Ore foundry shell

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Inside of the shell

The ore foundry bowl is a drinking bowl decorated in the red-figure style by the Attic vase painter from the early 5th century BC, who was named after this bowl (" name vase ") with the emergency name " ore foundry painter " . The work shown on the outside in an Athenian bronze foundry is outstanding . The work thus provides an insight into the technology of ancient metalworking and the organization of such a workshop.

Even the interior image (" tondo ") of the bowl has a direct relationship with metal processing. The god of blacksmithing, Hephaestus , is shown handing armor and weapons to the goddess Thetis for her son Achilles , who is fighting in the Trojan War . Achilles will use this to avenge his friend Patroclus , who was killed during his break from the fight . This is not an unusual motif, as the Trojan saga was often depicted on Greek vases.

What is unusual, however, is the outside image. A bronze workshop is shown, in which several work steps in the production of different bronze statues can be seen. In the center of one side ( side A ) is a statue of a larger-than-life warrior within a wooden frame. He protects his body with a round shield, and with his right hand he has raised his lance to strike. The elevation of the helmet's cheek flaps is unusual; With this trick, the sculptor probably wanted to emphasize the face of the statue. The statue seems to be in the final stage, because two workers, one of whom is identified as a blacksmith by the characteristic leather cap, are busy smoothing the surface. On either side stands a man leaning on a staff. The two watch the workers at work. But it is not about other workers, perhaps the owners of the workshop, or random passers-by who were on their way to the palaestra . There they wanted to devote themselves to sporting activities, as can be seen from the hanging sports objects - an aryballos and a curry comb, with which the oil was removed from the body after exercise . There are also other tools hanging on the wall. In scientific discourse, the meaning of the two people has long been debated without reaching a final judgment. If the owner or owners had themselves represented, that would speak for increased social prestige and the urge to want to show this to the outside world. A craftsman needed the leisure to be able to indulge in the sport.

Exterior picture, side with the stove and the composition of the athlete's statue

A second statue is created on the opposite side ( side B ). She is evidently a competitor. In the center stands a provocatively casually posing naked young man who leans on a heavy hammer and watches other workers at their work. Unlike the rest of the workers, he appears a little taller and also quite athletic. This suggests that like the two dressed men he was not a simple wage worker. The headless statue is lying on a bed of sand, a bearded worker with a bare torso and a cloak tied around his waist is carefully striking one of the statue arms, which he is holding in his hand, with a hammer. The statue head lies at his feet. As you can see from the line between the statue's hand and arm, the two parts are not yet finally connected. To solder the parts, the soft solder, a low-melting alloy based on lead, antimony and tin, is evidently being heated in the high furnace shown on the left. Behind the furnace you can see a young man using the bellows to stoke the fire, in front of the furnace a worker is sitting on a stool and holding a rod in the tapping channel. Various objects hang on the wall behind the seated craftsman: hammers for metal and driving work, a saw and pinakes on which designs may have been drawn. Maybe they are lucky symbols or a combination of the two. Behind the other workers are models of hands and feet on the wall. The furnace was not used for bronze casting, this was done in a casting pit.

Workshops of this kind were found in the Kerameikos pottery district in Athens . It is therefore very likely that the ore foundry painter was able to reproduce the process from his own observations. However, some details such as the oven are not reproduced according to archaeological findings and thus show slight modifications of reality that are evidently due to the painting. At least some of the workers shown seem to come from the slave class. So the man sits in front of the stove in such a way that one can recognize his gender; in this form, which was considered improper, only satyrs and slaves were depicted. While representations from pottery workshops were repeatedly found on Attic vases, the representation on this vase is unique, which has also contributed to the popularity and importance of the bowl.

There are three favorite inscriptions on the bowl : O PAIS KALOS ( the boy is beautiful ) on the inside, A DIOGENES KALOS NAICHI ( Diogenes is also beautiful ) on the outside and B O PAIS KALOS NAICHI ( this boy is beautiful too ) on the outside . Apart from a few missing parts of the thetis figure on the inside, the bowl is in excellent condition. The late Archaic clay bowl is dated around 490/480 BC. Dated. It has a height of 12 centimeters and a diameter of 30.5 centimeters. Such bowls were originally intended for the symposium . However, this piece was exported to Etruria and found in Vulci in 1834 by the administrator of Campanari des Principe de Canino, Lucien Bonaparte .

In 1837 the ore foundry bowl was acquired by the Prussian ambassador in Rome , Christian Karl Josias von Bunsen , for the Berlin Collection of Antiquities (inventory number F 2294), where it is shown today in the permanent exhibition in the Altes Museum .

literature

Web links

Commons : Ore Foundry Shell  - Collection of Images

Coordinates: 52 ° 31 '10 "  N , 13 ° 23' 54"  E