Ripensando il “metodo Beazley”. Ceramica attica e fotomodellazione 3D: il caso del Painter of Syracuse 19861

Daniele Bursich, Alessandro Pace

«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2017, 28.1, 73-91; doi: 10.19282/AC.28.1.2017.05

Abstract

The study of the Attic-figured pottery is closely connected to the “Beazley method”, which consists in the possibility of recognizing a painter’s hand exclusively on a stylistic basis. Although it has suffered some criticism, the Beazley method is still considered substantially valid. The need to collect images which can be analyzed from a stylistic point of view convinced us to combine 3D photogrammetry (Agisoft Photoscan) with 3D modelling (Luxology Modo) software in order to transfer the figured frieze from a vase to paper, thus avoiding the limitations of traditional direct drawing. These tools allowed us to contribute to the debate on the Beazley method; in fact, new research showed that Beazley over-divided Attic pottery, identifying many more painters than actually existed. This paper deals with the potential of 3D modeling applied to the Attic-figured pottery and focuses on the case of the Painter of Syracuse 19861, to whom Beazley attributed only two lekythoi (both belonging to the Lauricella collection from Gela and today displayed in the Archaeological Museum of Syracuse). The use of the 3D modelling process allowed us to obtain images proving that the two objects belong to the Ethiop Painter’s final production instead of to a different painter.

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