The Vase Paintings
The so-called Phlyax vases are a principal source of information on the genre. By 1967, 185 of these vases had been identified. Since depictions of theatre and especially comedy are rare in fabrics other than the South Italian, these have been thought to portray the distinctly local theatre tradition. The vases first appeared at the end of the 5th century BCE, but most are 4th century. They represent grotesque characters, the masks of comedy, and the props of comic performance such as ladders, baskets, and open windows. About a quarter of them depict a low wooden temporary stage, but whether this was used in reality is a point of contention.
Some scholars view the vases as depicting Attic Old Comedy. The Wurzburg Telephus Travestitus vase (bell krater, H5697) was identified in 1980 as a phlyax vase, but Csapo and Taplin independently have suggested it instead represents the Thesmophoriazousai of Aristophanes.
Read more about this topic: Phlyax Play
Famous quotes containing the words vase and/or paintings:
“Forgotten and stinking they stick in the can.
And the vase breath’s better and all, and all.
And so for the end of our life to a man,
Just over, just over and all.”
—Gwendolyn Brooks (b. 1917)
“All photographs are there to remind us of what we forget. In this—as in other ways—they are the opposite of paintings. Paintings record what the painter remembers. Because each one of us forgets different things, a photo more than a painting may change its meaning according to who is looking at it.”
—John Berger (b. 1926)