Μάθημα : Ελληνική Μνημειακή Ζωγραφική

In the present work, four wooden panels dated to the second half of the 6th century B.C., discovered in 1934 inside a cave located in Corinthia near the ancient city of Sicyon, are examined. The "Pitsa pinakes" are the oldest known examples of panel painting in ancient Greece. The application of non-invasive and non-contact imaging and analytical techniques (imaging techniques, including infrared-reflected and visible-induced luminescence, microscopy and mapping XRF) has brought to light significant evidence on the materials and the technology of the paintings. Multiple figurative elements that had remained previously "unseen", due to the losses and degradation of the original paint layers, were recovered, allowing for a better understanding of the original iconography. Furthermore, imaging techniques have largely contributed to an enhanced reading and understanding of the inscriptions preserved on the panels, including the personal name "Kalypso" on the panel depicting a ritual dance (inv. 16467); this name had hitherto been known only through literary sources.

Recent examination of four votive wooden panels from Pitsa in Corinthia, dated to the second half of the 6th
century BC, allowed us to evaluate the use of colour and the painting techniques applied to those early pictorial
documents. The tablets depict religious scenes connected with the cult of the nymphs. Preserved due to the
stable microclimatic conditions inside the cave where they were discovered, they represent the earliest examples
of panel painting to survive in Greece and form a unique testimony of Archaic painting. The tablets serving as
support are wooden panels, covered with a preparatory thin white layer of gesso and painted with a variety of
pigments comprising black, white, blue, red, yellow and brown hues, surprisingly well preserved.

OXFORD CLASSICAL DICTIONARY: GREEK PAINTING (BY D. PLANTZOS)