Campanian vase painting

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Orestes, Elektra and Pylades in front of the grave of Agamemnon, hydria by the Painter of Louvre K 428, circa 330 BC. Paris: Louvre.
bell krater by the Painter of the Sacrifice in the Louvre
, circa 330/320 BC. Paris: Louvre.

Campanian vase painting is one of the five regional styles of

vase painting fabricated in Magna Graecia. It forms a close stylistic community with Apulian vase painting
.

column kraters, loutrophoroi, rhyta and nestoris amphorae are absent, pelikes are rare. The repertoire of motifs is limited. Subjects include youths, women, thiasos scenes, birds and animals, and often native Samnite warriors. The backs often show cloaked youths. Mythological scenes and depictions related to burial rites play a subsidiary role. Naiskos scenes, ornamental elements and polychromy are adopted after 340 BC under Lucanian influence.[1]
The bell-shaped flowers used as ornaments are very different from the ornaments used in other South Italian styles. At 4,000 known vases, the Campanian style is the second most common in the region (after Apulian).

Before the immigration of Sicilian potters in the second quarter of the 4th century BC, when several workshops were established in Campania, only the Owl-Pillar Workshop of the second half of the 5th century is known. It imitated Attic red-figure products. Campanian vase painting is subdivided into three main groups:

neck amphora by the Ixion painter, circa 330 BC. Paris: Louvre
.

The first group is represented by the

thyrsos, depictions of heads (normally below the handles of hydriai), decorative borders of garments, and the frequent use of additional white, red and yellow. The Laghetto and Caivano Painters appear to have moved to Paestum later.[2] The last representative of this manufacture was the Ixion Painter
.

The AV Group and the Capua Painter also had their workshop in Capua. Tjis manufacture, too, appears to have been founded by emigrants from Sicily. Of particular importance is the Whiteface-Frignano Painter, one of the first in this group. His typical characteristic is the use of additional white paint to depict the faces of women. This group favoured domestic scenes, women and warriors. Multiple figures are rare, usually there is only one figure each on the front and back of the vase, sometimes only the head. Garments are usually drawn casually.[3]

The workshop in Cumae was founded very late. After 350 BC, its founder, the CA Painter and his collaborators and successors worked there. The CA Painter is considered as the outstanding artist of his group, or even of Campanian vase painting as a whole. From 330 onwards, a strong Apulian influence is visible. The most common motifs are naiskos and grave scenes, dionysiac scenes and symposia. Depictions of bejewelled female heads are also common. The CA painter was polychrome but tended to use much white for architecture and female figures. His successors, the CB Painter and CC Painter were not fully able to maintain his quality, leading to a rapid demise, terminating with the end of Campanian vase painting around 300 BC.[3]

Bibliography

References

  1. ^ Hurschmann: Kampanische Vasenmalerei, in: DNP 6 (1998), col. 227
  2. ^ Hurschmann: Kampanische Vasenmalerei, in: DNP 6 (1998), col. 227f
  3. ^ a b Hurschmann: Kampanische Vasenmalerei, in: DNP 6 (1998), col. 228
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