Achilles and Penthesileia

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 621.

Ancient Greece, 500 BC

Here as we can see from the Parthenon's statues, it's the human body really looked at.

That's the centre of the artist's interest.

Greek writers tell us the wall painting was equally good. Unstinted in their prays for skill and realism. But walls get destroyed. As now the only Greek painting left is on vases.

This is a masterpiece, painted and potted by the man called Exekias. At first sight you might think the figures look disappointingly flat. But look closer. And you are drawn into an intense human struggle.

You can see what the main story is the man-woman conflict. But for the Greeks it was much more than that.

This is the story of the famous Achilles, the greatest of the heroes, the killing machine. And the woman is Penthelesia, the queen of the Amazons. That Greek horror story of evasive fighting women, aggressive women. And what is she? A vulnerable young girl. They are so different.

The man is a great black menace. He even looks masked. We see that he is a man, but we can't see his face.

And the woman is all white and soft. We see her face all right. With its clean skin, her black curls. She is so likely armored. And he crushes her.

And the story says as Achilles killed her, as he drove his spear through her throat, the eyes're on it. And he saw how young she was, how lovely, and how brave. And he fell in love. But he killed her. And, of course, in killing her, he killed, perhaps his own future happiness.

This is only a vase, think what a wall painting must be like.