Blog entry 16:
Whilst studying for my dissertation I have come across a particular text, which comments on how the hand was an important tool in communicating a cultural hierarchy in Ancient Athenian pottery. The text is Behaving Like a Child: Immature Gestures in Athenian Painting in Constructions of Childhood in Ancient Greece and Italy by T.J. Mcniven (Mcniven, 2007, 85 - 99).
This text describes how facial expression was not relied on as much on the pottery due to the small area on which the images were places, so instead the hands as gesture or action became much more significant. These hand postures told the Ancient Athenian people much about cultural hierarchy and ideology of the time. (Mcniven, 2007, 85 - 99)
I feel that this is a particularly good example of how the hand can give insight into the human condition.
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| Berlin Painter, Herakles and Iphikles attacked by snakes, (480 B.C.) Louvre, Paris |
The above image is used as an example to accompany the text by Mcniven. This visual to an Ancient Athenian would suggest that ideologically Herakles is not merely mortal, this is portrayed most fittingly through the difference between hand action and and gesture. The mortal twin Iphikles uses one of the limited hand gestures of an infant to beg for rescue by his mother, whereas Herakles' hand action tells the audience of the time that he is capable of defeating a threat that a mortal child could not. (Mcniven, 2007, 85 - 99)
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