Jarred exhibition at Touchstones Rochdale

2500 year old ancient Greek vase takes centre stage in the Touchstones Rochdale Heritage Gallery

2500 year old ancient Greek vase takes centre stage in the Heritage Gallery.

New exhibition Jarred showcasing ceramics from Rochdale borough’s museum and art gallery collection is now open at Touchstones Rochdale. This display of around 100 objects looks at how ceramics help us in our everyday lives and tells their story from 4000BC to the present day. It reveals some extraordinary objects and it is the first time that many have been shown. Amongst the highlights is an ancient Greek vase made over 2500 years ago, well before Alexander the Great was born or the Parthenon was built.

Working with Dr Regine May, a Classics lecturer from the University of Leeds, the museum has been able to unravel the two pictures shown on this vase. The paintings are both beautiful and a little gory. The first shows a sorrowful parting scene as soldiers leave home for war. This is contrasted with the furious fighting of three warriors and a chariot on the opposite side.

Originally used as a grave marker or to store wine, the vase was made in Athens by an artist known as the Swing Painter. He was given this name because he also painted a famous vase showing a girl on a swing which is now in the Museum of Fine Art in Boston. Some Greek vase painters signed their names but others are known because of their distinctive style. Scholars gave various nick-names to anonymous painters which they identified such as the Cyclops Painter or the Elbows Out Painter. The Swing Painter was very good at using colour and often painted figures with clenched fists and large heads with small noses!

Dr Regine May said: “Rochdale is lucky to have such a wonderful Greek work of art and to bring a little bit of ancient Greece alive today, two and a half thousand years after it was painted.” Vases by this artist can also be found in Paris, Munich, London and Berlin.

As part of Adult Learning Week, join Dr Regine May on Saturday 13 June from 2pm - 2.45pm for her Ancient Greek Vase Talk. Come along and find out more about the amazing ancient Greek vase on display in the Jarred exhibition. The talk lasts 45 minutes and is free. Please pre-book by calling us on 01706 924492.

Visitors to this free exhibition at Touchstones Rochdale can also see an array of other ceramics from the museum collection ranging from teapots to tiles, ancient Egyptian pottery to chimney stacks, prized ornaments to studio pieces. These objects are used to tell the exhibition stories.

Visitors can discover how ceramics have been used to commemorate events, places and people. The decorative styles that have influenced the design of ceramics are explored along with stories of the local brickworks which helped to build Lancashire's famous mills and terraces. Families can join in the fun with hand-on interactives, an Alice in Wonderland tea party and a white rabbit trail.