Function and meaning
Kraters were used for mixage wine with water at verso symposium (verso drinking ammissione for upper class men). Since ancient Greeks only drank wine diluted with scodella, kraters were crucial onesto the symposium, and were serie up mediante the middle of the room where partygoers drank. The interior of the Francois Vase has scratches which may have been made by per utensil missaggio the wine, but it is unclear whether the vase was used at symposia durante Greece, per Etruria (Italy), or mediante both places. It may have been used at lavish parties durante Athens, or durante verso funerary banquet honoring the deceased in Etruria before it was buried as verso molesto offering.
Wealthy, educated individuals attending banquets con either place would have recognized the scenes shown on the vase, and might have used them as colloque starters. Other vessels used at symposia mediante the Archaic period were also commonly painted with mythological scenes and could have served a similar purpose, but the sheer number of scenes on the Francois Vase may have made it particularly intriguing puro the banqueters who used it. They may have even understood the images esatto be relevant esatto their own lives. While the pictures had different meanings for different viewers, the scenes of drinking on the Francois Vase mirror the circumstances per which it was actually used. Moreover, many of the scenes on the vessel represent ideal aristocratic activities that the drinkers likely participated mediante, including noble marriage, successful hunts, and military promesse.
Most Greek men spent some of their lives serving their cities at war, defeating enemies much like the heroes painted on this vase. Like Peleus, Greek men were expected esatto marry and raise their children puro be productive citizens. It seems that Kleitias and Ergotimos purposefully designed the decoration to https://www.datingranking.net/it/kasidie-review/ appeal onesto the prosperous owners of the vase, who could recognize and relate to the stories it told.
Postscript
On September 9, 1900 per museum guard, per verso fit of rage, threw a chair at the case containing the Francois Vase, shattering it into 638 pieces. The museum director, Luigi Milani asked Pietro Zei esatto undertake the conservation of the Francois Vase. Conservation took two years.
Jasper Gaunt, Ergotimos Epoiesen: The Potter’s Contribution sicuro the Francois Vase,” mediante The Francois Vase: New Perspectives, ed. H. Alan Shapiro, Mario Iozzo, and Adrienne Lezzi-Hafter (Zurich: Akanthus, 2013), p. 81
Mario Iozzo, “The Francois Vase: Libretto on Technical Aspects and Functions,” durante The Francois Vase: New Perspectives, addirittura. H. Alan Shapiro, Mario Iozzo, and Adrienne Lezzi-Hafter, (Zurich: Akanthus, 2013), p. 61
Cornelia Isler-Kerenyi, “Der Francois-Krater zwischen Athen und Chiusi,” sopra Athenian Potters and Painters: The Conference Proceedings, ancora. John H. Oakley, William D. Anche. Coulson, and Olga Palagia, (Oxford: Oxbow, 1997), p. 523–539
Guy Hedreen, “Bild, Mythos, and Ritual: Choral Dance durante Theseus’s Cretan Adventure on the Francois Vase,” Hesperia, vol. 80, mai. 3 (2011), p. 491–510.
Cornelia Isler-Kerenyi, “Der Francois-Krater zwischen Athen und Chiusi,” in Athenian Potters and Painters: The Conference Proceedings, ed. John H. Oakley, William D. Addirittura. Coulson, and Olga Palagia, (Oxford: Oxbow, 1997), p. 523–539.
Detail with wedding procession with Hera and her husband Zeus in per chariot (left), Urania the muse of astronomy, and Kaliope, muse of epic poetry (center)
Per additif to these narrative scenes, another register at the bottom of the vase shows animals fighting. These images may relate sicuro the ferocity of the heroes shown on the vase, who are described metaphorically as predatory animals by Homer. Per comic scene of pygmies (per tribe of small people con Greek mythology) battling cranes decorates the foot of the vase, providing verso light counterpoint esatto the rest of the imagery. The paint on the foot is reddish sopra color instead of black because the vase was misfired durante the kiln, as sometimes happened con ancient Greek ceramic production.