In this video, Charis Tyndall presents a Greek red-figure plastic vase. The moulded body shows a tussle between an African man and a crocodile. The African is on his knees having been attacked by a crocodile which was once covered in a pistachio-green paint that only remains in a few minute patches, creating an impressive contrast to the lustrous black glaze that represents the African’s skin. The man’s body is contorted; his right arm is hooked around to grab his muscular waist as the crocodile’s jaws clench down on his biceps. Blood, in added red paint, oozes from the mouth of the crocodile and down the arm of the man. The African is wide-eyed and has a grimace over his face as he brawls with this fearsome creature. His short-cropped hair is in tight curls and decorated in a brown slip. Added white has been used for the eyes and the bright teeth.
Around the neck of the vessel is painted a playful Geronomachia; a battle between pygmies and stalks. The balding, bearded pygmies are nude and brandish nobbled clubs, their bellies swollen, their bodies muscular. On the left, one wields his club over his head with both hands, preparing to strike a blow upon a crane which is lifting its talonned foot towards the pygmy’s stomach in an attempt push him backwards. To the right of this duo is a pygmy lying on the ground, propping himself up with his right arm and brandishing a shield with his left to defend himself against the crane who is mid-attack, its wings raised. Behind this crane a further pygmy jumps to his companion’s aid, brandishing a club in his right hand, a chlamys draped over his left forearm, as he prepares to strike the crane from behind. Beneath the scene is a border of meanders, underneath which are scrolling tendrils and palmettes.
The body is made from a two part mould, the hollow foot formed separately, the neck created on the potters wheel. Intact.
The term 'plastic vase' derives from the Greek verb 'plassein' meaning ‘to mould’. Moulded vases like the present example have been found in temple deposits and tombs and are not thought to have been used in every day life. Though they were created in Athens they have been found in Etruria, Sudan, Persia and Sicily, and evidently were highly valued objects that were traded around the Greek world. The technique used for creating plastic vases meant that it was easy to make multiples, and to vary the decoration of the red-figured scenes. The moulded section of this vase has 12 other known examples, all with difference red-figure decoration.
The Geronomachia was a popular theme in antiquity and was considered a rather jovial subject matter. It was less politically charged than other mythical battle scenes which often symbolise the defeat of the civilised world over the barbaric; East over West.
Sotades is considered to be the first person to represent the crocodile in Greek art. It was considered a wild and exotic animal, and was representative of Nilotic scenery; the same backdrop in which the Geronomachia is often shown to take place. John Boardman wrote on Sotades, and called him an artist of great delicacy and imagination. He owned his own workshop, and even in antiquity was considered to produce some of the finest wares around. His renown was so great that they copied his rhyta in Southern Italy for a century after their initial production. Almost all of the wares produced at the workshop relate to ritualistic drinking and libation pouring. Discussions on Sotadean vases has been widely published, and there are several compendiums of his work. The greatest of these was conducted by Beazley who has attributed over 70 works to his name.
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