Pedro Bentancour Garin

Working title for my Ph.D. thesis: Female activities on Apulian red-figure vases.

The main focus of my thesis centers on the female figures represented on Apulian red-figured vase painting from the 4th century BC. The subject has until now not been addressed exhaustively and I believe that many interesting questions remain unanswered, especially as these vases predominantly are adorned with female figures.
My intention is thus to investigate how women are represented, with special attention to the activities and tasks they preform. I also intend to study how they are represented on vases belonging to the female or the male sphere respectively. Do we see different behaviours and renderings according to which groups or functions the vases addressed? This may seem obvious but is something we cannot take for granted; Apulian vases (albeit of different shapes) seem mainly to have been produced for use in connection with the rituals of the dead and in some cases even as grave markers.

Our common view on the role of Greek women is mostly based on how women were rendered in Athenian literature and art. Apulian vases were made in non-Athenian Greek colonies and can therefore give us a somewhat different picture of how contemporary women were expected to behave.
Until today more than 10.000 Apulian red-figured vases have been excavated in southern Italy. The vases are shaped in different forms according to the ordinary use they would have (or emulate): containers for oil, wine, water or food; drinking vessels; water carriers; perfume bottles; etc.