Martine Denoyelle, Senior Cultural Heritage Officer, Institut National de l’Histoire de l’Art

The epos of the Argonauts is present from the Archaic period in Greek pottery, in the form of isolated episodes such as Medea and the Pleiades or Jason fighting the dragon. Starting from the Classical period, the Argonauts begin to be depicted as a group, with several identifiable heroes or semigods, often accompanied by the prow of the Argo ship. It is in Magna Graecia that these episodes first appear, either on imported Attic vases (like the krater with the death of Talos) or on local productions (like the hydria with the capture of Amykos), along with revisited episodes like Phineus and the Harpyes on the Ruvo krater , which display the same heroes and the prow of Argo.  

It seems that an artistic culture surrounding the Argonauts’ expedition developed in this region and spread, notably to Etruria, where we find traces (such as the Ficoroni cista and the Argonauts’ crater in Florence) of a major artistic model common to all these Western artworks, model often attributed to Athens. This would be the famous fresco by Mikon described by Pausanias in the Anakeion. However, although studies have shown that the diversity of materials, forms, and locations where this iconography appears in the West suggests choices or even a re-functionalization of the myth made by different communities according to their needs, dependence on an Athenian model has not been completely ruled out. Yet, some certainties have gradually dissolved concerning the identity of the heroes depicted on certain vases, such as the Niobid crater, an Attic vase from Orvieto, or the “Argonauts” krater, a masterpiece by an Etruscan painter not very well known yet. By carefully reexamining these works, their style, and also, their technique, can we trace new connections between them and gain a clearer understanding of the journey of the Argonaut myth in the West?

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