Bilingual vase painting
Encyclopedia
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
is an essentially metaphor
Metaphor
A metaphor is a literary figure of speech that uses an image, story or tangible thing to represent a less tangible thing or some intangible quality or idea; e.g., "Her eyes were glistening jewels." Metaphor may also be used for any rhetorical figures of speech that achieve their effects via...
ical one; it describes vases that are painted both in the black-figure and in the red-figure techniques. It also describes the transitional period when black-figure was being gradually replaced in dominance by red-figure, basically the last quarter of the 6th and the very beginning of the 5th century BC. There appearance may be due to the initial uncertainty of the market for the new red-figure style, although the later appears to have become dominant rather fast.
Eye-cup
Eye-cup is the term describing a specific cup type in ancient Greek pottery, distinguished by pairs of eyes painted on the external surface. Classified as kylikes in terms of shape, they were especially widespread in Athens and Chalkis in the second half of the sixth century BC.The bowl of the...
s. In some cases, either side of an amphora bore a depiction of the same motif, one in black-figure, the other in red-figure (e.g on the Belly amphora by the Andokides Painter
Andokides Painter
The Andokides painter was an ancient Athenian vase painter who was active from 530 to approximately 515 BCE. His work is unsigned; he is named after Andokides, the potter for whom he worked. He is believed to be the inventor of the red figure style of vase painting.-Beginnings of his art:The...
, Munich 2301)
Belly Amphora by the Andokides Painter (Munich 2301)
The Belly Amphora by the Andokides Painter in the Staatliche Antikensammlungen at Munich is one of the most famous works of the artist in question. As a bilingual vase, it is an important archaeological source regarding the transition from attic black-figure pottery to the red-figure style...
. Eye-cups usually feature a black-figure image on the interior, and red-figure motifs on the external surface. An exception to this is a kylix
Kylix (drinking cup)
A kylix is a type of wine-drinking glass with a broad relatively shallow body raised on a stem from a foot and usually with two horizontal handles disposed symmetrically...
by the Andokides Painter in Palermo
Palermo
Palermo is a city in Southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Province of Palermo. The city is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old...
, on which the exterior is painted half in black-figure and half in red-figure. Apart from the Andokides Painter
Andokides Painter
The Andokides painter was an ancient Athenian vase painter who was active from 530 to approximately 515 BCE. His work is unsigned; he is named after Andokides, the potter for whom he worked. He is believed to be the inventor of the red figure style of vase painting.-Beginnings of his art:The...
, bilingual works were produced primarily by Psiax
Psiax
Psiax was an Attic vase painter of the transitional period between the black-figure and red-figure styles. His works date to circa 525 to 505 BC and comprise about 60 surviving vases, two of which bear his signature. Initially he was allocated the name Menon Painter by John Beazley...
(especially belly amphorae), as well as by Epiktetos
Epiktetos
Epiktetos was an Attic vase painter in the early red-figure style. Besides Oltos, he is the most important painter of the Pioneer Group. He was active between 520 and 490 BC...
and Oltos
Oltos
Oltos was a Late Archaic Greek vase painter, active in Athens. From the time between 525 BC and 500 BC, about 150 works by him are known. Two pieces, a cup in Berlin and a cup in Tarquinia , are signed by him as painter.Oltos is thought to have begun his career in the workshop of the potter...
(eye-cups). Usually, both paintings (in both styles) on one vase are produced by the same artist. In some cases, however, this is controversial. This applies especially to the Andokides Painter, whose black-figure work is ascribed by some scholars to the Lysippides Painter
Lysippides Painter
The Lysippides Painter was an Attic vase painter in the black-figure style. He was active around 530 to 510 BC. His real name is not known.- Life and work :...
, who, in turn, is sometimes seen as identical with the Andokides Painter.
