Greece Minor Arts Part 3

For the bronze pottery of the sixth and fifth centuries, some typical examples can be adduced, in which the casting technique appears, no longer that of hammering: the tondo di Dodona of the mid-century. Street. C. with handles adorned with figures of sea horses, the tripod of Metaponto, which is like the prototype of the Etruscan ones called vulcenti, the bronze crater of Monaco and that of Monte S. Mauro near Caltagirone (Sicily), the lebete with heads of ariete sull’orlo, by Leontini, the two hydrias of Randazzo and Gela, the Argive hydria of the New York Museum. They are all works, in which the elegance of the forms is accompanied by the richness of the decoration of the handles, reliefs and statuettes, and engraved ornaments. This bronze production is linked to the Etruscan one which flourished in the sixth and fifth centuries, so as to exercise a trade in import into Greece itself. Unlike the Etruscan mirror, the Greek one has no figured or engraved or raised decoration; an exception can be considered the gilded silver mirror, with engraved figurations distributed in sectors, of Kelermès (southern Russia), from the first half of the century. Street. C. As a rule the Greek mirror, of which most of the specimens are from the early times of the century. It goes. C., is smooth and supported by a female statuette on a base. Corinth, Argos, Sicyon are believed to be the main centers of manufacture of these mirrors. of the first half of the century. Street. C. As a rule the Greek mirror, of which most of the specimens are from the early times of the century. It goes. C., is smooth and supported by a female statuette on a base. Corinth, Argos, Sicyon are believed to be the main centers of manufacture of these mirrors. of the first half of the century. Street. C. As a rule the Greek mirror, of which most of the specimens are from the early times of the century. It goes. C., is smooth and supported by a female statuette on a base. Corinth, Argos, Sicyon are believed to be the main centers of manufacture of these mirrors.

For the goldsmiths of the V and IV centuries a. C. there are different kinds of objects.

According to THEDRESSWIZARD, there are crowns, both in simple ribbon and in imitation of twigs; crowns played a prominent part in Greek life, because golden crowns were often given to characters as a sign of honor. Some have been recovered from the tombs; excels among them for richness of composition, in which winged figures enter, that coming from Armento (Basilicata), ascribed to the first half of the century. IV a. C. There are earrings of the types spiral, leech, disc and ring pendant, figured pendant (Níkē, Maenad, Eros, etc.); there are necklaces; peculiar is the absence in these goldsmiths of hard stones or gems, which are in use only from the century onwards. III a. C. For these goldsmiths, noteworthy are the findings of Cumae in the Aeolian (Asia Minor), from a tomb in which he was a stater of Alexander the Great, and of S. Eufemia near Vibo Valentia (Catanzaro); but with these last goldsmiths we are already in the Hellenistic period.

But much more important for the period from the end of the century. It goes. C. until most of the century. IV are the findings of southern Russia and especially those of Kerç, the ancient Panticapeum, and of Solokha (on the Dnieper).

Here the tombs of the rulers and the Scythian nobles were provided with abundant silver and gold furnishings, in which we often observe a barbaric content with Hellenic and especially Attic forms. Indeed, the relations between the northern coast of Pontus Eussino and Athens were intense, especially during the long reign of the Bosporan king Leucone I (389-349 BC), and these relations are proved by the rich and selected crop of Attic painted vases that are found in these tombs of semi-Hellenized barbarians. In addition to the Attic current, the ionic current has been recognized in these gold and silver works: they are diadems, bow cases, quivers, combs. Frequent are the figures of Scythians or busy with their horses, as in the relief on the neck of the silver amphora from Nicopol, or in struggle, as in the beautiful group surmounting the golden comb from Solokha; the figure of the griffin is very frequent, and a fight between Arimaspi and griffins is in the golden diadem of Taman. In these precious metal objects we have a foretaste of what will fully take place in Hellenistic art, that is the representation of exotic types and the wide expansion of floral or vegetable motifs, for which the comparison with Italian ceramics is clear. Another series of exquisite products of metallotechnics is constituted in full sec. IV a. C. by the bronze hinged mirrors, which in all probability must be ascribed to the city of Corinth, where, according to Eliano (Varia historia, I, 58) the gilded mirrors were famous. On the outside of the lid there is a relief, on the inside there is an engraved scene; the shapes, both of the relief and engraved figures, are of great finesse and demonstrate, even in the choice of subjects, the delicacy of Praxiteles’ art of the century. In Etruria such mirror cases were traced and imitated.

Greece Minor Arts 3