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WHAT CAN ART TELL US ABOUT
AFRICANS IN ANCIENT GREECE?
PPT by Aixa B. Rodriguez
ESL/Visual Arts
High 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
Knowledge
Most 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,
Cyprus
Chlorite 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, Attic
Signed by Nearchos as potter
Terracotta
H. 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
Trade
The 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 I
Cypriot
Terracotta 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-figure
Attributed to an artist near Exekias
Greek
Terracotta
H. 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-
figure
Attributed to the Diosphos Painter
Greek
Terracotta
Fletcher 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-figure
Greek, South Italian, Apulian
Attributed to the Group of Boston 00.348
Terracotta 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.
Greek
Bronze 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.
Cypriot
Terracotta 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.