This summer I’m really enjoying the colour orange and using it for my manicure, shorts and cubes of Mantova melon. It’s a colour full of life and energy. 

So it will come as no surprise that the poster for the ‘Pottery and Clouds‘ exhibition caught my eye. Plus it’s in one of my favourite buildings in Vicenza: Palazzo Montanari.

The exhibition is on the first floor and occupies just two rooms. It’s small so it won’t take up too much of your time. If you’re a customer of the Banca Intesa group you can even enter for free!

Memories

The exhibition begins with a thought-provoking question: What should we keep and what should we throw away? What do we want to be remembered for? What do you want someone to find about you?

The title of the exhibition translates to Pottery and Clouds. The clouds in the title refer to the cloud shaped speech balloons you find in comic strips.

The exhibition connects the past (Ancient Greece, vases telling stories through images) with now (Italy, comic strip drawings telling stories through images and text). During your visit you’ll see many connections between then and now, making your trip to the museum relevant to today.

So Many Greek Vases…

In the first room, the exhibition starts with the basics of Greek pottery You will discover that there are many more different types of ancient Greek vases than you could ever have imagined. 

Museum nerds will love the hands on approach here. You can sift through the circular rack containing white blocks/stands with each vase represented in sharp 3D. 

They have different functions first of all, leading to differences in size and shape. Here are some examples:

Symposium Vases

These were the vases used at banquets. The krater was a large vase used to mix wine with water as the Greeks only drank diluted wine.

Once that was done, they would drink this from a special cup for that purpose, either a kylix or a kantharos.

Ritual Vases

The amphora could be used as grave markers. 

The loutrophoros, a vase from the amphorae family, was used for carrying water for ablutions during ceremonies, like weddings and funerals.

Perfume Vases

The alabastron wasused to hold perfumes or massage oils so it had a long shape with a small mouth so that the contents would come out slowly and carefully without losing a drop.

Containers

The pyxis was a box with a lid for storing ointments. I’ve got a similar pot that I was gifted: a ceramic soap dish with its own lid, made of beautiful blue and white Portuguese pottery.

Comic Strips and Vases

Great themes of literature elaborated in the Greek myths are brought to life in the form of comic strips. The same colours of orange and black as we see on the Greek vases are repeated here. Each character from the myths connects to a theme: 

Helen of Troy and Women

The debate over women’s roles and rights is as powerful and relevant as it was back in ancient times. We’ve still got a long way to go, girls!


Dionysos and Diversity

We may know Dionysos as the pleasure-seeking Greek god of wine and fun but he also has a story to tell. He was half god and half human. Born in Thebes but brought up elsewhere. He returns to his hometown bringing with him new ways of worship which diverge from the traditional ones. He was like a stranger in his hometown.

Ajax and War

Achilles is killed during the Trojan Wars and Odysseus and Ajax fight for his armour. Odysseus wins and Ajax is driven mad by his loss. Ultimately he puts an end to his own life. In the words of the exhibition: ‘War, violence, and brute force are recurring presences in the history of mankind, unfortunately to modern day’.

Eros and Desire

We know that Eros represents desire but the exhibition also suggests that he represents our ‘need for beauty and meaning. A purely human impulse to find beautiful things’. Eros, I hear you…

Finally we arrive at this amazing vase representing the Amazons doing battle and at rest.

The exhibition closes with this picture of two people side by side although separated by centuries. The Greek craftsman decorating a vase to tell stories of life in Ancient Greece. The girl with an electronic tablet has made her own vase using digital technology. 

‘…for as long as there’s a story to tell, there will be someone to bring it to life’.