Panel 3.18 – Strictly economic? Ancient Serial Production and its Premises

Organiser/Chair:

• Arne Reinhardt (Universität Heidelberg)

Speakers:

• Simona Perna
  A Case of Serial Production? Julio-Claudian “tureen” funerary urns in calcitic alabaster and other coloured stone
• Manuel Flecker (Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen)
  Die Werkstatt des M. Perennius und die Entwicklung von serieller Produktion reliefverzierter arretinischer Sigillata
• Christoph Klose (Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena)
  Seriality and Restoration: The ‚Restored Coins‘ of the Roman Empire
• Mariachiara Franceschini (Universität Zürich)
  Ikonographische Serien in der attischen Vasenmalerei: Technische Vereinfachung oder semantische Strategie?
• Sabine Patzke and Elisabeth Günther (FU Berlin)
  Comparing Innovative Strategies: Serial Production of Etruscan ceramica sovraddipinta and the Paestan Asteas-Python-workshop

Which factors cause and determine ancient serial production? As an early stage within today's mass production, serial production takes a central place in manufacturing and the industrialization of the modern era. In the modern era, the underlying factors for serial production are high demand and rationalization. But how does this concept translate for antiquity? What other factors must we take into account (may these be of economic, aesthetic, ideological, or other nature) that could have shaped and influenced ancient form(s) of serial production? Though there seems to be little doubt that the serial production of artifacts played an important role in ancient cultures, research on this topic is still in its infancy considering how complex this phenomenon was. Likewise, only few attempts have been made to characterize and define the specific characteristics of ‚serial production' in antiquity. The panel proposed here attempts to address the questions mentioned above by discussing coherent groups of ancient material under the premise of ‚serial production', focusing on companion pieces and multiple sets of homogenous artifacts of corresponding origin (i.e. same authorship, place of origin (‚workshop'), date, size, material, technique, and/or style). In order to avoid confusing ancient forms of serial production with modern concepts, each paper should be based first and foremost on a close study of an ancient group of materials, which provides the foundation for further thoughts and critical discussion of the resulting significance for our understanding of ancient serial production and its relations to ancient economies. Interesting questions might be: Does ancient serial production necessarily imply the (re)production of large numbers and is it always connected with supraregional commerce? When is this the case, and why? How did traditional crafting techniques encourage new methods of serial production and how were they altered (standardized, improved upon, made ‚more economic') by the high demand that only serial production could satisfy? How did production for local usage contexts (such as sanctuaries and cemeteries) or cultural technologies (such as architecture) form the basis for serial production, and in turn, influence regional trade? Suitable groups of materials for innovative research into these questions include Graeco-Roman sculpture and sculptural decoration, coroplastics, ceramics, and many more.

1. Simona Perna

A Case of Serial Production? Julio-Claudian “tureen” funerary urns in calcitic alabaster and other coloured stone
From the Augustan period vase-shaped urns carved from calcitic alabaster and other coloured stone came into use in wealthy Roman burials across the Western Empire. The “tureen” is the predominant “standardised” type as reflected by the current survival rate of over 63 examples. Stylistic analysis reveals the existence of a basic model with idiosyncratic features: the body occurring in three variants or subtypes (A, B, C); the loop handles carved in one piece with the body with a prevalence of leaf-shaped lower attachments; multiple elements carved separately and then added by means of a tennon/pin and then glued: a convex lid; a piriform-pointed finial and a flared foot. The metrological analysis also reveals a constant thickness of the body’s walls and parts and the application of a system of proportions. The stylistic homogeneity of the contextually dateable examples suggest that the production peaked from the Julio-Claudian to the Flavian periods, whilst showing a fairly coherent workshop tradition particularly in Rome where all three subtypes are attested. However, limited variants within the type may represent the “signature” of a workshop/ artisan working or customization. The making of the tureens involved skilled artisans, tools and techniques that differed from those of other stone containers. The limited number of extant examples and their recurring features, particularly the technical similarities, hints at a possible small-scale luxury serial production.

2. Manuel Flecker (Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen)

Die Werkstatt des M. Perennius und die Entwicklung von serieller Produktion reliefverzierter arretinischer Sigillata
Bedingt durch den Einfluss östlicher Sigillatawerkstätten beginnt man im 1. Jh. v. Chr. an verschiedenen Orten in Italien mit der Produktion von rot-engobiertem Tafelgeschirr zu experimentieren. Während sich das neue Verfahren generell rasch durchsetzt, so entwickelt sich mit Arezzo ab augusteischer Zeit ein herausragendes Produktionszentrum, dessen Produkte bald zum Synonym schlechthin für feines rotes Tafelgeschirr werden. Die Erzeugnisse der arretiner Werkstätten heben sich dabei durch ein eigenes Formenspektrum, durch ihre herausragende Qualität und zusätzlich durch die Herstellung reliefverzierter Trinkgefäße heraus. Innerhalb kürzester Zeit wird Terra Sigillata aus Arezzo nicht nur in alle Teile des Mittelmeeres exportiert, sondern von Arezzo aus werden große Filialbetrieb u.a. in Pisa und Lyon gegründet. Die Werkstatt des Perennius ist dabei möglicherweise nicht nur der allererste Betrieb, der in großem Maßstab Reliefkeramik produzierte, ihre Tätigkeit lässt sich zudem über fast 80 Jahre hinweg bis um die Mitte des 1. Jhs. n. Chr. verfolgen. Diese Werkstatt und ihre Etablierung eines vollkommen neuen Produktionszweiges vor dem Hintergrund der generellen Entwicklung des Standortes Arezzo bietet damit die herausragende Möglichkeit, zentrale Fragen des Panels zu diskutieren.

3. Christoph Klose (Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena)

Seriality and Restoration: The 'Restored Coins‘ of the Roman Empire
Due to their crafting technique, coins constitute a well-suited material group for studies of serial image production. Coinage‘s innate double nature consisting of types and die-identical series results in a two-fold form of serial image production – both forms are pivotal for discussing serial production of images in antiquity: on the one hand mass production by use of the same dies; on the other hand reproduction of the same images by use of different individually cut dies. While the former marks a simple procedure of mass duplication of identical images by means of the same prototype, the latter is an example for antiquity’s manifold phenomena of prototype copy and transfer to new objects/media. Thus, questions of reproduction, seriality and copying can be broken down to the die engravers (signatores, scalptores). Conclusions about the operational process of copying can be gained by close comparison of coins struck from different dies but showing the same image with minor variations.
The ‚restored coins‘ of the Roman Empire compose an esp. appropriate group for studying modes of image seriality. In these series that copied obverse and reverse images of prior issues (up to 300 years old in the time of Trajan) similarities and variations can be detected not only within the issue but also in comparison between prototype and later reproduction and sometimes even in comparison to variations of different prototypes. They thus open up a new level of insight into image seriality.

4. Mariachiara Franceschini (Universität Zürich)

Ikonographische Serien in der attischen Vasenmalerei: Technische Vereinfachung oder semantische Strategie?
Betrachtet man die Wiederholung ikonographischer Motive in der Vasenmalerei, soll zunächst identifiziert und definiert werden, was eine Serie ausmacht, wie und wieso ein Motiv stufenweise zum Serienprodukt wird. Dabei stellt sich als nächstes die Frage, ob die Dynamik der Herausbildung einer Serie als ein rein technisches Phänomen zu betrachtet sei oder ob ihre Semantik ebenfalls von Bedeutung ist.
Für eine solche Analyse eignen sich die Mantelfiguren besonders gut: Als einheitliche Gruppe, deren bildliche Elemente gemeinsame und rekursive Eigenschaften zeigen, entwickeln sie sich zu einer Serienproduktion, die zur konstanten und redundanten Wiederholung figürlicher Schemata bzw. Kompositionen führt. Die Etappen dieser Entwicklung werden in der ersten Hälfte des 5. Jhs. am Beispiel der Œuvre des Berliner-, des Harrow-, des Achilleus- und des Penthesileas-Malers konkret dargestellt. Durch den Fokus auf die Werkstätten werden die technischen Voraussetzungen und Normen, die den Herstellungsprozess und die Gestalt des Motivs geprägt haben, deutlich nachvollziehbar. Wenn auch einerseits die handwerkliche Praxis eine wesentliche Rolle bei der Serienproduktion spielt, erkennt man anderseits bei diesen Malern die Wirkung der Serie auf semantischer Ebene, die eng an die Wahrnehmung der Nutzer gebunden ist. Bei der ökonomischen Frage der Verbreitung ikonographischer Motive als ›Massenware‹ sollen daher neben technischen ebenso soziokulturelle Faktoren näher beleuchtet werden.

5. Sabine Patzke and Elisabeth Günther (FU Berlin)

Comparing Innovative Strategies: Serial Production of Etruscan ceramica sovraddipinta and the Paestan Asteas-Python-workshop
This paper discusses the evolution of serial production in Etruria and Paestum during the 4th and 3rd centuries B.C. The comparison of the use of applied color, standardized iconographic patterns, and shapes in both regions sheds light on different strategies of the painters to shape serial production techniques.
Etruscan ceramica sovraddipinta is defined by its technical properties – the clay-based orange or white paint was applied over the black glaze that covers the vases entirely. While the earlier vases resemble contemporary red-figured vases the later ones display a repetitiveness of their pictures that is usually interpreted as the result of a standardization process. In contrast, the contemporaneous Asteas-Python-workshop in Paestum is characterized by iconographic properties, i.e. the use of standardized “stock figures” and a homogeneous design. However, the template-like figures, their recurring combinations and the additional use of applied color ask for a comparative discussion of the strategies behind the designs of the vases.
This paper will show how the assumed impoverishment of ceramica sovraddipinta vases and of standardized “stock figures” in Paestum might have been of economic advantage. Paradoxically, the serial production of the ceramica sovraddipinta as well as the Asteas-Python-workshop allowed for a convenient manufacturing of commissioned (non-serial) works.