Exegeus, ancient Greek period (around the Xia And Shang Zhou period), created in 540-530 BC (around the Warring States Jin-Chu conquest period), bottle painting, 0.607 meters high (bottle height), now in the Vatican Gallery.
Exechias (c. 570 BC - 510 BC), ancient Greek (Yoxia Shang Zhou period), ancient Greek Attica, is the most famous black painting vase painter in ancient Greece, he has eleven signed works circulated in the world, his representative works include "Aeas and Achilles Playing with Dice", "The Death of Aeas" and so on.
1. As the most classic "bottle painting" work of the ancient Greek period, this painting is painted on the drum belly of the black amphora vase, and its back is used to decorate the wine holding vessel, which is also an artistic extension of the wine culture of the ancient Greeks.
2 This painting as a bottle painting is the most important form of painting in the ancient Greek period, which strongly argues that Western painting was still not independent of the class in the ancient Greek period, and can only rely on utensils or architecture.
3. This painting is a typical black painting style, in the third period of the development of bottle painting. Bottle painting has undergone geometric style, oriental style, black painting style, red painting style and white bottle style, and the painting technique has gradually matured. The main feature of the black painting style is to depict the main body of the picture as black, although the expression technique is simple, but it presents a unique effect of black and white silhouettes.
4. The figures in this painting have distinct Characteristics of Egyptian painting, the faces of Achilles and Aeas are represented by the sides, but the eyes are represented by the front, which is the typical law of Egyptian painting; However, the bodies of Achilles and Aeas follow the laws of nature, facing the viewer with a side body, rather than following the style of the upper body front and lower body sides in Egyptian painting, which indicates that the technique of ancient Greek painting was more realistic.
5. According to the content of Homer's Epic, this painting shows the heroism and strength of ancient Greece in the Trojan War, and the picture does not choose a grand war scene, but a unique choice of war interval scenes. Who is the protagonist of this painting? It was the ancient Greek heroes Achilles and Aeas. Because the name of the character is written directly in the painting, the name "Achilles" is written above the figure wearing a helmet on the left, which can be known as Achilles; On the right side of the character's head is written the character's name "Aondos", which can be known as Aeas. The painting depicts them on their way to Troy as they hide in a tent and play with dice due to a storm while waiting for the battle ahead. Although they are just playing a game, the picture is full of tension, the two armored, one-handed rolling dice, the other hand highly guarded grasping the spear, ready to fight.
There is an elaborate layout in the painting, the Achilles on the left is taller than Aeas on the right from the chair to the right, plus Achilles wears a helmet, and Aethes puts the helmet and shield behind him, and Achilles shows a forward-leaning overwhelming momentum. The painter made this arrangement because Achilles was a demigod and Aeas was a human. Achilles was the first hero of ancient Greece, the son of Thetis, the goddess of the sea, and the human hero Pereus. Because of the oracle, he was buried in the Styx River upside down by his mother as soon as he was born, and his whole body was invincible, only his ankle was his weakness. He was then placed in foster care until the Trojan War broke out and was found by the Greeks, who were eventually shot in the ankle and died on the battlefield. Aeas was the second hero of ancient Greece, the son of Theramun, the king of Salamis, who was brave and brave, and sacrificed his life to regain the corpse of Achilles on the battlefield, but was stripped of his head and framed by Odysseus, and finally committed suicide because he could not bear to lose his attitude.
6. This painting fully shows the "homosexuality of man and god" in ancient Greek mythology and the "democracy" of the ancient Greek system. First, the gods in this painting have human nature, human desires and emotions, and Achilles fights and plays together with Aeas, full of human fireworks and interest; The coexistence of the two demonstrates equality and democracy at the source of Western thought. Second, the painter Exechias directly signed the work, and the inscription on the far right of the tank is "Exechias created me", which means that the ancient Greek political enlightenment and the higher social status of the craftsman, because at that time in the Western and Chinese political dictatorship, the artist did not have the right to sign the commercial product.