Gestures in Attic Vase Painting: Use and Meaning, 550-450 B.C.

Abstract

The two goals of this work are (1) the compilation of a lexicon of the gestures used on Attic vases between 550 and 450 B.C. and (2) the establishment of several ways this lexicon can be used to investigate the relationships between vase painters and the development of gestures as a means of expression. The lexicon was compiled by recording gestures found in published photographs of vases. The gestures collected were classified according to their forms. The possible meanings of each form were determined by the contexts in which they were used. The individual uses of gestures were arranged chronologically in these sub-groups and listed by the painters who used them. Uses on unattributed vases were included in the chronological system. Each entry therefore displays the history of the use of individual forms in various meanings. This historical organization allows the lexicon to be used to examine the sources of the various gestures used by a particular artist. Thus, the elements of his vocabulary of gestures can be placed within traditions, demonstrating the artist's reliance on earlier works, his innovations and his influences on succeeding generations. The vocabularies of a series of artists gives insight into the growth and alteration of the vocabulary of gestures. The lexicon data is used in each of the ways mentioned to examine two important problems in the history of Attic vase painting. First, the separate identities of the inventor of the red-figure technique, the and okides Painter, and his black-figure collaborator the Lysippides Painter, are demonstrated by their consistently different use of gestures. The effect each artist had on the repertoire of gestures is also examined. Second, the profusion of gestures found in the black-figure works of the Antimenes Painter and the Leagros Group is contrasted with the rarity of gestures in the works of the red-figure Pioneers. It is concluded that the Pioneers, in effecting great changes in drawing, altered the momentum in the development of the repertoire of gestures at the end of the sixth century. This makes it possible to distinguish between a black-figure and a red-figure vocabulary of gestures at this time. Appendices list the letters used to code the formal elements of gestures, the vocabularies of gestures recorded from the works of artists studied and those vases from which gestures were recorded, but which do not appear in the works of Beazley.