Claude Pouadoux, Independent Scholar

In the 4th century BC, Apulian art experienced a particularly flourishing period with the decorations and mythological repertoire of red-figure vases. One of the factors behind this revival was the association of episodes from mythology with historic scenes. With the Gigantomachy, the Amazonomachy, and the Trojan legend, the representations of the wars between the Greeks and Persians in the second half of the 4th century reveal the role of painting in putting more or less contemporary events into perspective and, more broadly, in reflecting on history. Does the transposition of themes characteristic of public spaces onto monumental vases not suggest that Taranto was seeking to appear as the new Athens? The emergence of current events in vase painting must be reviewed in the light of artistic practices in Taranto, but also of the political and social structure of the Daunian and Peucetian communities, for whom these prestigious vases offered powerful tools of distinction.

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