On the body, obverse and reverse, man and woman in chariot accompanied by woman and kithara player On the shoulder, combat of foot soldiers and horsemen
Black-figure was a cumbersome, restricted, and quite artificial technique. The vases in this room testify to the variety of effect and the forcefulness of expression that is nonetheless permitted. Probably the greatest single black-figure artist was Exekias, who was both potter and painter. Although the essential ingredients of this work are traditional, its particular character is evident in the robust shape, the extraordinary precision and vitality in the figures and ornament, and the perfect relation of the decorative elements to the body beneath.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Terracotta neck-amphora (jar) with lid and knob (27.16)
Artist:Attributed to Exekias
Period:Archaic
Date:ca. 540 BCE
Culture:Greek, Attic
Medium:Terracotta; black-figure
Dimensions:H. 18 1/2 in. (47 cm) diameter 9 3/4 in. (24.8 cm)
Classification:Vases
Credit Line:Rogers Fund, 1917
Accession Number:17.230.14a, b
Possibly between 1787-1790, acquired by Sir William Hamilton (British Envoy and Plenipotentiary at the court of Naples), Naples; from the late 1780's to 1801, possibly in the collection of Sir William Hamilton; 1801-1917, vase and lid probably in the possession of the Hope Family, at Deepdene, Surrey, England (1801-1831 with Thomas Hope; 1831-1862 with Henry Thomas Hope; 1862-1877 with Mrs. Henry Thomas Hope; from 1877 with Henrietta Adela Hope and the Sixth Duke of Newcastle; already in 1893 with Lord Henry Francis Hope, the second son of the Sixth Duke of Newcastle); vase acquired July 24, 1917, purchased at auction, Christie, Manson and Woods, London; lid acquired 1926, gift of J. D. Beazley, who purchased it July 24, 1917, at auction, Christie, Manson and Woods, London.
Christie's, London. 1917. Celebrated collection of Greek, Roman & Egyptian sculpture and ancient Greek vases, being a portion of the Hope Heirlooms. July 23–24, 1917. no. 33, p. 9.
Tillyard, E.M.W. 1923. The Hope Vases: A Catalogue and a Discussion of the Hope Collection of Greek Vases. no. 15, pp. 30–31, pl. 3, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1927. Handbook of the Classical Collection. p. 87, fig. 54, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Beazley, John D. 1928. "Attic Black Figure: A Sketch." Proceedings of the British Academy, 14: no. 18, p. 242.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1930. Handbook of the Classical Collection. p. 87, fig. 54, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Richter, Gisela M. A. and Marjorie J. Milne. 1935. Shapes and Names of Athenian Vases. pp. 3–4, fig. 15, New York: Plantin Press.
Technau, Werner. 1936. Exekias: Bilder griechischer vasen, Vol. 9, John D. Beazley and Paul Jacobsthal, eds. no. 17, pl. 4, Berlin: H. Keller.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1950. The Sculpture and Sculptors of the Greeks, 3rd edn. pp. 95, 438, fig. 277, New Haven: Yale University Press.
Metzger, Henri. 1951. Les représentations dans la céramique attique du IVe siècle. no. 11, pp. 24, 26, 70–7, Paris: E. de Boccard.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1953. Handbook of the Greek Collection. p. 198, pl. 38b, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Beazley, John D. 1956. Attic Black-figure Vase-painters. p. 144, no. 3, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1970. "The Department of Greek and Roman Art: Triumphs and Tribulations." Metropolitan Museum Journal, 3: p. 92, fig. 37.
Beazley, John D. 1971. Paralipomena: Additions to Attic Black-Figure Vase-Painters and to Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters [2nd edition]. p. 59, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
von Bothmer, Dietrich. 1972. Greek Vase Painting: An Introduction. no. 12, pp. 4, 24–25, 69, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
von Bothmer, Dietrich. 1972. "Greek Vase Painting." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 31(1): no. 9, pp. 4, 24–25, 67.
von Bothmer, Dietrich. 1978. Antichnoe iskusstvo iz muzeia Metropoliten, Soedinennye Shtaty Ameriki: Katalog vystavki. no. 32, Moscow: Sovetskii Khudozhnik.
Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1980. The Horses of San Marco: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, February 1-June 1, 1980, New York. no. 16, p. 4, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Martelli, Marina Cristofani. 1983. "Il 'Marte' di Ravenna." Xenia Antiqua, 6: p. 8, , 10 (left.
Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1987. Greece and Rome. no. 24, pp. 40–1, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Manchester, Karen. 1999. "The New Greek and Roman Galleries at the Metropolitan Museum of Art." Apollo, 150: p. 8, fig. 10.
Picón, Carlos A. 2007. Art of the Classical World in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Greece, Cyprus, Etruria, Rome no. 75, pp. 78, 420, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Mertens, Joan R. 2010. How to Read Greek Vases. no. 11, pp. 24, 26, 70–74, 88, 112, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Galitz, Kathryn. 2016. The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Masterpiece Paintings. no. 16, p. 24, New York: Skira.
Metropolitan Museum of Art. 2020. ART = Discovering Infinite Connections in Art History. pp. 068, 267, New York: Phaidon Press.
Arbeid, Barbara, Elena Ghisellini, and Maria Rosaria Luberto. 2022. Ho Pais Kalos : Scritti Di Archeologia Offerti a Mario Iozzo per Il suo Sessantacinquesimo Compleanno p. 251, n. 53, Monte Compatri (RM): Edizioni Espera.
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The Museum's collection of Greek and Roman art comprises more than 30,000 works ranging in date from the Neolithic period to the time of the Roman emperor Constantine's conversion to Christianity in A.D. 312.
