La pittura vascolare attica a fondo bianco: la prospettiva archeologica, l'apporto dell'indagine scientifica

The present contribution aims to offer new research’s hints on white-ground Attic vases and their pictorial technique. In particular, the crater of the Phiale Painter (450-440 BC) with the myth of Perseus and Andromeda, exhibited in the Archaeological Museum of Agrigento, has been selected as a case study. The first part of the work focuses on the archaeological and historical-artistic aspects, trying to reconstruct the role of this technique in the figurative production of the artisan and the relationship between the crater of Agrigento and the other products of the Phiale Painter. Moreover, the connection between technique and context of use and purchaser or ‘client’, the relationship between technique and form and function of the vase, and the connection between pictorial technique and narrative technique are considered. The second part of the paper presents the results of a scientific survey based on the use of spectroscopy (X-ray and TR-FTIR fluorescence) and imaging (macrography in Visible light (Vis) and Ultra Violet (UV), Optical Microscopy (OM)) techniques. This investigation has been conducted on the ground of the vase’s figuration and on the pigments used for the figures. The results enrich and support the interpretative framework provided in the first part of the study.