On the shoulder, a seated woman, perhaps a goddess, is approached by four youths and eight dancing maidens
On the body, women are making woolen cloth.
One of the most important responsibilities of women in ancient Greece was the preparation of wool and the weaving of cloth. Here, in the center, two women work at an upright loom. To the right, three women weigh wool. Farther to the right, four women spin wool into yarn, while between them finished cloth is being folded. The Amasis Painter is named after the potter, Amasis, who produced the vases.
Said to be from Attica (Richter 1931, p. 289).
Acquired September 28, 1931, purchased from C.T. Seltman, Esq., Cambridge, UK.
Richter, G. M. A. 1931. "A Stand by Kleitias and an Athenian Jug." MMA Bulletin 26: 291-94, figs. 4, 5.
Faxon, H. 1932. "A Model of an Ancient Greek Loom." MMA Bulletin 27: 70-71, figs. 1, 2.
McClees, H. 1933. The Daily Life of the Greeks and Romans as Illustrated in the Classical Collections. 5th ed. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 41, fig. 47.
Wace, A. J. B. 1934. "The Veil of Despoina." American Journal of Archaeology 38: 111, n. 3.
Haspels, C. H. E. 1936. Attic Black-Figured Lekythoi. Paris: E. de Boccard, pp. 12, 14, 99.
Beazley, J. D. 1956. Attic Black-Figure Vase-Painters. Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 154, no. 57, p. 688.
McLauchlin, B. K. 1981. "New Evidence on the Mechanics of Loom Weights." American Journal of Archaeology 85: 80, n. 14.
Bothmer, D. von. 1985. The Amasis Painter and His World: Vase Painting in Sixth-Century B.C. Athens. Malibu: J. Paul Getty Museum; New York: Thames & Hudson, pp. 185-87, no. 48, ill.
Keuls, E. C. 1985. The Reign of the Phallus: Sexual Politics in Ancient Athens. New York: Harper & Row, p. 106, fig. 93, a, b.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1987. Greece and Rome. New York The Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 37, pl. 22.
Barber, E. J. W. 1991. Prehistoric Textiles: The Development of Cloth in the Neolithic and Bronze Ages, with Special Reference to the Aegean. Princeton: Princeton University Press, pp. 72, 92, n. 7, figs. 2.38, 3.13.
Isler, H. P. 1994. "Der Töpfer Amasis und der Amasis-Maler." Jahrbuch des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts 109: 113.
Wagner-Hasel, B. 2002. "The Graces and Colour Weaving." In Women's Dress in the Ancient Greek World, edited by L. Llewellyn-Jones. London: Duckworth and Classical Press of Wales, pp. 24-25, fig. 3.
Llewellyn-Jones, L. 2003. Aphrodite's Tortoise: The Veiled Woman of Ancient Greece. London: Classical Press of Wales, p. 222, figs. 150a, 150b.
Neils, J. 2003. "Children and Greek Religion." In J. Neils and J. H. Oakley et al., Coming of Age in Ancient Greece: Images of Childhood from the Classical Past. New Haven: Yale University Press, p. 151, figs. 10a, 10b.
Picón, C. A., et al. 2007. Art of the Classical World in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 420, no. 73, ill. p. 76.
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