Works and Crafts – VI: Oil Seller in Trouble
This side shows two large dogs wearing collars, standing on their hind legs fighting inside an oil merchant’s shop. Their master, who might have just stood up from the seat behind him, threatens them with a stick. The narrow and rather short stick he is holding resembles the siphon often used by oil merchants to permit their customers to taste their oil. An amphora and four lekythoi are painted between the figures. The dogs have already broken the foot of the second lekythos from the right, while another lekythos is rolling on the floor. The ‘unruliness’ of domesticated animals is comical in that it reminds us that nature cannot be bound in rules, as society is. Their master is presumably afraid they will devastate the rest of the merchant’s store. The overall impression is that the merchant is trying to get rid of the dogs. It would be reasonable to imagine him saying ‘go’ or ‘stop now’ or even insulting them, but the exact reading of his words is an open question.
Source: A.G. Mitchell, “Greek Vase-Painting and the Origin of Visual Humor”
Attic black figured pelike
Antimenes Painter Manner
510-500 BC
From Città della Pieve, Perugia
Florence, Museo Archeologico Etrusco
Works and Crafts – VI: Oil Seller in Trouble
This side shows two large dogs wearing collars, standing on their hind legs fighting inside an oil merchant’s shop. Their master, who might have just stood up from the seat behind him, threatens them with a stick. The narrow and rather short stick he is holding resembles the siphon often used by oil merchants to permit their customers to taste their oil. An amphora and four lekythoi are painted between the figures. The dogs have already broken the foot of the second lekythos from the right, while another lekythos is rolling on the floor. The ‘unruliness’ of domesticated animals is comical in that it reminds us that nature cannot be bound in rules, as society is. Their master is presumably afraid they will devastate the rest of the merchant’s store. The overall impression is that the merchant is trying to get rid of the dogs. It would be reasonable to imagine him saying ‘go’ or ‘stop now’ or even insulting them, but the exact reading of his words is an open question.
Source: A.G. Mitchell, “Greek Vase-Painting and the Origin of Visual Humor”
Attic black figured pelike
Antimenes Painter Manner
510-500 BC
From Città della Pieve, Perugia
Florence, Museo Archeologico Etrusco