a fish dish

Three sea ​​bass and three shells , Apulian red-figure fish dish, approx. 340 - 320 BC e. , British Museum

Apulian red-figure fish dish, 350–325 BC e., the Louvre

A fish dish is a dish of a special form, painted in the style of a red-figure vase painting mainly by fish and various marine animals - mollusks , shrimps , shells . Rarely enough, mythological creatures were used in the painting. Today, science knows about 1000 fish dishes. Fish dishes appeared in the V century BC. e.

The dishes depicted various breeds of fish and marine animals: bream , perch , stingray , tuna , flying fish , ball fish , scorpion , squid , cuttlefish , octopus , scallop , bivalve mollusk , dental , murex , liparis , shrimp , crabs , dolphins , hippocampus and others. The flat form of the dish was called pinaka or pinakion , which means blackboard . In the center of the dish is a small indentation for butter or sauce. The edges of the dish were bent down and painted with an ornament : spiral waves, meanders or wreaths of laurel leaves. The fish dish, as a rule, towered above the table on a stand. Dishes of this form have been known since the time of the Minoan culture , but only at the end of the 5th century BC. e. they began to sign.

Fish dishes first appeared in Athens at the end of the 5th century. BC e. The fish on them was always depicted belly to the edge. In Athens, the color palette of fish dishes was limited to the colors of red clay and black lacquer, occasionally with white painting. Later, Italiot Greeks in lower Italy engaged in the mass production of polychrome fish dishes in Taranto , Paestum , Capua and Kumah . On fish dishes from lower Italy, the fish was always portrayed belly to the indentation for the sauce in the center of the dish.