II - An Etruscan Masterwork: Heracles’ Apotheosis by The Micali P.
A flourishing school of vase-painting at Vulci in Etruria produced vases that were both Greek and Etruscan in style. Many remain unattributed, but this hydria has been attributed to an artist known as the Micali painter. The name comes from a pioneering Italian scholar of Etruscan art, Giuseppe Micali.
The Micali Painter painted on the belly of this elaborately patterned hydria, a common enough subject: the recently divinized Heracles in Olympus.
Yet only three of the divinities can be readily identified; in the far left, Heracles standing with all his paraphernalia: club and bow; to the left of center, Poseidon with his trident; second from the right, Ares wearing full armor and carrying a shield decorated by an image of an armed Erote.
The four divinities without distinguishing attributes can be identified only by comparison with other representations of the same story. By analogy, the woman wearing chiton and himation, on the left by Heracles, should be Athena portrayed near her protégé. Behind Poseidon, in the center, the standing figures could be identified as Hera conversing with Zeus. On the far right, the woman wearing a himation and holding a wreath in her left hand should be Aphrodite portrayed behind her paramour Ares.
Etruscan black-figured hydria
Attributed to The Micali Painter
Late VI century BC
Florence, Museo Archeologico Etrusco
II - An Etruscan Masterwork: Heracles’ Apotheosis by The Micali P.
A flourishing school of vase-painting at Vulci in Etruria produced vases that were both Greek and Etruscan in style. Many remain unattributed, but this hydria has been attributed to an artist known as the Micali painter. The name comes from a pioneering Italian scholar of Etruscan art, Giuseppe Micali.
The Micali Painter painted on the belly of this elaborately patterned hydria, a common enough subject: the recently divinized Heracles in Olympus.
Yet only three of the divinities can be readily identified; in the far left, Heracles standing with all his paraphernalia: club and bow; to the left of center, Poseidon with his trident; second from the right, Ares wearing full armor and carrying a shield decorated by an image of an armed Erote.
The four divinities without distinguishing attributes can be identified only by comparison with other representations of the same story. By analogy, the woman wearing chiton and himation, on the left by Heracles, should be Athena portrayed near her protégé. Behind Poseidon, in the center, the standing figures could be identified as Hera conversing with Zeus. On the far right, the woman wearing a himation and holding a wreath in her left hand should be Aphrodite portrayed behind her paramour Ares.
Etruscan black-figured hydria
Attributed to The Micali Painter
Late VI century BC
Florence, Museo Archeologico Etrusco