sigmund freud's collection an archaeology of the mind

Corinthian black-fi gured Alabastron (Mistress of animals)
Greek, Archaic period, c.600 BC
terracotta, 28.2 x 15.0 cm
LDFRD 3699
Collection Freud Museum London
In 1904, Freud visited Corinth with his brother Alexander. It was his
fi rst, and only, visit to Greece. They stayed three days in Athens
where Freud wrote to Martha, his wife, that he had made ‘a few small
purchases, the continuation of my dealing with antiquity.’ 1 They also
stopped in Corinth where Freud could see the excavations being
conducted by the American School of Classical Studies at Athens.
Corinth was famous for its vases. Around 700 B.C., vase painters
in Corinth revitalised their wares by ‘Orientalising’ them with wildly
exuberant, curvilinear patterns. They also created a bold, black,
silhouette technique. To decorate their works they borrowed from West
Asia’s bestiary of fabulous creatures: the Sphinx, the Siren, the Griffi n
and the Gorgon. In the fully developed Corinthian style that fl ourished
until 550 B.C., the vases are crowded with fi gures set against
backgrounds of elaborately patterned fl oral ornament.
Freud collected nearly a dozen Archaic period Corinthian vases.
The largest and most impressive is this Alabastron, showing a winged
Mistress of Animals. An alabastron is an elongated, narrow necked
vase that holds oil or perfume. The Mistress of Animals was a West
Asian goddess, often depicted in Minoan and Mycenean art, and
assimilated into Greek art as Artemis, goddess of the hunt. A popular
subject in Corinthian art, she displayed power over nature and was
usually shown, as on Freud’s vase, subduing wild creatures. 2 Seen
in profi le, the goddess holds a swan by the neck in either hand, their
extended wings echoing her own. On her head, she wears a polos, the
tall crown worn by goddesses in this period. At fi rst, the dense, all-over
patterning in red and black makes the fi gures diffi cult to decipher, like
a visual puzzle, a characteristic of Corinthian vases.
1. Sigmund Freud, Unser Herz zeigt nach dem Süden. Reisebriefe 1895-1923, (Our
Heart Points to the South: Travel Letters. 1895-1923.), edited by Christfried Tögel, in
collaboration with Michael Molnar, Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin:, 2002, p.193.
2. Nanno Marinatos, The Goddess and the Warrior: the naked goddess and mistress of
animals in early Greek religion, Routledge, London/New York, 2000, p.97.
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