The study of South Italian vases, alongside their painters and workshops, has become an essential field of academic inquiry during the so-called ‘post-Trendall’ era.[1] Arthur Dale Trendall’s classifications, in collaboration with Alexander Cambitoglou, based on Beazley’s model for Attic painted ceramics, opened the path for new specialised research on Apulian, Lucanian, Campanian, and Sicelote vase painting. In this book, Luigi Todisco and Francesca R. Pesce address various aspects of the artistic works by the Felton Painter and his collaborators, from stylistic and iconographic references to the ideological and cultural implications of the vases in Greco-Italic contexts, including a predilection for specific shapes and their funerary uses.[2] Il pittore Felton e la sua officina follows a line of monographic studies on South Italian painters initiated by Margot Schmidt on the Darius Painter and Emanuele Greco on the Aphrodite Painter in the 1960s-70s and continued by others, notably Martine Denoyelle, Francesca Silvestrelli, and several previous studies by Todisco himself.[3]
The ‘Felton Painter’ was an artistic personality identified by Trendall after the Trustees of the Felton Bequest acquired a red-figure chous (wine jug) for Melbourne’s National Gallery of Victoria in 1964 (Cat. 11A). His workshop, most likely located in Taranto, is known for producing small shapes decorated with original images during the early phase of Apulian vase painting (c. 380-360 BCE), a group of more than 140 exemplars.[4] The book provides a complete ‘Catalogue of Vases’ with the most up-to-date bibliography by Pesce and in-depth iconographic discussions of the Felton Painter’s artistic creations and those of his followers by Todisco, organised by subject matter (e.g., mythological, Dionysian, erotica, comic, eschatological, grotesque, and the female/male realms). As noted in the Introduction (p. 12), the problem of studying particular artists during this period remains the lack of data regarding most of the findspots and the worldwide spread of the vases in museums and private collections. The authors acknowledge the questionability and limitations of the corpus of vases attributed to the Felton Painter in their study, particularly in cases where the distinctions between attributions and related production by his followers and contemporary artists are not completely clear (except for the exemplars produced by the Group of the St. Louis Pelike and the Kyminnon Group, which were active during the late period of the Felton Painter’s workshop and thus they are listed separately). For these reasons, the number of vases attributed to the Felton Painter and his followers in this study cannot be comprehensive.
The Catalogue provides an updated list of the vases attributed to the Felton Painter alongside depictions ‘closely connected’ or ‘close in style’ attributed to his workshop, as they appear in RVAp I (1978), including later discrepancies.[5] Mythological scenes (A) include the Dioscuroi (1A), Perseus and Andromeda (7A), and Actaeon’s death (8A), sometimes with a deliberated freedom to represent comic-like and grotesque figures on small shapes, such as in the depictions of Odysseus and Diomedes stealing the Palladion (13A), Marsyas and Apollo next to the personification of Mount Olympus (?) and Oedipus, Creon, and the Sphinx (11A and15A, respectively); the latter figure is depicted in a grotesque way, resembling an old woman with a prominent nose and loose breasts below the inscription ΣΦΙΞ placed above the neck’s painted band and not inside the scene.
Dionysian scenes (B) are the most numerous, usually with a satyr and a Maenad but sometimes with more figures, including depictions of Dionysos. Erotic scenes (C) are those with Eros or courting scenes. Sometimes, a young Eros with large wings and hair arranged in a kekryphalos or with short hair and a band is represented, while two nude females at a basin (louterion) with a flying Eros may also be part of these scenes. Female figures are frequently depicted wrapped in mantles, while male figures urinating and defecating can be part of the repertoire. Comic scenes (E) include masked male figures wearing comic costumes exaggerating their bellies, buttocks, and sometimes with a large phallus. One example depicts actors on a wooden platform (86E). Grotesque figures confirm a separate category showing ugly faces and dysmorphic bodies with large phalluses, big bellies, and large feet frequently depicted in the act of running (91-95F), chasing another male grotesque figure (97-100F) or a mantled female (101F). The final section of painted vases attributed to the Felton Painter gathers male (masked, satyrs, Silenus) and female heads (G) in profile wearing the sakkos. The Catalogue concludes with a list of vases attributed to the followers of the Felton Painter, usually on larger shapes.
Next is a discussion of the vases’ painted subjects and iconography. Regarding the former, it is likely that fragments belonging to large shapes all depicted mythological subjects (1-5A, 12A, and 14A). Nonetheless, the majority occurs on choes, better preserved with legible painted figures. Some characters are caricatured and grotesque (notably those depicted on chous 15A with Oedipus, Creon and the Sphinx). Noteworthy is the interest of the Felton Painter and his workshop in Attic comedy, attested by comic scenes with characters in costumes inspired by drama (p. 86), but also by non-conventional models, to which the artists only added a mask (choes 104G, 106G, and olpe 129G).
An iconographic analysis of the vases indicates that the complex compositions of mythological scenes were most likely made by the Felton Painter, if not by his close collaborators (p. 95). Only seven out of 15 vases are well preserved, while only fragments remain of the remaining eight kraters. The subject of the Dioskouroi depicted on a calyx krater (1A) links the city of Taranto to her Spartan origins in an original composition, in which the twin brothers are flanking a small temple or funerary naiskos, one of the earliest examples of this type of building in Apulian vase painting (p. 97).[6] A further link to the Peloponnese may also be inferred from the fragments of a bell krater in Oxford (2A), identified by Todisco as an episode evoking the Heraclids at Delphi before their return back home, a subject without antecedents in Italiote vase painting, probably informed by tragedy.[7] Other mythological subjects include Herakles and the Egyptian king Busiris (12A), treated with parody overtones, as observed in some Attic exemplars. Attic precedents may have also influenced the representation of Andromeda on a pelike (7A), who waits to be liberated from the sea monster. In this version, the heroine is bound to a rocky arch instead of two poles, an iconographic motif that will become characteristic of Apulian vase painting.[8] The death of Acteon, a popular myth in Attic tragedy and vase painting during the fifth century BCE, is also part of the Felton Painter’s repertoire, representing the hero in frontal position and in the process of metamorphosis, a subject already represented in architectural sculpture (e.g., a metope of Temple E, Selinunte). In Apulia and Etruria, however, the myth appears on funerary monuments.[9] Other mythological scenes on choes include Bellerophon and the Chimaera alongside Pan and Papposilenus (9A), the episode of Orestes at Delphi (10A), and Apollo and Marsyas (11A).
Scenes represented grotesquely do not necessarily relate to actual comedy performances but are part of the fifth-century BCE Greek parody trend in vase painting, whose main followers in South Italy are the Felton Painter and his workshop (p. 101). Examples of this are the vases depicting parody versions of Odysseus and Diomedes stealing the Palladion (13A) and the aforementioned with Oedipus, Creon, and the Sphinx (15A), where the characters do not wear masks or comedy costumes, but there is an intended uglification of the figures. According to Todisco (p. 102), the former scene suggests the Felton Painter’s interest in Sparta based on the notion that the xoanon of Athena reached the city and was guarded by Odysseus, to whom a sanctuary was dedicated near the place where the statue was kept (Plut., Quaest. Graec., 48). In these representations, there is a conscious deviation from the conventional iconography, interchanging the roles played by particular characters, showing Odysseus holding the statue instead of Diomedes and Creon seated on a rock in front of the Sphinx instead of Oedipus, a phenomenon also observed in Campanian vase painting.[10]
Eschatological scenes by the Felton Painter differ from South Italian vase paintings in that the artist made unique representations of transgressive behaviours on four choes. On one of them (26B), Dionysos is depicted on a kline flanked by a Maenad and a Silenus urinating on a stela. The same action is performed by a mantled young man, this time in nature, on chous 56D. The third and fourth examples show male figures in the act of defecating: a nude young male in profile (67D) and a grotesque, mantled male figure rendered frontally while exposing his genitals (69D). In these, Todisco sees the particular aim of depicting alterity by employing images capable of triggering hilarity (p. 116). The mantle worn by the defecating figure on chous 69D, associated with the female sphere, could indicate the gender exchange among grotesque figures, which is also characteristic of comedy, even though the figure on this vase does not wear a mask. Furthermore, the scene does not show any connection between the figure and the symposium, with his staff and food (?) probably indicating a traveller or parodying one of the malnourished homeless young men who, according to Xenophon (Const. Lac. 2, 3-4; 3, 6-9), wandered about the city wearing nothing but a mantle (tribon). Another difference between chous 69D and similar figures on Attic vases is how the male figure wears the mantle, covering his face while defecating. This is similar to female actions when covering the shame of embarrassing behaviours. Alongside other vases by the Felton Painter, this particular depiction could be connected to the Spartan tradition that demanded young men wear female mantles during the last stage of the agoge, to prove that in matters of decorum, males were stronger than females (p. 118). Todisco concludes that the images on these and similar vases condense in a grotesque visual representation the particularities of the Spartan educational curriculum and illustrate the consequences of life outside the polis (p. 119).
Numerous vases show depictions of Dionysian dances, indicated by Maenads wearing translucid chitons while holding drums, and satyrs, sometimes alongside real people. Female figures wearing mantles, an expression of erotic appeal in the limits of the aidos, are frequently depicted in this category. Notable is the depiction on askos 18B, which shows all these figures combined, including a naked old woman dancing the oklasma and a male figure wearing the comic costume of a slave, perhaps in connection with the pannichys, a prenuptial ritual (pp. 120-122).[11] The next category, human heads, was part of a long-standing tradition in Greek and South Italian vase painting, with an explosive number during the second half of the fourth century BCE, particularly of female heads. Considering the funerary use of the vases, the symbolic meaning of these heads seems to be connected with ‘hope’ (elpis) for a good afterlife.[12] The Felton Painter and his followers appear to have been among the earliest artists exploring the subject in the region during the early decades of the century. They show a preference for male heads (e.g., Silenuses, satyrs, comic masks). Female heads are less numerous, with their hair arranged inside a sakkos.
The Felton Painter’s followers explored Dionysian and erotic subjects, as well as scenes with young male and female figures. Among mythological subjects, the scene on the red-figure krater IA showing two Maenads killing Pentheus –who wears a pilos– flanked by Dionysos and a satyr stands out during a time when the myth was of interest to Apulian vase painters (p. 129). A hydria (VIIIC) probably shows Adonis among the nymphs. The large box below Aphrodite probably represents the one used by the goddess to send the hero to Persephone (p. 130).
In the section devoted to final observations, Todisco concludes that despite the stylistic differences between works by the Felton Painter and some of his collaborators, the workshop shows consistency in the selection of shapes (largely choes) and the subjects depicted on the vases. Regarding the latter, they are part of the common figurative repertoire observed in early Apulian vase painting: scenes derived from myths, the world of Dionysos, theatre, and rites connected with the erotic and nuptial spheres. Original compositions include those that combine mythological subjects with masked characters. The author states that a significant part of the attribution to the Felton Painter’s workshop was possible thanks to the recognition of his hand in grotesque, scatological, and dance scenes, all discussed in consideration of their funerary destinations and their eschatological symbolisms.
A series of tables and graphics effectively summarise the data contained in the study, ordered by provenance, shapes, and subjects. The book is illustrated with more than 123 black-and-white photographs of fragments and vases alongside 16 full-page high-quality colour plates. A few examples do not have accompanying images (e.g., 1B, 22-24B, 32B). Sometimes, the numeration in the Catalogue may be confusing (e.g., 1B, a fragment of 1A, is placed between 25B and 26B). These observations, nonetheless, do not undermine the significance of this carefully curated study. Aimed at graduate students and researchers in Classical Archaeology and Art History, this book significantly contributes to a clearer understanding of the stylistic preferences of individual artistic personalities and their workshops in the vast and often obscure landscape of Apulian vase painting.
Notes
[1] P. Arias 1997, ‘La situazione della ricercar scientifica sulla ceramica greca e italota dopo il Beazley e il Trendall’, Athenaeum 95(1): 199-203.
[2] M. Denoyelle and M. Iozzo 2009, La Céramique Greque d’Italie méridionale et de Sicile: Productions colonials et apparentées du VIIIe au III av. J.-C, Paris; L. Todisco 2012, La ceramica a figure rosse della Magna Grecia e della Sicilia, Rome, pp. 343-345; C. Pouzadoux 2013, Éloge d’un prince daunien: mythes et images en Italie méridionale au IVe siècle av. J.-C, Rome; T. Carpenter, K. Lynch, and E.G. Robinson (eds.) 2014, The Italic People of Apulia. New Evidence from Pottery for Workshops, Markets, and Customs, Cambridge; L. Todisco 2020, ‘Sulle conoscenze mitologiche ed epiche dei ceramografi italoti’, in MitoMania. Storie ritrovate di uomini ed eroi (Atti della Giornata di Studi. Taranto, Museo Archeologico Nazionale, 2019), Rome, pp. 135-146 (with bibliography).
[3] M. Denoyelle 2014, ‘Hands at Work in Magna Graecia: the Amykos Painter and his Workshop’, in Carpenter et al., pp. 116-129; M. Denoyelle and F. Silvestrelli 2013, ‘From Tarporley to Dolon: the Reattribution of the Early South Italian “New York Goose Vase”’, Metropolitan Museum Journal 48: 59-72; L. Todisco 2009, Il pittore di Arpi, Mito e società nella Daunia del tardo IV secolo a.C.,Rome.
[4] Other scholars have proposed a lower date in the range 360-340 BCE (A. Hoffmann 2002, Gefässformen, Bildthemen und Funktionen unteritalisch-rotfiguriger Keramik aus der Nekropole von Tarent, Rahden, pp. 75-76), 370-350 (Denoyelle and Iozzo 2009, p. 135) or 330 BCE (Piqueux 2022, The Comic Body in Ancient Greek Theatre and Art, 440-320 BC, Oxford, p. 22).
[5] A.D. Trendall and A. Cambitoglou 1978, The Red Figured Vases of Apulia, I. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
[6] For the cult, see E. Lippolis 2009, ‘Rituali di Guerra: I Dioscuri a Sparta e a Taranto’, ArchCl 60: 117-159. For the iconography, see V. Biscotto 2010, ‘L’immagine delli Dioscuri nella ceramografia apula’, ArchCl 61: 525-546.
[7] See Todisco 2003, La ceramica a soggetto tragico in Magna Grecia e in Sicilia, Rome, pp. 388-389, 391-392 (Cat. L5, L15); Todisco 2012, La ceramica figure rosse della Magna Grecia e della Sicilia, vol. I, Rome, p. 7 (with bibliography).
[8] See Todisco 2023, ‘Tamiri, Orfeo e l’arco roccioso’, Ostraka 32: 289-291 (with bibliography).
[9] Contemporary examples include the death of Acteon depicted on the neck of an early Lucanian red-figure volute krater by the Gravina Painter (Taranto, MAN inv. 177001, currently in Gravina, Museo Fondazione Santomasi) and sculpted on the tympana of the so-called Sarcophagus of the Amazons in Florence (Florence, MAN inv. 5811).
[10] E.g., a vase fragment by Asteas shows Ajax seeking refuge at the Palladion while being seized by Cassandra. For a photograph, visit https://oregondigital.org/concern/images/df693h29r.
[11] On oklasma scenes on vase painting, see Todisco 2008, ‘Mito e danza su vasi apuli da Arpi’, in G. Volpe, M. Strassulla, D. Leone (eds.), Storia e archeologia della Daunia in ricordo di Marina Mazzei (Atti Giornate di Studio Foggia, 2005), Bari, pp. 233-241 (with bibliography).
[12] See K. Heuer 2018, ‘The Face of Hope: Isolated Heads in South Italian Visual Culture’, in G. Kazantzidis, D. Spatharas (eds.), Hope in Ancient Literature, History, and Art, Berlin; Boston, pp. 297-327.