 |
Neck Amphora
Terracotta, Greek, Attic, black-figure, ca. 540 B.C.
Attributed to Exekias
Rogers Fund, 1917 (17.230.14a,b)
Gift of John Davidson Beazley, 1927 (27.16)
The Bothmer Gallery I
|
 |
The favorite shape of this Attic black-figure artist, Exekias, who was both potter and painter, was the amphora in the black-figure technique. Black silhouettes enlivened by careful incisions of details of anatomy and patterned dresses, coupled with clever use of superposed red and white for the red of some beards and hair, and the white flesh of women or some horses establish a pleasant contrast of colors. On this vase, the clear division of the neck from the shoulder and the mouth as well as the carefully chosen subsidiary ornaments—most notably the spirals under the handles and the band pattern of lotuses between key patterns below the scenes—organize the surface of the vase. The flat shoulder of the vase gives us a subsidiary frieze with battle scenes drawn on a smaller scale. Overlap is avoided.
At the center of the procession is a chariot drawn by four horses, of which one is painted white for greater contrast. The accompanying youth evokes Apollo playing his kithara—look at how its ivory ornaments on the arms are neatly distinguished from the wood of the box by white put on the black glaze. The subject may be Athena as charioteer conducting Herakles to Olympus, while another woman, perhaps also a goddess, faces the two and greets them.
Note that for once this vase has its proper lid, a sloping one surmounted by a pomegranate knob which—like a roof on a house—allows us to appreciate the tectonic quality of the vase and makes us regret that so many of these amphorae have lost their lids either in antiquity or when they were sold in modern times.
Click on the floor plan for information about the galleries.  |
|
· Timeline · Object Menu · Greek Home
|
|
