Figure Rosse: La Pittura Vascolare / Red Figures: Vase Painting

The red-figure vases in the Domenico Ridola National Museum in Matera, Basilicata, and in particular those in the Rizzon collection, rich in objects from Apulia and Lucania, offer a unique opportunity to see Magna Graecia from an unusual angle, thanks to the photographs by Luigi Spina. A significant testimony to the art of vase painting in the 5th and 4th centuries BC, these museum pieces, which are largely the result of excavations carried out by Domenico Ridola (1841-1932), were part of elaborate funerary assemblages of inestimable historical as well as aesthetic value, so much so that everyday life emerges beneath the mythological representations.

In this work, black is the essential protagonist, bringing out the red figures. Anatomical details, drapery effects and ornamental motifs emerge in all their power, without the filter of museum display cases, while touches of white enrich the two-tone palette of the vases. Far from being a simple catalogue, this volume is in fact a figurative atlas of Antiquity and vascular painting.