Material: clay and paint

Size: 1 1/2 feet high

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First, take a minute or two to look closely at the images above. Write down your reaction to this object--what did you think about when you first saw this? What parts of this object caught your eye? Why did you pick this object for your response paper? Make notes on things that you notice about it. Also, write down any questions you have about it--what kinds of things would you want to know about this object? Remember the questions we ask in class. You don't need to have answers for these questions yet, but keep them in your notes.

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Once you have some questions written down, try to answer them by reading the information I've provided below about this object and its context.

 

Context: What Do We Know?

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We don't know much about the context of this vase. It was produced in Athens--the type of clay used, and the style of the painting, matches vases produced in Athens. As part of your readings, I provided a video about the production of these vases, and the three-part firing process they went through to produce the black figures. After firing, details were etched onto the surface using a sharp tool, and additional paint colors were added. You can see both red and white paint on this vase--and you can see that the white paint has partially rubbed off in parts.

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This vase was not found in Greece, however. It was found in Italy, in the land of the Etruscans. The Etruscans were a people who bought a lot of Greek-made pottery and put these vases in their tombs, where the vases were preserved relatively well. In fact, the majority of Greek pottery (especially intact pieces like this one) have been found in Etruscan tombs. In the 1800s, Europeans discovered the beauty of these vases and their value increased; as their value increased, tomb robbers looted more and more of them. 

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On this vase is depicted one of the labors of Hercules. Hercules was a son of Zeus and a mortal woman, who was blessed with extraordinary strength. However, Zeus' wife Hera was angry that her husband was cheating on her, and often caused trouble for Zeus' children. Hercules grew up, married, and had two children. But then, Hera made him think that he was in the middle of a battle, and he murdered his wife and children in this altered mental state. When he recovered himself, he was devastated. He went to the oracle at Delphi to ask how he could purify himself from the murder of his wife and children, and the Oracle (which was believed to reveal the will of Apollo) told Hercules that he had to serve his cousin, King Eurystheus. Eurystheus gave Hercules twelve impossible labors to complete. The one you see here is the final labor. Hercules had to go down into the underworld and bring Cerberus, the three-headed guard-dog of the underworld, back up to the surface. Very few people in Greek mythology are allowed to go down to the underworld and then come back, but Hercules completes this successfully. He returns to King Eurystheus with Cerberus in tow. This is the scene you see on the vase.

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Hercules wears a lion-skin, a symbol of his first labor. He had to kill the Lion of Nemea, whose hide could not be pierced by any weapon. So Hercules discarded his weapons and wrestled the lion to death, and then skinned it and took its invulnerable hide to wear. He also carries a club, his typical weapon. Cerberus is covered in tiny snakes. The Greeks connected snakes with the underworld, because they observed that snakes slithered down into the earth (the Greeks considered the underworld to be down under the earth) and then returned to the surface.  This was not a negative connection, though; snakes were seen as positive figures, symbols of rebirth due to the fact they shed their skin, and agents of protection and healing. King Eurystheus cowers in a massive storage vessel which is sunk into the ground (this was standard practice in the ancient world, which did not have refrigeration. Burying storage vessels in the ground helped keep their contents cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter). 

 

Some things to consider in your response paper:​

• What was your response to this object? What drew your eye? You are encouraged to use first person (I/me) in your response paper. I want to know what you think.

• Consider the scene on the vase carefully. Try to imagine the artist painting this piece; put yourself into his or her mind. What kinds of decisions did the artist make (about lines, color, composition, etc.) when they were creating this piece, and why did they make those choices? By "composition" I mean choices about where certain figures or objects in the painting should be placed, relative to other figures.

• How should we interpret this piece of art? What kind of response was the artist hoping for from his audience? Why do you think he put a scene like this on his vase? Why tell this story in visual form? Also, why do you think someone might buy this vase and use it in their home?