Occupational Medicine 2013;63:87–88
doi:10.1093/occmed/kqt012
Art And Occupation
The Eucharides Painter
Shoemaker Vase c.500–470 BC
A short, fat-bellied, two-handled, black ceramic vase
or pelike [1] provides the vehicle for a stylistic portrayal
of an ancient Athenian workplace. The bright orange/
red scene, framed to the shape of the vase by decorative motifs on three sides, shows the interior of a cobbler’s shop in the agora (marketplace). A muscular,
bare-chested shoemaker (on the left) sits at his bench,
knife in hand, cutting a piece of leather, which rests on a
block of wood (white). With his left hand he steadies the
customer’s right foot, which he uses as the template for
a pair of sandals. Below his workbench sits a large, twinhandled bowl (lekane) of water used to soften the leather prior to cutting, whilst on the wall, above his head,
hangs a tool-rack holding a variety of knives and awls.
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Once cut out the leather pattern would have been sewn
using animal tendons or thongs threaded through holes
bored with an awl. Sometimes rivets were used as decoration or for strength. The customer’s diminutive size
and the hint of a beard suggest a young man—he would
have to be 18 to enter the agora [2]. His tall companion on the right stands behind a folding stool or diphros
and leans forward on his staff, engaged in conversation
whilst overseeing the creative process [3]. He may be the
youth’s father, introducing him, perhaps as part of an
initiation into manhood [4], to the delights of the shoemaker’s shop, which was a popular place for social intercourse in ancient Athens [5]. However, he might equally
be another client or even the shop’s owner. On the other
hand the young man’s size may simply fulfil the painter’s
compositional expediency of having to squeeze him into
the available decorative space. The two ‘citizens’ wear elegant togas or hirnation, whereas the cobbler is stripped to
the waist, confirming his lowlier status and the arduous
nature of his work. Nevertheless, conceivably reflecting
his social aspirations, he has garlanded his hair, like his
‘noble’ visitor. Behind the tall man a leaf motif decorates
the wall, which is otherwise bare.
The purpose of the vase remains uncertain. It may
be associated with religious ritual, and some have been
found in graves and sanctuaries. It may have contained oil
or wine or even the ashes of a departed relative, although
at 38cm in height it is a little large. There is certainly a
hint of some loftier function on its reverse side, where the
Greek god Hermes, wearing winged sandals, accompanies a pair of satyrs in song (a lament or a celebration?).
Hermes, son of Zeus and god of transitions and boundaries acted as a messenger between earth-dwelling mortals
and the deities. He also performed the role of ‘Guide to
the Dead Souls’, leading them through the afterlife to
Hades. However, the Eucharides Painter’s ‘representation of labour and the labour of representation in a single
image’ [6] may carry more than a straightforward spiritual message. For example, Duignan has argued that by
linking the products of his earthly labour to the world of
the gods the artist, one of many vase painters working in
Athens c.500 BC, has made a statement about the value
to society of his effort and skill, thereby enhancing his
own status (and indeed that of all artisans) in the pursuit
of citizenship [2].
These black-figure pots were made in sections from
local iron-rich clay, air-dried and assembled using a liquid
clay slip after which the rolled handles were attached. The
figures and ornamental motifs were also applied with the
slip; the detailed silhouettes engraved using a sharp point
and a little white paint [7]. Then the vase was fired. The
use of oxidation and reduction techniques during the firing
process created classic orange/red (ferric) and black (ferrous) colours in the clay. Firing was carried out in three
stages. First, air was introduced into the kiln, oxidizing the
baked clay to an orange/red colour. Next, the air supply
was cut off and fresh wet green wood added, reducing the
ferric ions to ferrous and turning the entire vase black [8].
Finally, air was reintroduced to the kiln, oxidizing any clay
without slip back to its orange/red ferric state and leaving
the remaining coated portions ferrous black [8].
Artisans in the ceramics and footwear industries
have been covered elsewhere in this series [10,11],
but their social status continues to attract debate [12].
Ironically, in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong Province,
China’s ‘modern industrial equivalent of 19th-century
Manchester’, Mr Yu, a 50 plus year old cobbler, prefers to
make shoes in a manner not too dissimilar to his ancient
Greek counterpart [13], whilst back in today’s commercially strife-torn Athens ‘the street is still a place of production’ [12].
Mike McKiernan
e-mail: [email protected]
References
1.Classical Art Research Centre at the Beazley Archive.
Pelike. University of Oxford. http://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/
tools/pottery/shapes/pelike.htm (16 January 2013, date last
accessed).
2.Duignan M. A Greek vase-painting: comments on the
nature of craftsmanship? In: Mainz V, Pollock G, ed.
Work and the Image I: Work, Craft and Labour, 2000;
13–30.
3.Richter GMA. Handbook of Greek Art. London: Phaidon,
1983; 371–372.
4.Sallares R. The Ecology of the Ancient Greek World. New
York: Cornell University Press, 1991; 186–189.
5.Johnson C. Ancient Greek Men at Work. Oxford: Oxonian
Rewley Press Ltd, 1991; 1.
6.Barringer T. Men at Work. London: Yale University Press,
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Wiley-Interscience, 2007; 251–253.
9.Noble JV. The Techniques of Painted Attic Pottery. New York:
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10.McKiernan M. La maladie de porcelaine. Occup Med
(Lond) 2011;61:146–147.
11.McKiernan M. Women bootmakers 1991. Occup Med
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12.Hart LK. Work, labor, and artisans in the modern world.
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13.French HW. Guangzhou Journal; Surrounded by factories, a cobbler takes his time. New York Times, 7 June 2004.