WHAT CAN ART TELL US ABOUT AFRICANS IN ANCIENT GREECE?

PPT by Aixa B. RodriguezESL/Visual ArtsHigh School of World Cultures Bronx NY

Based on: Hemingway, Sean, and Colette Hemingway. "Africans in Ancient Greek Art". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/afrg/hd_afrg.htm (January 2008)

Narrow Understanding All black Africans were known as

Ethiopians to the ancient Greeks, as the fifth-century B.C. historian Herodotus tells us.

Iconography was narrowly defined by Greek artists in the Archaic (ca. 700–480 B.C.) and Classical (ca. 480–323 B.C.) periods, black skin color being the

primary identifying physical characteristic. High quality fine art depictions of Africans appear in the Hellenistic

period. (ca. 323–31 B.C.),

Lack of Geographical KnowledgeMost ancient Greeks had only a vague understanding of African geography.

They believed that the land of the Ethiopians was located south of Egypt.

Clues in Literature Tales of Ethiopia as a

mythical land at the farthest edges of the earth are recorded in some of the earliest Greek literature of the eighth century B.C., including the epic poems of Homer.

Greek gods and heroes, like Menelaos, were believed to have visited this place on the fringes of the known world.

Pendant in the form of the head of an African (known as Ethiopian), 9th–8th century b.c.Cypriot; Said to be from Amathus, CyprusChlorite The Cesnola Collection, Purchased by subscription, 1874–76 (74.51.5010)

Clues in Mythology In Greek mythology,

the pygmies were the African race that lived furthest south on the fringes of the known world, where they engaged in mythic battles with cranes. Aryballos, ca. 570 b.c.; black-figure

Greek, AtticSigned by Nearchos as potterTerracottaH. 3 1/16 in. (7.77 cm)Purchase, The Cesnola Collection, by exchange, 1926 (26.49)

Pygmy fighting a crane. Attic red-figure chous (oinochoe, type 3), 430–420 BC. National Archaeological Museum of Spain

Drama: Plays, Masks Ethiopians were featured

in the tragic plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides; and preserved comic masks, as well as a number of vase paintings from this period, indicate that Ethiopians were also often cast in Greek comedies.

Theater mask representing an African slave. Terracotta, made in Sicily, ca. 350 BC. British Museum

Trade Connections However, long

before Homer, the seafaring civilization of Bronze Age Crete, known today as Minoan, established trade connections with Egypt.

Bare head of African male on coin ARKADIA, Circa 370-360 BC.

Civilization Collapse- End of TradeThe collapse of the Minoan and Mycenaean palaces at the end of the Late Bronze Age, severs trade connections with Egypt and the Near East .

Greece entered a period of impoverishment and limited contact.

Trade and Settlements/Renewed Contact

During the eighth and seventh centuries B.C., the Greeks renewed contacts with the northern periphery of Africa.

They established settlements and trading posts along the Nile River and at Cyrene on the northern coast of Africa.

Already at Naukratis, the earliest and most important of the trading posts in Africa, Greeks were certainly in contact with Africans.

Jug, ca. 750–600 b.c.; Cypro-Archaic ICypriotTerracotta H. 7 1/2 in. (19.1 cm)The Cesnola Collection, Purchased by subscription, 1874–76 (74.51.532)

The Minoans may have first come into contact with Africans at Thebes, during the periodic bearing of tribute to the pharaoh.

In fact, paintings in the tomb of Rekhmire, dated to the fourteenth century B.C., depict African and Aegean peoples, most likely Nubians and Minoans.

Tomb Paintings

Depictions in Fine Art Large-scale portraits of

Ethiopians made by Greek artists appear for the first time in the Hellenistic period. (ca. 323–31 B.C.),

High-quality works, such as images on gold jewelry and fine bronze statuettes, are tangible evidence of the integration of Africans into various levels of Greek society.

Vase Painting Ethiopians were considered

exotic to the ancient Greeks and their features contrasted markedly with the Greeks' own well-established perception of themselves.

The black glaze central to Athenian vase painting was ideally suited for representing black skin, a consistent feature used to describe Ethiopians in ancient Greek literature as well.

Neck-amphora (jar), ca. 530 b.c.; Attic, black-figureAttributed to an artist near ExekiasGreekTerracottaH. 15 7/8 in. (40.3 cm)Gift of F. W. Rhinelander, 1898 (98.8.13)

Pottery One piece shows an

Ethiopian being attacked by a crocodile, most likely an allusion to Egypt and the Nile River.

Mercenaries Serving Egypt/Military Connection

It is likely that images of Africans, if not Africans themselves, began to reappear in the Aegean.

In the seventh and early sixth centuries B.C., Greek mercenaries from Ionia and Caria served under the Egyptian pharaohs Psametikus I and II.Neck-amphora (jar), ca. 500 b.c.; Attic,

black-figureAttributed to the Diosphos PainterGreekTerracottaFletcher Fund, 1956 (56.171.25)

Military Exposure It is recorded that

Ethiopians were among King Xerxes' troops when Persia invaded Greece in 480 B.C. Thus, the Greeks would have come into contact with large numbers of Africans at this time.

Attic white-ground alabastron, 480-470 BC. From Athens. Louvre, Ethiopian warrior.

Depictions in Real Life? Well into the fourth century B.C.,

Ethiopians were regularly featured in Greek vase painting, especially on the highly decorative red-figure vases produced by the Greek colonies in southern Italy (50.11.4).

Depictions of Ethiopians in scenes of everyday life are rare at this time, although one tomb painting from a Greek cemetery near Paestum in southern Italy shows an Ethiopian and a Greek in a boxing competition.

Column-krater with artist painting a marble statue of Herakles, ca. 350–320 b.c.; Red-figureGreek, South Italian, ApulianAttributed to the Group of Boston 00.348Terracotta H. 20 1/4 in. (51.51 cm)Rogers Fund, 1950 (50.11.4)

Urban Life With the establishment of the

Ptolemaic dynasty and Macedonian rule in Egypt, after the death of Alexander the Great in 323 B.C., came an increased knowledge of Nubia (in modern Sudan), the neighboring kingdom along the lower Nile ruled by kings who resided in the capital cities of Napata and later Meroe.

Cosmopolitan metropolises, including Alexandria in the Nile Delta, became centers where significant Greek and African populations lived together. Ethiopian's head and female head, with a kalos inscription. Attic janiform red-figure aryballos, ca. 520–510 BC. From Greece. Louvre Museum

A Large Minority ? During the Hellenistic period

(ca. 323–31 B.C.), the repertoire of African imagery in Greek art expanded greatly.

While scenes related to Ethiopians in mythology became less common, many more types occurred that suggest they constituted a large minority .Statuette of an African (known as Ethiopian), 3rd–2nd century b.c.GreekBronze H. 7 1/5 in. (18.29 cm)Rogers Fund, 1918 (18.145.10)

Occupations Held by Africans

Depictions of Ethiopians as athletes and entertainers are suggestive of some of the occupations they held.

The Slavery Question Africans also served as

slaves in ancient Greece (74.51.2263), together with both Greeks and other non-Greek peoples who were enslaved during wartime and through piracy.

Vase in the form of a sleeping African (known as Ethiopian) boy, 3rd–2nd century b.c.CypriotTerracotta H. 8 3/16 in. (20.8 cm)The Cesnola Collection, Purchased by subscription, 1874–76 (74.51.2263)

Black youth with hands bound behind his back. Found in the Fayum, near Memphis, Egypt, bronze, 2nd–1st century BC. Louvre Museum

•Scholars continue to debate whether or not the ancient Greeks viewed black Africans with racial prejudice.