Macmillan aryballos
MaterialClay
Height6.9 cm
Width3.9 cm
Createdc. 640 BC by the Chigi Painter
Discoveredbefore 1890
Greece
Present locationLondon, England, United Kingdom

The Macmillan aryballos is a Protocorinthian pottery aryballos in the collection of the British Museum. Dating to around 640 BC, it is 6.9 cm high and 3.9 cm in diameter, and weighs 65 grams.[1]

The vase is attributed to the Chigi Painter.[lower-alpha 1][2] Its provenance is uncertain: Cecil Smith reported that it was acquired by Malcolm Macmillan at Thebes, and suggests that it was originally found in a tomb outside the town;[3] but the British Museum Register records it as having been acquired by Macmillan in Corinth.[1] It was gifted to the British Museum by Macmillan in 1889.[4]

The vase is made out of a yellow coloured clay, and painted in shades of brown and purple. Fine details are incised into the clay.[4] The upper part of the vase is in the shape of a lion's head,[1] which appears to have been modelled rather than cast from a mould.[5]

The vase is painted with a floral chain at the shoulder, three bands of figurative decorations, and rays at the base.[6] The top band is 2 cm high, and painted with a scene of eighteen warriors engaged in combat.[7] Unlike on the Chigi vase, another work by the same artist, where two phalanxes are depicted, the Macmillan aryballos shows hoplites engaged in single combat.[8] It stretches all the way around the aryballos, and has no clear beginning or end.[7] Each warrior wears a crested helmet and greaves, carries a round shield (each of which is decorated with a different device), and is armed with one or two spears.[7] The army coming from the right-hand side is depicted as victorious; the soldiers coming from the left are defeated.[9]

The second band is 1 cm high and depicts a horse race, with six horses galloping from right to left. Beneath one of these horses there is a swan and a crouching figure, possibly an ape.[7] The third band is 4 mm high and is decorated with a hunting scene, in which a hunter and hounds chase a hare and a fox or jackal.[3]

Notes

  1. Also known as the Macmillan painter and the Ekphantos painter[2]

References

Works cited

  • Amyx, D. A. (1988a). Corinthian Vase Painting of the Archaic Period. Vol. 1. Berkeley: University of California Press.
  • Amyx, D. A. (1988b). Corinthian Vase Painting of the Archaic Period. Vol. 2. Berkeley: University of California Press.
  • "British Museum Collection Online: The Macmillan Aryballos". British Museum.
  • Salmon, John (1977). "Political Hoplites?". Journal of Hellenic Studies. 97. doi:10.2307/631024. JSTOR 631024.
  • Schwartz, Adam (2002). "Order or Disarray?". Classica et Mediaevalia. 53.
  • Smith, Cecil (1890). "A Protokorinthian Lekythos in the British Museum". Journal of Hellenic Studies. 11.
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