May and Maia

 MAY and MAIA

I've always thought it strange there are so few depictions of Hermes' mother MAIA

The one below is part of a painting on a vase dated to about 500 BCE 

I love the way the position of her hands suggest she's having a lively discussion and you can just make out in this closeup traces of a hair ribbon binding up her undeniablely thick wavy less than perfectly orderly maybe even frizzly hair also suggesting a busy mum!

Judgement of Hermes

JUDGEMENT OF PARIS CERAMIC PAINTING
Some Observations

#Hermes #Paris #Greekceramics

Hermes is a bearded adult not the beardless youth of many Hellenistic and Roman works. The painter has used the white slip to emphasize small details that might not stand out on the traditional older black background and has used some kind of yellow ochre as well as a red ochre and black giving him or her a 4 color 5 if you count white palette?

There's a hint of beads or embroidery on Hera's robes and the yellow ochre is used to outline the wings on Hermes' boots and on Hera's crown. Black seems to have been mixed with red to create a dark brown for the edges of robes unless thats fading?

The overall effect is simple elegance with restraint and balance. Some of the rendering seems almost "sketchy" to a modern eye especially if you expect a wider tonal range so bear in mind these images were painted on small objects not massive urns and the Greek painters and potters did not have modern glazes to use.  No ceramics supplies stores or factories !

Iris and Hermes Together

#Iris #Hermes #greekceramics

I was going to blog about Maia but while searching for good illustrations found this on Wikipedia Commons. The photographer didnt mention what museum it came from but it's an interesting image.

This is the only depiction I have seen of Hermes and Iris together.

Iris or Hermes feature in various plays and poetry as messengers of the gods but never together like this. Now I've mentioned before my belief some scenes on ceramics vases depict scenes or performances from plays especially Athenian vases. Did some Athenian dramatist write a play in which Hermes and Iris appear together? A comedy perhaps or a tragedy based on some obscure myth not recorded in other literature? 

Share please if you know where this vase is on display or have more information about it or any other works, ceramics, mosaics, or sculpture, showing Hermes and Iris together.

Thanx

The Good Shepherd

The Good Shepherd motif seems to be another borrowed from pagan art and adapted for Early Christian use.

While Hermes is usually shown as a herald or messenger he is also sometimes depicted carrying rams or sheep. Remember he was originally Arcadian?

Here's a Roman era painting from a CHRISTIAN TOMB.

We have to acknowledge our classical heritage.

A Brief History of Hermes in ART

How the Greeks and Romans depicted Hermes in ART.

The earliest images of Hermes show a mature adult with a beard.

but this changes about the beginning of the hellenistic era

Hermes loses his beard and appears younger

then we have the Roman version

finally here's a modern depiction ... ye sit is a page form a comic book EARTH2 but Nicola Scott does excellent art and I wanted to show you a modern use of a mythic image.