A decade after the Met’s acquisition of the famous Euphronios krater for a cool 1.2 million dollars (and presumably in part as a reaction to the soaring prices of Attic pottery) a most intriguing, ingenious, and inflammatory (depending on who you ask) theory was floated….
In a series of studies, Michael Vickers (and later jointly with David Gill in the archly titled book ‘Artful Crafts’) argued that the terracotta vases so acclaimed by art historians were highly influenced (a cheapo version, let’s say) by the really sought after luxury tableware of the ancient world: the silver and gold kind. If these precious prototypes were indeed the inspiration, then the orangey red of Attic red-figure vases mimicked gold while the mirror-like surface of high quality black-glaze approximated oxidized silver.
Shown are two knockout gilt silver cups and a phiale at the Met, and the resemblance of shapes and color combination to the more widely known clay examples is striking!
The veiled implication that activities in Athens’ potters quarter were not high art and, understandably, passionate vase-painting aficionados have taken umbrage. These were not some half-baked imitations, after all, but a sophisticated and prolific art form in their own right.
The gaps in material evidence (one can melt metal and repurpose it…fired clay, not so much) are problematic to say the least, and likely cross – pollination between the two media was not a one way street.
