Wedding of Peleus and Thetis By Sophilos

By Chris Green and Alex Creer

The wedding procession of Peleus and Thetis

• The animal friezes on this black-figured bowl recall contemporary Corinthian vase paintings. However, the figure scene that occupies the highest register shows the new direction in which Athenian vase painting was moving. It shows gods, goddesses, nymphs and others processing to the house of the hero Peleus to celebrate his wedding to the beautiful sea-nymph Thetis

• Thetis had many suitors, including several of the gods themselves, but when they learned of a prophecy that the son of Thetis would be greater than his father, the gods arranged that she should marry Peleus. Their son was to be Achilles, the greatest of the Greeks to fight at Troy

• Peleus stands before the doors of his house to greet his guests, who arrive either on foot or by chariot

• Among the first is the wine god Dionysos, who carries a vine branch laden with grapes, symbolizing the wine that will be drunk at the wedding feast, perhaps mixed in a bowl of this shape

• The names of the guests are written neatly alongside• Between the columns of the house, Sophilos has signed the vase 'Sophilos

painted me'. Sophilos is the first Greek vase painter whose name we know.

Key Info

Museum: London, British Museum Size: 71cm (dinos and stand)Function: convivialTechnique: black-figureStyle: Early black-figureSubject: Wedding of Peleus and Thetis, attended by the gods, some on foot, others in chariots, encircles the shoulder. Below, and on the stand, are animal friezes.  Date: early 6th c. BCType: An extravagant dinos (with stem)

Style and Technique

• Figures and ornaments were painted on the body of the vessel using shapes and colours reminiscent of silhouettes. Delicate contours were incised into the paint before firing, and details could be reinforced and highlighted with opaque colours, usually white and red.

Odd proportions of face

Detailed pattern on the chiton

Offering wedding gifts

Very much repeated

No errors with impossible angles on people but there is with animals

Woodford p14-16

• “He liked the written word and made abundant use of it”

• “Following the fashion of the time, he divided the surface of his dinos into several zones and filled the lower friezes mostly with animals and monsters. He drew these conventionally and rather carelessly, for they no longer held the interest of innovative painters.”

• “Touches of purplish-red have been freely added and the women’s flesh is painted white, something that from now on becomes usual in black-figure painting.”

similar in shape and design of decoration to the Gorgon Painter's dinos in Paris, but with one major theme encircling the shoulder. Sophilos has signed as painter.