Clazomenic sarcophagi
Clazomenic sarcophagi are a form of ancient Greek clay sarcophagi .
Clazomenic sarcophagi were named after the Ionian- Greek city of Klazomenai , where, apart from Smyrna , most of these sarcophagi were found. A small number were found in Rhodes , Samos and Lesbos and in Ephesus . Presumably the sarcophagi were produced in Klazomenai. They are from 550 ( late archaic ) to 470 BC. BC ( early classical period ). They consist of coarse clay in shades of brown to pink. On the sarcophagus there is a wide, rectangular frame that has been provided with a whitish coating and painted.
The large clay sarcophagi were made and burned in one piece. The workshops were probably located near the necropolis . The kilns were apparently built around the blanks that were fired on the spot. Due to the long production time, it cannot be assumed that the sarcophagi were commissioned after the death of the person to be buried, but that they were either acquired during his lifetime or produced for stock. The 350 kilogram coffins then only had to be brought a short distance to the deceased's resting place. This was carried there in the funeral procession the day after his death and placed in the sarcophagus, which was already sunk into the floor except for the edge that protruded from the floor. Therefore, the tubs are painted with a decorative strip at most. Then the sarcophagi were covered with a stone slab. A mound of earth was piled up after the ceremony.
In the first, about 20 years, the sarcophagi were only decorated with ornaments . Then they also show figurative representations in the head and foot area. They are based on Attic vase painting. In the head rails, which are higher than the baseboards, hunting, fighting and competition scenes were mostly executed in black-figure style . A small part was executed in the Attic red-figure style . Details were not scratched, as in the black-figure technique of Corinth and Athens, but painted on with white paint. Remnants of these interior drawings are seldom preserved, which is why the pictures look like silhouettes. The images often refer to the imaginations and ideals of the local upper class. The baseboards were mostly shown in outline drawings of animals fighting. They are based on the late animal frieze style. Often found ornaments on the sidebars are palmettes and cable patterns. One of the earliest recognizable painters is the Borelli painter . Also recognized was a painter who was named with the emergency name Albertinum painter , and the late Hopkinson painter .
In museums today you can usually only find the frames of the sarcophagi, from which the tubs were knocked off after they were found in order to facilitate transport. One specimen weighed up to 400 kilograms. In addition, only the painted parts were valued.
literature
- John Boardman : Early Greek Vase Painting. 11th - 6th Centuries BC. A handbook. Thames and Hudson, London 1998, ISBN 0-500-20309-1 , p. 149.
- Robert Manuel Cook : Clazomenian Sarcophagi (= research on ancient ceramics . Row 2: Kerameus. Vol. 3). van Zabern, Mainz 1981, ISBN 3-8053-0388-2 (standard work, with catalog of all known pieces).
- Florian Knauß : The art of antiquity. Masterpieces from the Munich antique collections CH Beck, Munich 2017, ISBN 978-3-406-71175-6 , pp. 162–165.
- Thomas Mannack : Greek vase painting. An introduction. Theiss, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-8062-1743-2 , p. 135.
