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D'acunto ( M. ) Il mondo del vaso Chigi. Pittura, guerra e società a Corinto alla metà del VII secolo a.C . (Image and Context 12.) Pp. xlii + 273, ills, colour pls. Berlin and Boston : De Gruyter , 2013. Cased, [euro]99.95, US$140. ISBN: 978-3-11-031409-0 .
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This volume is dedicated to a detailed examination of the iconographic programme behind the decoration of the Late Protocorinthian olpe, now in the Villa Giulia in Rome, its possible reflection of Bacchiad society and its discovery in Etruria. The book is an expansion of a paper published in E. Mugione (ed.), L'Olpe Chigi. Storia di un agalma (Atti del convengo di Fisciano, Università di Salerno, 3-4 giugno 2010), 2012.
Its basic thesis is that a consistent programme explains and links, horizontally and vertically, the three friezes that decorate the vase. In this, D'A. follows others but goes beyond them in seeking a more comprehensive understanding of the unifying themes. For him the programme is a true symbol of Corinthian elitist power.
He begins with its discovery in a princely tumulus in Monte Aguzzo, Veii, concluding that it must have been deposited no later than the beginning of the sixth century and possibly earlier. A detailed discussion of the painter's works follows, most prominently, the aryballoi in London and Berlin, and fragments from Aegina, Bonn and Erythrai, within a floruit of c. 670-630, the olpe forming the latest work, c. 650-640 b.c.
Most of the book is dedicated to the iconographic programme of the three friezes. Reading these scenes as reflections of Corinthian social structure, D'A. identifies the lowest fox-hare hunt as ephebes in training (paideia); in the overlying lion hunt and associated procession, two of three classes of adult Corinthian society, the hippeis and chariot owner, who are engaged in the lion hunt; at top, the third class, hoplites, engaged in combat.
D'A. addresses many issues within this framework. Both the lion hunt and hoplite combat become symbols...