Works of Art
Apulian Red-Figure Fish Plate
Period: End of 4th century, (ca. 350-320 B.C.)
Culture: Classical, Greek World
Category: Array
Dimensions: Diameter: 18.7 cm; Height: 4.4cm
Price: SOLD
Provenance: Ex-European private collection.
Condition: The plate is almost wholly intact. The pinkish-beige terracotta is covered in a fine, uniform layer of “miltos”. There are abundant traces of wheel marks on the surface of the plate. The almost shiny black paint is extremely well preserved.
Description
This so-called “Fish Plate” is truly a magnificent example of this type of terracotta dish. Indeed, it is virtually intact, with marine wildlife representations and decorations of the highest quality. The pinkish-beige terracotta is covered in a fine, uniform layer of “miltos”, and the uniform black paint is extremely well preserved. The anatomical details of the animals are emphasized in white, yellow-gold, and/or a light brown.The shape, simple and elegant, is composed of two elements that were made separately and joined before the plate was fired.
a) a circular and slightly concave plate, with a hollow center and a high vertical side, that then tapers toward the exterior
b) a ring shaped foot and base, hollowed at the bottom
The subject of the decoration focuses on marine life: seven sea animals, of different sizes, are represented on the plate, while an unbroken frieze of waves is painted in black along the edge. The lower part and the side of the foot are decorated with bands, inside the “omphalos”, there is a flower with the center painted in white and with little white points on the petals.
Today, we know of more than a thousand fish plates (many are fragmented). Although these had already appeared in the 5th century as part of the Attic school, the majority of them (around eight hundred examples) were made in the Italian colonies(around Apulia and Campania) and are dated to the following century. Despite the stylization, the animals are always rendered with a great deal of care, to the point that the different species of sea animals can easily be identified. The most common animal depicted is the fish, but there are also crustaceans (crabs, and shrimps of different sizes), stingrays, mollusks (for example, scallops), and invertebrates (starfish, etc.).
This is a remarkable piece, which has parallels that have already been published in the monographs that I. McPHee and A.D. Trendall dedicated to this class of plates: they attributed these plates to one of the first artists who worked on this style, the painter Binningen, who made seven other plates of this type (the artist took the name of the place where a collection of four plates was found). The two scholars emphasize that his artwork was characterized by high artistic quality and technique and compared his figures to the sea animals that the Darius painter (one of two renowned artists of the red-figure Italics) had often represented on his vases(the animals formed a border between two mythological scenes). The work of Binningen is dated to the middle years of the 4th century B.C. or immediately after that.
Ali Aboutaam, Hicham Aboutaam
Bibliography
Published:
- Mc PHEE I.- A.D. TRENDALL, Greek Red-Figured Fish Plates, AntK. Beih. 17, 1987, pg. 120-121, n. 39, pl. C,2.
Parallels:
About Fish Plates in general:
- I.Mc PHEE – A.D. TRENDALL, Greek Red-Figured Fish-Plates, AntK. Beih. 17, 1987, p. 120-121, pl 45a-c.
- KUNISCH N., Griechische Fischteller: Natur und Bild, 1989.
- ZINDEL C., Meeresleben und Jenseitsfahrt: die Fischteller der Sammlung F. Gottet,
- 1998.
Some representations of fish painted by the Darius painter:
- MORET J. –M., L’Iliupersis in Italiot Ceramics, 1975, pl. 94.
- ROCCO A., in Archeologia Classica, 5, 1953, pl. 81-82
- SCHAUENBURG K., in RM 88, 1981, pl. 23, 27.