Attributed to the Kleophrades Painter

Additional Images (3)

Terracotta Panathenaic prize amphora

Period: Archaic

Date: ca. 500 B.C.

Culture: Greek, Attic

Medium: Terracotta; black-figure

Dimensions: H: 25 in. (63.5 cm)

Classification: Vases

Credit Line: Rogers Fund, 1916

Accession Number: 16.71

On view in Gallery 153

Description Object Information Related Objects Online Resources Video Audio

Obverse, Athena
Reverse, pankration (athletic contest) and judge

After the mid-sixth century B.C., artists' signatures do not appear on Panathenaic prize amphorae. It seems, however, that certain artists used their own "trademark" shield devices. The Kleophrades Painter favored Pegasos, the winged horse. The reverse of this vase depicts the pankration, which combined wrestling, boxing, and kicking. The inclusion of the judge may highlight the particular danger of the event to the competitors.

References

Richter, Gisela M. A. 1917. Handbook of the Classical Collection. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 81, fig. 48.

Richter, Gisela M. A. 1927. Handbook of the Classical Collection. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, pp. 92-93, fig. 59.

Richter, Gisela M. A. 1930. Handbook of the Classical Collection. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, pp. 92-93, fig. 59.

McClees, Helen and Christine Alexander. 1933. The Daily Life of the Greeks and Romans: As Illustrated in the Classical Collections, 5th edn. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, pp. 98, 100, fig. 124.

Alexander, Christine. 1933[1925]. Greek Athletics. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

McClees, Helen and Christine Alexander. 1941. The Daily Life of the Greeks and Romans: As Illustrated in the Classical Collections, 5th edn. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, pp. 98, 100, fig. 124.

Metzger, Henri. 1951. Les représentations dans la céramique attique du IVe siècle. Paris: E. de Boccard, no. 22, pp. 24, 92, 112.

Richter, Gisela M. A. 1953. Handbook of the Greek Collection. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, pp. 71, 213, pl. 53b.

Beazley, John D. 1978[1956]. Attic Black-Figure Vase-Painters. New York: Hacker Art Books, pp. 404, 696, no. 8, Add. 1, p. 404.

Beazley, John D. 1986[1951]. The Development of Attic Black Figure, Sather Classical Lectures, Vol. 24, 2nd edn. University of California: University of California Press, pp. 86-87, 108, n. 38, pl. 96, 3.

Bentz, Martin. 1998. Panathenaische Preisamphoren: eine athenische Vasengattung und ihre Funktion vom 6.-4. Jahrhundert v. Chr., Vereinigung der Freunde antiker Kunst, Vol. 18. Basel: Vereinigung der Freunde antiker Kunst, p. 44, fig. 5.009.