 |
 |
CU Home > Libraries Home | About | Help |
|
|
Columbia Dissertations and Theses > Doctoral Dissertations
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Author(s): | Corrigan, Eileen H. |
| Title: | Lucanian tomb paintings excavated at Paestum, 1969-1972 : an iconographic study |
| Physical Description: | 3 v. (xx, 839 leaves) : ill. ; 29 cm. |
| Issue Date: | 1979 |
| LC Subjects: | Mural painting and decoration, Greco-Roman -- Italy -- Paestum. Tombs -- Italy -- Paestum. Basilicata (Italy) -- Antiquities. Paestum (Italy) -- Antiquities. |
| Description: | Thesis--Columbia University. |
| Bookmark as: | http://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:992 |
| Full Text (ProQuest): | /ac/proxit.jsp?url=http://gateway.proquest.com/ope... |
| Abstract: | Excavations by Prof. Mario Napoli at Paestum (ancient Lucania, southern Italy) in 1969, 1971 and 1972 brought to light some thirty-five tombs from cemeteries north of the city with paintings on the four interior walls. The ceramic tomb deposits indicated that the paintings were to be dated to the second half of the fourth century B.C. At that time, the Greek city of Poseidonia had been taken over by Lucanians, an indigenous Sabellian, Oscan-speaking people. The dress and armor of the figures in the tomb paintings established that the sepulchers had been prepared for Lucanians. The new paintings thus belonged in the corpus of so-called Oscan tomb painting known, largely from sporadic finds in Campania and Lucania, since the early nineteenth century. This study was undertaken with a view to determining what formal prototypes were employed in the Lucanian tomb paintings. There are no painted tombs known from the original, interior homeland of the Sabellians who must, therefore, have drawn upon the figural painting tradition of Greeks or Etruscans for their tomb decorations. Comparison of the Paestan motifs with Greek, Italiote (West Greek) and Etruscan compositions revealed that most represent adaptations of Greek or West Greek schemata, drawn primarily from the art of Apulian Taranto. Tarentine models would have been accessible given the presence in the Greek ceramic ateliers at Paestum of vase painters trained in Apulia or working under Apulian influence. While the Paestan tomb paintings showed indebtedness to a Greek formal vocabulary, the representations were found to have few parallels in Greek or West Greek sepulchral art, but many close analogues in Etruscan tombs. The most common Paestan themes concern funeral ritual (prothesis of women, funeral processions, mourners and offering bearers) and funeral games (boxing, wrestling, duels, horse and chariot races). All may be seen in earlier or contemporary Etruscan sepulchral art with the exception of gladiatorial duels. The theme of voyage to the underworld, implying belief in an afterlife, is found at Paestum and in Etruria but is not represented in Greek sepulchral art. This, along with a related demonology and the comparable funeral ritual, implies that the Lucanians held in common with the Etruscan certain attitudes to death and to the afterlife. The infrequent Paestan mythological themes of Nikai in chariots, sphinxes and gryphon combats probably derived from Apulia. Commemorative portrayals of the deceased, themes of mistress and maid, warriors and stag hunts, were found in both Greek and Apulian sepulchral art. The Paestan theme of return of the triumphant warrior, mounted and bearing spoils, met by a woman proffering libations, was based on a Greek hero relief format, but occurred elsewhere only in the Sabellian tomb paintings of Campania. This type of victorious warrior representation, taken with paintings of colossal panoplies, and the absence of men from prothesis scenes, strongly suggests that Lucanian warriors were heroized. All indications are against Orphic or Pythagorean cult at Paestum but the presence in the tomb paintings of grapes and kylikes, as well as the numerous Dionysiac scenes on Paestan pots, indicates the importance there of Dionysiac cult. Despite their demonstrable formal prototypes and sepulchral parallels the Paestan tomb paintings have a distinctive, original and by no means unattractive character. Their originality is nowhere more evident than in the unique painting of a battle scene set in a landscape which employs formal conventions presaging Roman usage. |
| Collection(s): | Doctoral Dissertations |
Copyright: All rights reserved.