The hydria is one of the oldest, most elegant and most common shapes of ancient Greek vessel. Figure-decorated examples survive in several Late Geometric fabrics and in seventh-century Protoattic, and by the sixth century they are produced in Corinth, Laconia, East Greece and the West. Associated with the carrying and pouring of water, as suggested by the ancient name and the positioning of the handles (two horizontal ones on the sides for lifting, one vertical one at the back for pouring), the shape served multiple roles in antiquity. Some vessels functioned as containers for storage, others were used in mortuary practices. The shoulder-hydria with its wide body and offset neck often displayed black-figure decoration, while the single-bodied kalpis with its continuous curved profile was introduced in the late sixth century not long after the invention of red-figure.
The issue of Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum (CVA) reviewed here is the 19th volume from Munich, Antikensammlung, and the 101st of German collections. It has the now standard presentation of text separated from drawings and plates in a single bound volume, with a few extra illustrations embedded in the text. The author is an authority on Athenian black-figure vases and has experience working both with museum-quality pieces and excavation pottery. Her careful eye and attention to detail throughout is thus not surprising, and authors of future CVA volumes should be held to the same high standard. Although the focus is a single-shape category, technique and location, the introduction summarises the history of the collection, gives a brief overview and key bibliography on the form and decoration, and mentions the trademarks visible on some vases. A general introduction to the Attic black-figure hydria in advance of the catalogue proper contains up-to-date bibliography on shape, material and function, and information about archaeological contexts, artists and iconography. With few exceptions, these objects were discovered in Vulci, once belonged to the Candelori collection and were published in 1854 by Otto Jahn in Beschreibung der Vasensammlung König Ludwigs in der Pinakothek zu München. Sir John Beazley studied many of them, and his attributions, along with alternatives, are specified where applicable. In addition to providing the numbers from Beazley's lists, the Beazley Archive Pottery Database (BAPD) numbers for the Munich hydriai and for comparanda are given. Unpublished fragments, such as those newly attributed to the Antimenes Painter's workshop, have also been incorporated.
The vases are organised according to artistic personalities or groups, some better known to non-specialists than others. Beginning with Lydos (mid-sixth century), the corpus includes the Lysippides, Antimenes, Priam and Rycroft painters, and expectedly the Leagros Group, a major producer of the shape during the late sixth century. One is reminded of the still relevant place of potters, painters and workshops, and the helpful framework they provide in the chronological and stylistic classification of Athenian vases, whether housed in established collections or freshly excavated from the Agora. A publication such as this reinforces the idea that some, if not all, potters’ workshops must have specialised in shape production, while coordinating their efforts with those involved in the figural decoration. With such thinking in mind, K. begins each section with background on the major group of artists, complete with previous bibliography, dates, iconographic themes, conventions and affiliates. This is not a feature common to all CVA’s, yet it places the works under discussion within the broader history of Greek vase-painting and also emphasises the somewhat fragmented nature of our information when it comes down to the details of attribution.
The array of iconographic subjects represented on black-figure hydriai, here and in general, may seem surprising. Scenes of women collecting water at a fountain-house are visible on the body of several vases. Although all contain a range of architectural details, as well as evidence of the way in which the hydria was handled and carried, no two versions among this group are alike. A woman or pair of women approach the running fountain; or one is already filling her hydria, while the other balances the vessel on her head. Male figures, on horseback or on foot, are at times involved, and on one example attributed to the Leagros Group some canonical elements have been combined with enough variants to suggest a representation of Achilles and Troilos (pp. 123–4, pls 50.5.6, 53.2). On a kalpis attributed to the early fifth-century Eucharides Painter the everyday occurrence of retrieving water takes either a playful or dark turn when a bearded male reaches for a resistant woman already filling her hydria, as her friend fends off the man's dog who bites at her cloak (pp. 131–2, pl. 60). Other subjects chosen for decoration include gods and goddesses engaged in various activities (e.g. processions, weddings), Herakles’ exploits (including two versions of his acrobatic struggle with Antaios), Trojan narratives, departures, battles, charioteers, Dionysian revelry, music and komos. One of the most expressive images appears on a late sixth-century vessel where Herakles, with Athena nearby, dips his kantharos into the wine-jar of Pholos (lid in hand), and two more centaurs approach obliviously, not yet driven mad by the alcohol's aroma (pp. 140–2, pl. 68.2).
Shoulder-hydriai are figure-decorated both on the body and on the shoulder and, depending on the date and the painter, they may also have a miniaturised subsidiary frieze of animals, a hunt (pls 12.1, 13.2), or Herakles fighting the lion (pls 12.3, 14.2). The high-quality of the colour images provided, whole vessels, details and fragments, encourages readers to do what the restrictive format of the CVA does not allow its author – namely, to consider the corpus of black-figure hydriai, both those presented here and others for comparison, with regard to their explicit frontality, their juxtaposition of fluid and moving components, their use of overlap and their potential visual unity (when read vertically). When, on the body of the vessel, the helmet of Athena, either worn on the head or held in the hand, overlaps with figures in the smaller scene on the shoulder (or the helmet of a warrior, a woman's hydria etc.), it is difficult to believe that this is a matter of poor planning or sheer incompetence on the part of the painter. These are deliberate choices that encourage viewers to relate the different parts, on the one hand, and that animate the figures as they burst out of their frame, on the other. Thematic unity is clearly intended when the Antimenes Painter features on the body of his vase Apollo and Herakles struggling for the Delphic tripod, cheered on by Artemis and Athena, respectively, while on the shoulder a mortal duel between armed warriors takes place also in the presence of onlookers (pp. 33–5, pls 8.1–2). To make the connection between the decorated zones even more explicit, the painter has overlapped the attributes of each of the four figures on the body (e.g. Artemis’ bow, Herakles’ club) with the feet and legs of the two males embroiled in battle directly above their heads. Even more emphatic is the Ilioupersis hydria on which a mourning female (Andromache?) on the shoulder reaches down into the main scene with arms extended to touch the helmet of Neoptolemos as he hurls Astyanax from the walls of Troy (pp. 82–7, pls 36.1–2).
This volume is well produced, well researched and meticulous to a fault. Appendices guide readers concerned with the finer technical details, the size and volume of whole vessels, iconography, inscriptions or artists. Profile drawings will assist those with a special interest in the shape. With the tremendous effort and expense involved in producing a volume such as this, it seems inevitable going forward that the CVA as a concept will soon find its digital form and ideally one that employs Linked Open Data.
