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Lot Essay
Sotades, to whom this statuette-vase is attributed, was a potter of great “imagination and delicacy” (see J. Boardman, Athenian Red Figure Vases, The Classical Period, p. 39). His oeuvre is considered “one of the most remarkable in ancient Greek ceramics” (see D. Williams, “Sotades: Plastic and White,” in S. Keay and S. Moser, eds, Greek Art in View, Essays in honour of Brian Sparkes, 2004). His signature “Sotades Epoiesen” or variations thereof is found on at least nine vases, including three cups, a kantharos, two phialai, and three statuette-vases (six known to Beazley, see Attic Red-figure Vase-painters, pp. 772-773, and for the recent addition, see Williams, op. cit., p. 298). His inventiveness as a potter is evinced not only by his experimentation with special techniques, such as white-ground and coral-red, but also in the production of figural vases. A number of types are known, including a camel with a Persian driver, a pygmy dragging a dead crane, a seated sphinx, an Amazon on horseback, and, as here, an African man in the clutches of a crocodile. Such vases were mold-made, typically in a two part mold, and joined to a wheel-made conical bowl resembling a rhyton, open to the interior and painted in red-figure, all on a hollow, straight-sided plinth. Of his statuette-vases, in some cases multiple examples have survived, each made from the same mold. These were probably not made for daily use, and most have been found far from Athens, either in temple deposits or tombs. Known find-spots include Etruria, southern Italy and Sicily, the Black Sea, Persia and Sudan.
A dozen statuette-vases in the form of an African man and a crocodile are known, some of which are fragmentary, all made from the same mold. The nude figure crouches down on one knee while the crocodile rears upwards, its forelegs gripping his body, holding the figure’s right forearm in its jaws. The crocodile’s tail coils into a loop, serving as the vessel handle. Exceptionally shiny black-glaze was used for his skin, while his mouth and the sclerae of his eyes are in added white, the oculi with black and reserved rings and black pupils. His eyes are outlined in brown; the same color was applied over his hair. Added white fills the space between his legs and the crocodile, and may once have been further painted with Nilotic flora. Here the crocodile’s body is reserved, but other examples have traces of pistachio green on the body with some details painted in black. The edges of the plinth are black glazed. (see B. Cohen, The Colors of Clay, Special Techniques in Athenian Vases, p. 282-283).
It is worth noting that Sotades’ depiction of a crocodile is considered the earliest in all of Greek art. As for the interpretation of the scene, there is unfortunately no mythological context for the encounter. Earlier writers (e.g., Beazley, op. cit., p. 764) have described the figure as an African boy, grimacing in pain, “the unheroic image of the barbarian (i.e. foreign) Other, displaying his helplessness in the face of a gruesome death” (see Cohen, op. cit., p. 283). However, Williams (op. cit., pp. 102-103) identifies the figure not as a youth but rather, an accurate representation of an African pygmy and notes that although the figures often preserve extensive added colors, none have any indication of blood issuing from the crocodile’s bite, thus the scene may be “a daring dance routine with partially tamed crocodiles during festivities connected with the Nilotic inundations.”
Most of the red-figured scenes on Sotades’ figural vases have been attributed to the Sotades Painter, or to his manner, and it may be that the Sotades Painter and Sotades the potter were the same individual. Per Robertson (The Art of Vase-painting in Classical Athens, p. 186), the work of the Sotades Painter “is as fine and as strikingly individual” as that of Sotades the potter. On the bowl of the statuette-vase presented here, in red-figure, is the Geronomachia, the mythical battle between the pygmies and the cranes. The subject was treated at least two other times by the Sotades Painter, once on the rim of a boar’s head rhyton in Compiegne, once on the rim of rhyton of joined half-heads of a boar and a ram, now lost (Beazley, op. cit., p. 767, nos. 16 and 19). On all of the Sotades Painter’s Geronomachias, the pygmies are depicted as achondroplastic dwarfs with large genitalia. On one side of the present vase, one of the pygmies has his genitalia tied in a kynodesme, a device used for infibulation, which is usually reserved for athletes and performers. Here the bearded and balding pygmy approaches a crane with his club raised in both hands behind his head, ready to strike the crane before him, wings raised, standing on one foot, the other reaching out towards its foe. On the other side, a fallen pygmy cowers beneath his circular shield, while the crane before him pushes down on it with one foot. His companion comes to his rescue from the right, a club in his raised left hand, a chlamys draped over his right. A band of meander serves as the ground-line, and there are elegant palmettes and tendrils on either side below.
A dozen statuette-vases in the form of an African man and a crocodile are known, some of which are fragmentary, all made from the same mold. The nude figure crouches down on one knee while the crocodile rears upwards, its forelegs gripping his body, holding the figure’s right forearm in its jaws. The crocodile’s tail coils into a loop, serving as the vessel handle. Exceptionally shiny black-glaze was used for his skin, while his mouth and the sclerae of his eyes are in added white, the oculi with black and reserved rings and black pupils. His eyes are outlined in brown; the same color was applied over his hair. Added white fills the space between his legs and the crocodile, and may once have been further painted with Nilotic flora. Here the crocodile’s body is reserved, but other examples have traces of pistachio green on the body with some details painted in black. The edges of the plinth are black glazed. (see B. Cohen, The Colors of Clay, Special Techniques in Athenian Vases, p. 282-283).
It is worth noting that Sotades’ depiction of a crocodile is considered the earliest in all of Greek art. As for the interpretation of the scene, there is unfortunately no mythological context for the encounter. Earlier writers (e.g., Beazley, op. cit., p. 764) have described the figure as an African boy, grimacing in pain, “the unheroic image of the barbarian (i.e. foreign) Other, displaying his helplessness in the face of a gruesome death” (see Cohen, op. cit., p. 283). However, Williams (op. cit., pp. 102-103) identifies the figure not as a youth but rather, an accurate representation of an African pygmy and notes that although the figures often preserve extensive added colors, none have any indication of blood issuing from the crocodile’s bite, thus the scene may be “a daring dance routine with partially tamed crocodiles during festivities connected with the Nilotic inundations.”
Most of the red-figured scenes on Sotades’ figural vases have been attributed to the Sotades Painter, or to his manner, and it may be that the Sotades Painter and Sotades the potter were the same individual. Per Robertson (The Art of Vase-painting in Classical Athens, p. 186), the work of the Sotades Painter “is as fine and as strikingly individual” as that of Sotades the potter. On the bowl of the statuette-vase presented here, in red-figure, is the Geronomachia, the mythical battle between the pygmies and the cranes. The subject was treated at least two other times by the Sotades Painter, once on the rim of a boar’s head rhyton in Compiegne, once on the rim of rhyton of joined half-heads of a boar and a ram, now lost (Beazley, op. cit., p. 767, nos. 16 and 19). On all of the Sotades Painter’s Geronomachias, the pygmies are depicted as achondroplastic dwarfs with large genitalia. On one side of the present vase, one of the pygmies has his genitalia tied in a kynodesme, a device used for infibulation, which is usually reserved for athletes and performers. Here the bearded and balding pygmy approaches a crane with his club raised in both hands behind his head, ready to strike the crane before him, wings raised, standing on one foot, the other reaching out towards its foe. On the other side, a fallen pygmy cowers beneath his circular shield, while the crane before him pushes down on it with one foot. His companion comes to his rescue from the right, a club in his raised left hand, a chlamys draped over his right. A band of meander serves as the ground-line, and there are elegant palmettes and tendrils on either side below.