Il mondo del vaso Chigi

This book analyses the stylistic, iconographic and historical aspects of the Chigi vase, the famous Protocorinthian olpe dating back as early as ca. 650 BC. The vase is the masterpiece of the Chigi Painter, a skilful vase-painter who was acquainted as well with the big size Corinthian painting. The different themes, which run along the three main friezes, link each other in order to build up a true iconographic program: its key point is the distinction between the lower frieze for the ephebes’ paideia and the two main friezes which show the Corinthian elites through their activities – either real or symbolic ones – and distinguishing attributes. Paris’ judgment is meant as part of this iconographic program as it shows, through a mythical paradigm, a necessary step of the life, i.e. the wedding, as well as the risks that it involves. The socio-political interpretation of the iconographic program opens the historical question of which system could be implied, as the vase was painted in a critical moment of Corinthian history, i.e. in the period when Kypselos became tyrant and exiled the Bakchiads. Finally, on the background of Demaratus’ tradition, the analysis investigates a possible scenario for the arrival of the Chigi olpe in the hands of an Etruscan prince of Veii, in whose tumulus it was found in 1882.