VIENNA.- The seventh edition of the Vitrine EXTRA series draws attention to often overlooked inscriptions on Greek vases – from quickly scribbled trader’s notes to the signatures of proud workshop owners, which seem like precursors to today’s ‘Made by’ labels used to identify a particular brand.

Vases speak volumes: small inscriptions, big stories

When we think about ancient inscriptions, we perhaps have the image before our eyes of large-scale texts chiselled in stone. They can, however, appear quite differently as well: they can be delicately engraved and briskly painted. Vitrine EXTRA #7 shows how Greek inscriptions on vases not only inform, but also surprise or create exciting new images.

In Greek Antiquity, vases were not only artistically painted, but also inscribed – some of the inscriptions carved, some of them painted. Incised inscriptions were usually made after firing and rarely had anything to do with the image depicted on the vessel. In contrast, painted inscriptions were created at the same time as the vase’s pictoral decoration and are therefore part of the overall concept. These inscriptions have the potential to reveal the everyday life and culture of people living over 2,000 years ago.

Turned upside down

Vitrine EXTRA #7 focuses for the first time on the great diversity of these texts. In two special displays, vases are turned (almost) upside down, allowing visitors to see their otherwise hidden undersides. There, markings and notes made by ancient merchants and potters can be discovered, which bear witness to the use and history of these objects far beyond their function as artistically designed vessels.

What inscriptions tell us (and don’t tell us)

At seven additional stations in the gallery the presentation highlights exciting aspects such as the development of the Greek alphabet, name inscriptions, workshop signatures and the so- called kalos inscriptions: praises of young men’s – and, more rarely, women’s – beauty which today pose just as much of a mystery as the so-called ‘nonsense inscriptions’, which make no linguistic sense. Was the vase painter illiterate? Are the symbols imaginative additions to templates or do they merely serve a decorative function?

For Vitrine EXTRA #7, all inscriptions have been translated and explained concisely. Modern labels are also presented: labels, inventory numbers, notes from previous owners – each vase is not only an object from antiquity, but also presents a part of collection history.

The exhibition will be on view at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna from 5 September 2025 until 1 March 2026.