- spiration for the vase painters, Moret nevertheless has much to say concerning the similarities in method of composition between Euripides in particular and the South-Italian vase painters. In his view, "there were not, from one medium to the other, direct borrowings and influences, [but rather] an identical conception of the mythological situations and similar procedures of composition, based in each case on the principal of analogy and association of ideas" (p. 240).

A final chapter briefly explores the place of South- Italian vase painting between earlier Greek sculpture

and vase painting and later Roman wall painting, de- scribing succinctly both the shared characteristics and different attitudes to be found in the works of Greek, South-Italian, and Roman artists. The short Conclu- sion is important as a restatement of the methods used in these investigations and contains a brief discussion of parallel phenomena in Etruscan and medieval art.

Moret has made a very important contribution to the discipline of iconographical studies in demonstrat- ing the validity of an approach which demands that the viewer be active in retracing the creative process of composition experienced by these artists. The reader is warned (p. 272) that "philologists and archaeol- ogists will always derive the greatest profit from the comparison of texts and images, but, in order that parallels may be drawn in a valid way, the two areas of investigation must be pursued in complete inde- pendence from each other. It is essential to gather first from the tragic fragments all that they can tell us, independently of the artistic monuments; conversely, one must try to understand the latter without impos- ing upon them the literary evidence capable of illumi- nating them." Only then should the results of this dou- ble inquiry be confronted and compared. Moret's study of the Ilioupersis, then, should have the effect of at- tracting greater attention to the artistic processes at work in the creation of these and other scenes and of leading scholars to depend less upon literary sources for more than partial explanation of iconographical problems. In the light of this investigation, in fact, the more philological approaches of such scholars as S&chan and Webster seem flawed and in some respects misdirected, and yet Moret's confident questioning of their methods and presumptions is tempered by a gracious acknowledgement of his and our considerable debt to their earlier contributions (esp. p. 272, n. 3).

This brief summary hardly does justice to a publi- cation of major importance to all students of classical art. The Swiss National Foundation for Scientific Re- search and the University of Geneva are to be com- mended for the support which made possible its ap- pearance in a form which matches in excellence the contents. The book has also been reviewed by N.R. Oakeshott, JHS 96 (1976) 251-52.

MARK I. DAVIES DAVIDSON COLLEGE

DIE ROMISCHEN BRONZEN DER SCHWEIZ, II, AVENCHES,

by Annalis Leibundgut. Pp. xiv + 154, pls. 99. Philipp von Zabern, Mainz am Rhein, 1976. DM 148.

With this exemplary volume Switzerland enters upon a project to publish its entire holding of Roman bronzes, as is happening in France, Germany, and Austria. There are 207 items including a few now lost, the majority in the Mus&e Romain at Avenches, a few in other Swiss museums. Plan and format re-