Obverse and reverse, Amazonomachy (battle between Greeks and Amazons)
The number of figures and the complexity of poses here reflect an innovation that entered vase-painting about the middle of the fifth century B.C. and is generally attributed to the influence of monumental wall-painting. The frontal mounted Amazon in the middle of the composition, her falling comrade to the left, and the overlapping of figures, shields, and weapons dramatically convey the tumult of battle. At the same time, the many spatial planes strain the implicitly shallow stage provided by the black background of a vase. The fundamental incompatibility between naturalistic representation and the expressive possibilities offered by vase-painting led to the latter's demise—although that would come only at the end of the fourth century B.C. In the meantime, artists exploited every possibility to depict motion and emotion in the human figure.
This image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.
Open Access
As part of the Met's Open Access policy, you can freely copy, modify and distribute this image, even for commercial purposes.
API
Public domain data for this object can also be accessed using the Met's Open Access API.
This artwork is meant to be viewed from right to left. Scroll left to view more.
Artwork Details
Use your arrow keys to navigate the tabs below, and your tab key to choose an item
Title:Terracotta calyx-krater (bowl for mixing wine and water)
Artist:Attributed to the Painter of the Berlin Hydria
Period:Classical
Date:ca. 460–450 BCE
Culture:Greek, Attic
Medium:Terracotta; red-figure
Dimensions:H. 21 15/16 in. (55.8 cm) diameter 22 15/16 in. (58.3 cm)
Classification:Vases
Credit Line:Rogers Fund, 1907
Object Number:07.286.86
Said to have been found in ancient Numana, province of Ancona, Italy (Beazley 1963, p. 616)
Ca. 1901-1902, found by Dr. Girolamo Rilli in the necropolis of Numana; [1907, purchased by Alfredo Barsanti from Dr. G. Rilli]; acquired in 1907, purchased from A. Barsanti.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1917. Handbook of the Classical Collection. p. 106, fig. 65, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Richter, Gisela M. A., Marjorie J. Milne, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1922. Shapes of Greek Vases. New York.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1927. Handbook of the Classical Collection. pp. 139–40, fig. 96, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1930. Handbook of the Classical Collection. pp. 139–40, fig. 96, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Jacobsthal, Paul. 1934–1936. "The Nekyia Krater in New York." Metropolitan Museum Studies, 5(1): p. 135.
Richter, Gisela M. A. and Lindsley F. Hall. 1936. Red-Figured Athenian Vases in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. no. 99, pp. 129–31, pls. 99, 170, New Haven: Yale University Press.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1944, 1949. Greek Painting: The Development of Pictorial Representation from Archaic to Graeco-Roman Times. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1946. Attic Red-Figured Vases: A Survey. p. 91, fig. 31, New Haven: Yale University Press.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1953. Handbook of the Greek Collection. pp. 86, 227, pl. 67b, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
von Bothmer, Dietrich. 1957. Amazons in Greek Art. no. 2, p. 161, pl. 74, 2, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Bandinelli, Ranuccio Bianchi. 1958. Enciclopedia dell'Arte Antica, Classica e Orientale, Vol. 4. p. 59, fig. 76, Rome: Instituto della Enciclopedia Italiana.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1958[1946]. Attic Red-Figured Vases: A Survey, Revised Edition, 2nd edn. p. 91, fig. 31, New Haven: Yale University Press.
Beazley, John D. 1963[1942]. Attic Red-figure Vase-painters, Vols. 1 and 2, 2nd ed. pp. 616, 1662, no. 3, Add. 1, pp. 615–17, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1970. "The Department of Greek and Roman Art: Triumphs and Tribulations." Metropolitan Museum Journal, 3: pp. 75, 80, fig. 13.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1970. Perspective in Greek and Roman Art. p. 23, n. 4, fig. 89, New York and London: Phaidon Press.
Beazley, John D. 1971. Paralipomena: Additions to Attic Black-Figure Vase-Painters and to Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters [2nd edition]. p. 397, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Barron, John P. 1972. "New Light on Old Walls the Murals of the Theseion." The Journal of Hellenic Studies, : pp. 35–36, 39, pl. IVb.
Barron, John P. 1972. "New Light on Old Walls the Murals of the Theseion." The Journal of Hellenic Studies, 92: pp. 35–36, 39, pl. IVb.
Robertson, Martin and Cambridge University Press. 1975. A History of Greek Art, Vols. 1 and 2. pp. 258, 501, pl. 87d, Cambridge, England.
Arias, P.E. 1980. "Nuovo Contributo alla Tradizione Figurata dell'Amazzonomachia del V sec. a. C." Forschungen und Funde : Festschrift Bernhard Neutsch, Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Kulturwissenschaft: p. 52.
Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC). 1981. Vol. 1: Aara-Aphlad. "Amazones," p. 606, no. 296; " Antiope II," p. 859, no. 17, pl. 686, Zürich: Artemis Verlag.
Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1987. Greece and Rome. no. 43, pp. 10, 62–3, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Bol, Renate. 1998. Amazones Volneratae: Untersuchungen ze den Ephesischen Amazonenstauen. n. 502, Mainz am Rhein: Verlag Philipp von Zabern.
Veness, Ruth. 2002. "Investing the Barbarian? The Dress of Amazons in Athenian Art." Women's Dress in the Ancient Greek World, Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones, ed. p. 99 n. 29, London: Gerald Duckworth.
Picón, Carlos A. 2007. Art of the Classical World in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Greece, Cyprus, Etruria, Rome no. 126, pp. 116, 430, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Plantzos, Dimitris. 2018. The Art of Painting in Ancient Greece. pp. 117–18, fig. 113, Atlanta: Lockwood Press.
The Met's Libraries and Research Centers provide unparalleled resources for research and welcome an international community of students and scholars.
The Met Collection API is where all makers, creators, researchers, and dreamers can connect to the most up-to-date data and public domain images for The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.
Feedback
We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.
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.
