Suicide_of_Ajax_Artwork_Comparison

Glen Gunawan AH 50: DIS 1K Art History 50 Essay 11/18/2010 Myth or Life During the late Archaic and early Classical art periods of Greece, Greece begins to reach their height of economic, cultural, and artistic success. While during the Archaic period, many artists attempted to depict the legends and myths of old, during the Classical period, artists begin to focus on humans. They begin to praise humanity in art, shifting the function of art from reverence of the gods and myths to the celebration of intellectuality and emotionality of humanity. The painter of the Wine Cup With the Suicide of Ajax and Exekias, the painter of the amphora with the painting of Ajax Preparing to Commit Suicide used the medium of mythology to portray the emotions and mortality of humanity rather than to simply portray the story of a myth. Both artists noticeably do not portray mythological figures in either of their paintings. Exekia’s painting has Ajax preparing to kill himself, inserting a sword into the ground, with a tree in the background, and a set of armor and shield by him. This is, however, all there is to the painting. Even though Athena and Odysseus played major parts in the story, according to Sophocles’ tragedy, Exekias does not even show them in the image. There is little in the image that shows any out-of-this-world, supernatural figure that played a part in the myth. Exekias chose to focus solely on Ajax and his task: the preparation of his suicide. Ajax is alone, and Exekias purposely only showed him because Ajax is the only person, the only human, he wanted to show, not the myth. Like Exekias, the Brygos painter illustrates less myth and more “human”. The interior shows Ajax impaled on his sword, and Tekmessa, his lover, about to cover his body. The exterior of the cup shows the events leading to Ajax’s suicide; one side depicts the quarrelling of Odysseus and Ajax and the other side depicts the Greek leaders voting on whom would get the armor of Achilles. The Brygos painter did not, however, show any gods or goddesses. He focused on the human side of the story, not caring so much about showing the full story of the myth, with the gods and all, focusing on the human presence in the story. The Brygos painter illustrates Ajax right after his suicide, Tekmessa at her discovery of Ajax’s body, and the conflicts that led up to Ajax’s suicide: the human parts of the story. Even though both paintings are very detailed, showing extreme effort in the paintings by their respective painters, neither of the artists attempts to portray anything mythological. On the wine cup, for instance, many different scenes from the myth is shown, from the carrying of Achilles’ body to the voting of who is to be given the armor, and none of them shows any gods or goddesses in it. On the wine cup is also a considerable amount of detail: you can see the detailed texture of the pebbles under Ajax’s body, the individual dresses of the figures, and even the small stones that the Greeks used to vote between him and Odysseus, yet there is not even a small hint of anything godlike or supernatural. The Brygos painter spent considerable time detailing the painting, making sure the myth was as complete and realistic as possible. If there was no indication of mythology with this attention to detail, the painter most likely purposely left out the mythological side the story. The painting by Exekias on the amphora was as detailed: we can see very specific musculature on Ajax, and there is a visibly complicated design on the shield and helmet. We can even see individual leaves on the tree. Exekias purposely put all this detail in the black-figure painting style that typically forbids such detail. Yet, throughout this purposely-created intricacy, Exekias painted very few mythical details, ignoring that side of the story completely. Both of the paintings, clearly not made for the myth, function as pieces that portray mortality and human emotionality. The Brygos painter’s painting portrays Ajax when he has just died, pulling the reader emotionally into the painting. On the interior of the wine cup, Ajax is shown with a sword running through his back as Tekmessa, Ajax’s lover, covers him with a blanket. This is a scene meant to pull at one’s heartstrings, a scene when Tekmessa exclaimed that no one should “see him!” and attempted to cover him because “no one who loved him could endure to see the foam at his nostrils and the spout/Of darkening blood from the wound at his own hand made”. She goes so far as to claim that “even your enemies… might weep for you” because it makes no just sense to her that Ajax, one that is “so great” must “suffer this!”Ajax is shown dead in the scene, with extreme emphasis on the sadness and the drama of it. He has just passed away, with blood still visible on his body, and there is a grieving, tearful woman already crying over his body. Even the fallen of pose of Ajax dramatizes the tragedy of the scene. The wine cup also fences the important scene between life and death by showing both the scene after Ajax has killed himself, and the circumstances prior to his. The exterior of the cup presents the quarreling of Odysseus and Ajax over the deceased Achilles’ armor as well as the scene in which the Greek leaders cast votes as to who would get the armor. In the scenes, the Brygos painter once again emphasizes the human side of us, most obviously, sadness. In the exterior painting, the discouraged Ajax clutches his bowed head, admitting his defeat. The wine cup is focuses on the idea of death, depicting Ajax right after he has entered death’s door and showing the events that occurred to cause such a death. Exekia’s amphora focuses on the moment before death and emotionally connects the viewer to the painting as well. According to one art analyst, Exekias had the “unique ability to convert black-figure style from a style that could not show a lot of detail to one that is rich in detail and transmits so much sentiment.” Exekias used very subtle details in the painting to create sentiment and draw emotions from the viewer. The leaves of the tree, pointing downward, add a glum feeling to the scene. The tracing of the curve, matching the drooping of the tree of Ajax’s back emphasizes the fatigue of Ajax, showing his brokenness. Death seems unavoidable: the sheer weight of Ajax’s torso compared to his small feet appears to make it inevitable that he will fall onto the sword. His emotional and physical instability seems apparent in his imbalanced pose. The vulnerability of Ajax is shown here: an unbalanced, depressed, and unarmored man. The dropped shield implies the vulnerability the most: Ajax has forgone its protective attributes, especially, according to Ron M. Brown, since the Gorgon symbol in Greek art and architecture is known to provide protective attributes from enemies and evil spirit. Ajax, a warrior, is shown in the nude, not donning his armor nor holding his armor, implying an abandonment of life and identity. All of these subtle details make the viewer sympathize with the tragic scene. The viewer is pulled into the painting, emotionally drawn to it. More importantly, however, this depiction of Ajax shows the preparation for suicide rather than the actual suicide. According to another art analyst, during this time most representations of the story showed the “pinnacle of the story,” and it would “make it more recognizable” to show Ajax already impaled on his sword. However, this unique depiction makes the emphasis of the importance of death much more obvious. It is the inexorable nature of fate, rather than the actual moment of death that interested Exekias. Exekias demonstrates dramatic tension; he creates pathos the reader can feel. The conventionality of the pieces allowed the images to not simply be a piece of art that revered the gods, like statues or temples, but allowed them to sit as commonplace displays of art. They were pieces of art that could honor something that were not gods. The painting by Exekias is on an amphora, and the paintings by the Brygos painter were drawn on a wine cup: both would have been used and looked at very often. An amphora would be used to transport goods, and would be seen often around the house. A wine cup would often be used to hold wine and would be seen at dining parties, or around the house. The two images were in a good position to show off their images, not only displayed, but also constantly used. These images would be seen very often and with different people, and many would feel the pathos from the images, drawn to the raw tragedy attached to these immensely detailed images. The added combination of functionality and art would often force people to stare at the amphora while using it, or force them to stare at the dying body of Ajax while drinking from the cup. Both the Wine Cup with the Suicide of Ajax and the amphora with Ajax Preparing to Commit Suicide centered on the suicide of Ajax, a commonly mythologized scene. \ The artists tried to depict a piece that would greatly create pathos in the viewer, pulling them in emotionally, rather than to simply exemplify a myth. They used stylistic tools to draw their audience into sympathizing with Ajax and the tragedy of his suicide, and showed a human story, not just another story about the gods and their deeds. Bibliography Brown, M. 2004. The Art of Suicide. London: Reaktion Books. Daryill, Timothy. 2002. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology. London: Oxford University Press. Moores, John, trans. 1969. Ajax. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. The Getty Villa. 2010. “Wine Cup with the Suicide of Ajax.” Last modified November 17. http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artObjectDetails'artobj=14159. Thou Art History. 2009. “For your Own Analysis: Suicide of Ajax.” Last modified November 8. http://thouarthistory.blogspot.com/2009/03/for-your-own-analysis-suicide-of-ajax.html. -------------------------------------------- [ 1 ]. Moores, John, trans. 1969. Ajax. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Lines 48-50 [ 2 ]. “Wine Cup with the Suicide of Ajax,” The Getty Villa, last modified November 17, 2010, http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artObjectDetails'artobj=14159. [ 3 ]. “For your Own Analysis: Suicide of Ajax,” Thou Art History, last modified November 8, 2009, http://thouarthistory.blogspot.com/2009/03/for-your-own-analysis-suicide-of-ajax.html. [ 4 ]. “Wine Cup with the Suicide of Ajax,” The Getty Villa, last modified November 17, 2010, http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artObjectDetails'artobj=14159. [ 5 ]. Moores, John, trans. 1969. Ajax. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Lines 200-250 [ 6 ]. “For your Own Analysis: Suicide of Ajax,” Thou Art History, last modified November 8, 2009, http://thouarthistory.blogspot.com/2009/03/for-your-own-analysis-suicide-of-ajax.html. [ 7 ]. Brown, M. 2004. The Art of Suicide. London: Reaktion Books. [ 8 ]. “For your Own Analysis: Suicide of Ajax,” Thou Art History, last modified November 8, 2009, http://thouarthistory.blogspot.com/2009/03/for-your-own-analysis-suicide-of-ajax.html. [ 9 ]. "Amphora" The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology. Timothy Darvill. Oxford University Press, 2002.