Humorous Discourses on Classical Greek Pottery
Manuel ÁLVAREZ JUNCO
Original title: Discursos humorísticos de la cerámica griega clásica
Published in The World of Tradition
Keywords: Classical Greece, Conceptual wit, Iconography, Visual insight.
The figurative pottery of classical Greece developed some visual discourses recognizable in the current Western humorous graphics. An important legacy of these significant images, of a high-quality technical workmanship and artistic expressiveness, has reached our times. This paper shows and analyses some examples of that visual world and its communicative methodology. The festive, the comic and, above all, the conceptually witty, has been the criteria followed for their selection.
The World of Dionysus. Visions of bodies in fun in Classical Greece
Manuel ÁLVAREZ JUNCO
Original title: El mundo de Dioniso. Visiones de los cuerpos en diversión en la Grecia Clásica
Published in Rhythms, expressions and representations of the body
Keywords: Dionysus, Festivities, Satyrs, Symposiums, Visual insight.
The figure of the mythical Greek god Dionysus presided over the most playful aspects of classical Hellenic society, whether they were parties, banquets, comedies, or celebrations in general. The visualizations of the scenes of the divinity of wine and orgy, accompanied by his crazy cohort of satyrs and maenads, show the burlesque, critical and comic sense of a culture that laid the foundations of the West. Something as contemporary as today’s graphic humor finds images of its remote origins through the splendid figurative ceramics of the classical Greek period dedicated to this god. This article shows and analyzes some examples of that visual world where the festive, the comic and the conceptually ingenious provide the unveiling of the transgressive universe of Greek society.
