BULLETIN OF THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART
Italy, was delighted to find in Salvator's subjects which he chose, and his manner of
paintings not only the same aspects but treating them. Every thing is of a piece:
also the same mood; which had so inspired his Rocks, Trees, Sky, even to his handling,
him, and he carried them home to prove have the same rude and wild character
the beauties of scenes which he was power- which animates his figures."8
LOUISE BURROUGHS.
less to describe. (It is interesting to note
that, according to the Oxford Dictionary,
JASON AND THE
the word "picturesque," meaning "like or
was
first
a
of
elements
GOLDEN FLEECE
picture"
having the
used by Steele in 1703; and that "romantic"
of Jason and the Golden
The
was first used of places by Addison in 1705.) Fleece legend
has been known for about three
The result, to judge from her literature, was thousand
years. Homer speaks of the tale
that an enthusiasm for wild nature took of the
as universally familiar,
Argonauts
England by storm. Things had reached such Pindar and Apollonius give long accounts
a pass by the early years of the nineteenth of
it, and children today still thrill to the
century that Jane Austen, always ready to adventurous story. Yet in Greek art reprehave a little quiet fun with the affectations sentations of it are not
frequent. The colof her fellows, could not resist having one lection in this Museum, for instance, has
of her characters exclaim, "I like a fine hitherto not included a
single example. An
prospect but not on picturesque principles. Athenian column krater just acquired, with
I do not like ruined, tattered cottages . . .
the most vivid extant rendering of
I have more pleasure in a snug farmhouse perhaps
this famous tale, is therefore a welcome and
than a watch-tower-and a troop of tidy,
important addition.'
happy villagers please me better than the
The story is depicted with circumstantial
finest banditti in the world."7
detail. The golden fleece is hanging on a
But to whatever absurdity the enthusiasm rock
guarded by the dragon; Jason has
of the moment may have carried the popuit firmly with one hand and is
grasped
larity of Salvator's landscapes their real about to snatch it away; at his side stands
merit remained, and Sir Joshua Reynolds,
Athena, wearing an aegis with a frontal
whose critical judgment was not influenced Medusa-head
(note the thin protruding
by fashion, gave an estimate of them which tongue); behind her is a man wrapped in a
still seems just: "A faithful picture of a
mantle, his hand on the rail of a ship; he is
mind, though it be not of the most elevated an
Argonaut, serving as the chorus, so to
kind, though it be irregular, wild, and in- speak, of the drama, and the ship is the
correct, yet if it be marked with that spirit
trusty Argo, with its double rudder securely
and firmness which characterise works of fastened and the head of a woman as the
genius, will claim attention, and be more finial of its high stern. Each participant is
striking than a combination of excellences well characterized-Jason wide-eyed and
that do not seem to unite well together.
hesitant, but boldly accomplishing his task;
. .One of the strongest marked char- the
dragon, "with glaring eyes and spangled
acters of this kind, which must be allowed
wound round the whole expanse of
back,"2
to be subordinate to the great style, is that the
Athena by Jason's side, a regal
rock;
of Salvator Rosa. He gives us a peculiar
in the center of the scene; the Argofigure
cast of nature, which, though void of all naut
closely associated with the ship of the
grace, elegance, and simplicity, though it
8 DiscoursesDeliveredto the Studentsof the
has nothing of that elevation and dignity
Royal Academyby Sir Joshua Reynolds, Kt.,
which belongs to the grand style, yet has with
introductionsand notes by Roger Fry,
that sort of dignity which belongs to savage Fifth Discourse,pp. 124ff. London,1905.
1Acc. no. 34.11.7. Dick Fund. H. i 13 in.
and uncultivated nature: but what is most
(28.9cm.). Shownin the RecentAccessionsRoom.
to be admired in him, is the perfect corre- For
a vivid accountof the story in English,givspondence which he observed between the ing its variousversions,see TheVoyageof theAr7 Edward Ferrars in Sense and Sensibility, gonautsby Janet R. Bacon.
2 Pindar,PythianIV. 249 (tr. Sandys).
chap. 18. This bookwas first publishedin 1811.
86
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expedition, but part of the present action
through his interest in it.
The rather emaciated, bearded, and hairy
Jason does not exactly tally with Pindar's
description of young Jason as "the choicest
and fairest of men," "with splendid locks of
hair rolling down his back," "a hero terrible
to look upon." Instead he is that rather rare
product in Greek art-an individualized
human being. And his insignificance is of
JASON
MUSEUM
OF ART
entirely different version of the legend. The
scene which corresponds most closely to
ours is that on a South Italian krater in
Munich,4 where also the dragon is guarding
the fleece on a rock and Jason is boldly advancing toward it; but in the Munich picture Medea5 is present and not the ship
Argo, and the rendering is more conventional and lacks the piquant quality which
distinguishes ours.
AT KOLCHIS
course an effective foil for the dragon and
the goddess. The female head on the stern
of the ship may be reminiscent of the legend
that Athena fastened "a speaking timber
from the oak of Dodona"3 on the Argo. We
may suppose that the artist wanted to give
"the speaking Argo" a head to speak with;
and so the latter is turned in the direction
of the oarsmen.
The only other fifth-century Athenian
vase painting of this subject is that on the
kylix by Douris-with Jason in the mouth
of the dragon-which, however, follows an
An even more interesting comparison is
that with a column krater in Bologna,6
where a satyr appears in the same action
and attitude as our Jason and a fleeing
Dionysos takes the place of the protecting
Athena. It is one of those parodies-of
which several are known-in which satyrs
are represented in the roles of well-known
heroes and as performing their deeds.7
4 Furtwangler and Reichhold, Griechische
Vasenmalerei,
pls. 98, 99.
5 The substitutionof Athenafor Medeaon our
vase may be due to the fact that it was paintedin
Athens.
6 Laurinsich,
CorpusVasorum,Bologna,pl. 24,
3 Apollodorus1.9. 6; cf. also Aeschylus
Frag- 1-3;Heydemann,"Jasonin Kolchis,"Hallisches
ment 20 (reading aubssv with Cobet). In Apollo-
Winckelmannsprogramm, I , 1886, pp.
22-23,
nius RhodiusArgonauticaIV. 580-592(tr.Seaton) fig. 4.
7On this subject cf. Jahn, Philologus,vol.
the Argois made "to cry out in the darkness,"
"speakingwith a humanvoice,""of the grievous XXVII (1868),pp. 20 ff.: Heydemann,"Humorwrathof Zeus."
istische Vasenbilderaus Unteritalien,"Berliner
87
BULLETIN
OF THE METROPOLITAN
MUSEUM OF ART
AN EGYPTIAN SUNDIAL
What is extraordinary in this case is to
have both the original and the parody preserved. Moreover, the two scenes are closely
akin in style and were evidently painted by
the same man. In other words, the artist
parodied his own work. And as both vases
are unusually small column kraters, of approximately the same size, they may well
have been made as a pair. These parodies
were doubtless influenced by the contemporary satyr plays; and as Aeschylus wrote
several plays on the legend of the Argonauts8 and was working at the time that
our two vases were painted, it is quite possible that the scenes on the two vases were
inspired by Aeschylus's dramas-the New
York vase by one on Jason at Kolchis, the
Bologna one by a satyr take-off.
Our krater may be attributed to the
Orchard Painter, called after the representation of an orchard on a vase in this
Museum.9 Though not an artist of the first
rank he has left us a number of lively pictures painted in a somewhat hasty but
vivid style. We may note as typical renderings the obliquely set eyes of the Argonaut,
the straight lines for the ankles, the hooked
lines going in opposite directions for the
folds of the himatia. The rapidly drawn
mantled figures on the back of our vase
resemble those on some of the Orchard
Painter's other works, where occur again
such devices as the rendering of the hand
under the himation by an arc, the narrow
fold of the himation pulled over the head,
the feet separated by a single line.
The date of the vase is about 470-460
B.C. As a potter's product it is not a very
accomplished piece, for the body and neck
have sagged on one side and there are a
number of spalls.
It is remarkable that, although the movements of the sun and stars had been observed since prehistoric times, so few astronomical instruments have come down to us
from ancient Egypt. At the beginning of
the historic period a year of 365 days was
already in use. This year was divided into
twelve months and five intercalary days.
Each day began at midnight and contained
twenty-four hours, numbered in two groups
of twelve. Yet no actual example of any
sort of timekeeping device earlier than the
New Kingdom is known today, and instruments from the later periods, especially before Greek times, are surprisingly rare.
The methods of telling the time were
three in number: by klepsydras, or water
clocks; by instruments for observing the
positions of the stars; and by sundials. The
sundials again were of three varieties,
which measured respectively the height of
the shadow, its length, and its direction.
It is to the second of these classes that the
fragment in this Museum (see the illustration) belongs.'
Its original form is shown by a practically complete dial found at Kantara.2
The gnomon was a perpendicular block
rising at the foot of the sloping face, its
height and width being the same as those
of the latter. On one side was an arrangement whereby a plummet could be hung so
as to swing free of the base. The instrument
was put down on a flat surface, and whenever it was to be used, was turned so that
it faced the sun directly. The shadow of the
gnomon then fell upon the face. The spaces
marked off by the parallel lines running
from top to bottom of the face showed
where the shadow was to be read during
GISELA M. A. RICHTER.
the different months of the year, starting
30, 1870,pp. 8 ff; Bie- with the summer solstice at one edge and
Winckelmannsprogramm,
la
ber, Theaterwesen,
pp. 9 ff.; Sechan,Etudessur
turning back again with the winter solstice
tragediegrecque,pp. 38 ff.
at the other. Our dial differs from that from
8 Only fragmentsare preserved.It has been
conjecturedthat the Argo, Kabeiroi,Hypsipyle,
1Acc. no. 12.181.307. Purchased from the
and perhapsAthamasformed a trilogy with a
Government in 1912, with other obsatyr play; cf. on the Argo especially Dieterich Egyptian
excavations
in Pauly-Wissowa,Lexikon, I, col. 1072, and jects from the Earl of Carnarvon's
Thebes. Rogers Fund. H. 3'/16 in. (.093 m.);
Maass, Neue Jahrbiicherfur das klassische at
1. 5' in. (.14 m.); w. 131/ in. (.05 m.). Marble.
Altertum,vol. XXXI (1913), p. 627.
9 Acc.no. 07.286.74;in Case M, FifthClassical On exhibitionin the Sixth EgyptianRoom.
2Cledat, Recueilde Travaux,vol. XXXVII,
Room. For a list of this painter's works cf.
PP. 38-39.
Beazley, Attische Vasenmaler, pp. 311-313.
88