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The sixth century B.C. in Athens is the classic
moment in ancient Greek vase painting; this composition was executed about
560 B.C. by Lydos, a major figure in Athenian painting,
in black paint on the natural red of the plate itself. Details were scratched
through the black with a needle, and other colors were added on top.
Lydos shows us here the Greek king Menelaos forcibly bringing Helen, his
unfaithful wife, back to Greece after the Trojan War. Menelaos, in sword
and armor, climbs up the side of the plate, grasping the hem of Helen's
robe, while she stands quietly, dignified and calm, and her servant waits
modestly to the right. At the bottom, the king's dog-a favorite animal in
Lydos's work-sniffs curiously at Helen, perhaps anticipating the couple's
reconciliation and future happy years together. Much of the composition
of the plate is based on an amphora in the Staatliche Museen, Berlin.
In sixth century B.C. Greece, painting on vases was
one of the most important ways in which problems of representation and narrative
were worked out. This process is apparent in Lydos's lively scene, with
each character given its own distinctive personality. The story of the Trojan
War itself is told in Homer's Iliad, the touchstone for ancient Greek
and Roman epic poetry and one of the great sources for writers and painters
for the last three thousand years. |
Attributed to LYDOS
Greek, active ca. 560-540 B.C.
The Recovery of Helen by Menelaos
Tondo from a black-figure plate. Diameter: 5 7/8 in. (14.9 cm)
Gift of the Class of 1930; The Frank and Rosa Rhodes Collection. 95.47
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