Csornay Boldizsár - Dobos Zsuzsa - Varga Ágota - Zakariás János szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei 100. (Budapest, 2004)

SZILÁGYI, JÁNOS GYÖRGY: "La gigantesque horreur de l'ombre Herculéenne" Apulian Red-Figure Vases Decorated in Superposed Colours

19. Apulian miniature chous decorated in added red. Budapest, Museum of Fine Arts their style, or their relationship is somewhat tenuous. The number of these objects has since grown and been enriched by intriguing pieces. The Museum of Fine Arts has recently acquired a Type III miniature oinochoe, which definitely is one of them.

41 (fig. 19) Both the shape of the vessel (chous) and its decoration with superposed colour have their Athenian antecedents,

42 even though at least fifty years separate the Italian specimens from the Attic ones. The running figure of a man decorating the miniature vase is linked directly to the culture that created it, more so than the dominant motifs of the groups that have been discussed thus far, be they either the water-fowl, the owl framed by olive branches or the floral or geometrical patterns of the Xenon Group. Judging by their widespread use even outside their own group, these might all have had some clear meaning, which is still in need of fuller exploration.

43 The swelling forms and grotesque features of the phallic figure of the Budapest chous remind us of the characters depicted on phlyax vases - a popular genre of Italiote red-figure which reproduces scenes from this local 1 Inv. no. 99.4.A., hight: 7,6 cm. 2 See, primarily: J. R. Green, "A series of added red-figure choes," AA (1970), 475-87; cf. De Juliis, op. cit. (n. 11), 139. 3 Contrary to Schauenburgs view (RM 92 [1985], 63), which maintains that owls in South Italy are meaningless decorative motifs. See for example J. R. Green, Festchrift N. Himmelmann, Mainz 1989, 221-26.