An Introduction to Greek Art by Susan Woodford

Author:Susan Woodford
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781472529053
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Published: 2014-03-03T16:00:00+00:00

151. Polyneikes and Eriphyle, Attic red-figure pelike, painted by the Chicago Painter, 460-450 BC, Lecce Museum, Lecce

Figures could now look into each other’s eyes, thus deepening the emotional content of the scenes in which they were involved, as can be seen in the depiction of Polyneikes and Eriphyle on a pelike (Fig 151). Eriphyle was given the power to adjudicate between her husband Amphiaraos and her brother Adrastos. Adrastos wanted to help establish his son-in-law Polyneikes on the throne of Thebes, but Amphiaraos knew that if he joined the expedition against Thebes, he would never return from it. Polyneikes offered Eriphyle a wonderful necklace, a family heirloom that had been a gift from the gods. Eriphyle could not resist the bribe and agreed to send Amphiaraos to the Theban War. The vase painter has shown Polyneikes, standing at the left, dangling the bauble temptingly before Eriphyle. She reaches out her hand to receive it. Their eyes meet, and her husband’s fate is sealed. A long-legged bird, a household pet, stands between the two quiet figures; little happens, but the air is charged with ominous forebodings.

It must have been in a similar way, though with far greater mastery, that Polygnotos told his stories. The means at his disposal were hardly more. He would have worked with figures drawn simply but eloquently in outline, enhanced by washes of colour against a pale background. The effect was probably similar to that of contemporary vase paintings in which the figures are drawn in outline over a white slip (Figs 152 and 153).

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