Mantle (female) figures on red-figure pottery: some new remarks from the 'Western perspective' of Magna Graecia and Sicily

One of the most intriguing and mysterious iconographic problem in the study of red-figure pottery is the semantic value of the so called “anonymous mantle figures” usually depicted on the secondary side of vases, both in Attic and South-Italian production. In light of some recent studies on Attic figurative tradition, combined with some considerations on a group of vases coming from Sicily, today it is possible to suggest a renewed “reading key” in relation to this iconography. Starting form Beazley’s, passing through Trendall’s, Schmidt’s, Thimme’s, Langlotz’s, Robertson’s, Simon’s and Isler Kerenyi’s theories and arriving to the recent interpretation provided by M. Langner and M.C. Franceschini for the Attic vases, this paper intends to discuss the widespread standardization and the visual strategies related to the mantle figures on Western red-figure production, starting around the half of the fifth century BC. Mantle figures on red-figure pottery could represent the participatory aspect of a collectivity to some rites but, contrary to C. Isler Kerenyi’s theory, they are not necessarily a “Dionysian” rite. Moreover, the aspect related to the rite is not the only semantic value that the ancient observer could perceive. Standardized mantle figures were depicted especially on kraters and kylikes, some of the most important sympotic shapes related to the values of community and mutual relationship: and the correlation between the shape and the iconography is not a chance. Furthermore, the analysis of this topic in relation to the red-figure production especially coming from Sicily let us to appreciate also the presence of mantle female figures. The female “participation” – surprisingly – can constitute a further important clue for the new symbolic reading of the mantle figures in relation to the value of “citizenship” (not intended as a “political” status but as a “civic” position within the local community: e.g. legitimacy of civic rights, including the descendants) to which they allude with their generality, especially within a complex community as the ones of Magna Graecia and Sicily characterized by a huge mix of ethne.