Red-Figure Neck Ampora with Iphigeneia in Tauris

Wheelmade; restored from fragments
Made in Campania; third quarter of the 4th century BC
Attributed to the Libation Painter
Height 53cm Width 22cm Diameter (mouth) 19.6cm Diameter (foot) 14.2cm
Nicholson Museum 51.17

The scene is derived from Euripides’ Iphigenia in Tauris. It shows the handing over of the letter to Pylades, a step critical in the development of the plot towards the emotive moment of the play, the recognition scene in which Iphigeneia, long thought dead, and her brother Orestes discover their identities in a foreign land and are reunited. Iphigeneia holds the key of the temple in her left hand, the letter, written on a tablet, in her right. (The key is a standard means in contemporary art of indicating the priestess of a sanctuary.) She wears a tiara and a red cloak which comes over her head (in a fashion which is typically Campanian, as is the broad belt around her waist). Pylades is shown as a traveller, in a pilos, short cloak and with spear; he holds out his right hand to take the letter. The altar shown between them is imagined as immediately in front of the temple which is alluded to by the Ionic columns flanking the scene. It has a fire burning on it and streaks of yellow on the sides indicate the blood of earlier sacrifices.

The scene may be taken to typify some of the problems in determining the relationship between art and stage performance. By contrast with Comedy, there are hardly any cases in which the performance of Tragedy is shown in its actuality. Instead we find a depiction of the action intended by the performance. So in this case we are shown the ‘real’ Iphigeneia and Pylades as the actors and/or the play’s director might have intended the audience to remember them. On this argument, it becomes difficult for us to distinguish between a picture inspired more or less directly by a performance and a depiction of a myth drawn out of the more general iconographic tradition. So in this case, the depiction of such a scene must surely owe something to the popularity of Euripides’ play in the 4th century and to that extent it can give us some idea of how a director might have attempted to present it on stage. At the same time it is unreliable as evidence for the way it was actually presented: Pylades, for example, could not have been shown naked on stage and the actor playing Iphigeneia is unlikely to have been presented as a Campanian lady even on a local stage. One should also remember the relevance of the story for the reuniting of brother and sister after years of separation and in adverse circumstances. It could be suggested that the vase has its own message and that it draws on the theatre tradition for a well-known example as a point of reference.