Minoan and Greek Pottery

Minoan and Greek Pottery

The Vase as Theme

This essay is meant to address the different treatment of two works of art from different cultures which deal with the same theme. By comparing differing treatments of the same artistic theme, it is possible to get a glimpse into the mind of the artists whose differences are thus highlighted. For example, if one were to compare the famous Minoan Octopus Stirrup Jar (Heraklion Museum, Crete) with the Metropolitan Museum's Mycenean Terracotta stirrup jar with octopus (ca. 1200-1100), one would see dramatic differences in the level of anatomical accuracy vs. stylization, anamorphization vs. abstraction, and a preference for a utilitarian joie de vivre over an elite sense of design. In such a comparison, the subject of the art would be considered the theme. Yet what if one were not to consider the subject of the art as its theme, but rather consider the medium of the art as its theme? This purpose of this essay is not to compare two octopi pieces -- instead it focuses on the Minoan Octopus Jar and its distant relative, an attic urn known as the Red-Figure Neck-Amphora Attributed to the Hector Painter. In comparing the way that the Minoan Artist and the Hector Painter treated the subject of the vase, one can see dramatically different cultural approaches to the natural (these vases were vessels for the fruits of nature, for wine and oil), the home and female sphere, and perhaps to life itself.

The Octopus Stirrup Jar is shaped much like an apple, with a wide upper body and a slight tapering at the bottom. It has two handlers, referred to as stirrups, which jut from either side of the small raised spout where the apple's stem would be, and reconnect quickly to the jug's body. A second spout proceeds from the vase slightly below the first, though rising to the same height. These two spouts assumably make pouring easier and reduce the likelihood of spillage. The jar itself is a creamy off-white with rusty-brown painted figures. Both colors are rich and variegated, perhaps partly through aging.

The vase's main figure is that of a tremendous octopus, whose tentacles wrap almost all the way around the vase. The octopus does not appear to be grasping the vase, however, but rather to be floating within it, albeit seen with a slightly unreal perspective. The tentacles are sinuous and seem to be in frenzied motion. One can make out the individual suckers on the tentacle, as they are done with some accuracy. However, the shape of the octopus remains somewhat cartoonish. No space on the vase is left with a void, as the areas between the octopus' tentacles are filled with floating bits of seaweed, coral, and the occasional sea shell. This gives a lively impression of an octopus in its natural habitat within a tidal pool. The stirrups are stripped.

The Minoan artist has clearly treated the theme of the vase as something which is filled with life and will be a part of an active and even frenetic living cycle. The ocotopus which adorns it seems to move and also seems not so much to be painted on the surface of the vase as to live within it. The vase-as-vessel is emphasized in that it holds the octopus. It is a microcosm of rocks which encompass the tidal pool and all its inhabitants, and even of the world which encompasses life. The functionality of the vase is also very clear. The two mouths might distract from the vase's purity of form, but they make it fit better into the life of its owners -- it is more functional and it is more real in as much as it is more able to be handled and used. The round shape also adds to its functionality and to its function as a container. The jug-like vase will hold more liquid than would a narrow, curvaceous vase of similar height and it will be less prone to being knocked over and spilt. The theme of vase is, for this artist, the theme of vibrant, moving life which is sustained by the wine and/or oil which proceeds from it.