Terracotta Nolan neck-amphora (jar)
Obverse, Greek fighting an Amazon
Reverse, man with staff
The combination of subjects on the obverse and reverse is thought-provoking because one is mythological and the other reflects fifth-century B.C. Athens. In its mythological prehistory, Athens was attacked by the Amazons, a tribe of warrior-women whose homeland lay beyond the Black Sea. Theseus, the legendary king of Attica, fought against the invaders and married Antiope, the Amazon queen. The iconography here brings an event of the distant past into the reality of the present.
Reverse, man with staff
The combination of subjects on the obverse and reverse is thought-provoking because one is mythological and the other reflects fifth-century B.C. Athens. In its mythological prehistory, Athens was attacked by the Amazons, a tribe of warrior-women whose homeland lay beyond the Black Sea. Theseus, the legendary king of Attica, fought against the invaders and married Antiope, the Amazon queen. The iconography here brings an event of the distant past into the reality of the present.
Artwork Details
- Title: Terracotta Nolan neck-amphora (jar)
- Artist: Attributed to the Dwarf Painter
- Period: Classical
- Date: ca. 440–430 BCE
- Culture: Greek, Attic
- Medium: Terracotta; red-figure
- Dimensions: H. 13 in. (33 cm); diameter of mouth 5 15/16 in. (15.1 cm); diameter of foot 3 1/2 in. (8.9 cm)
- Classification: Vases
- Credit Line: Fletcher Fund, 1956
- Object Number: 56.171.42
- Curatorial Department: Greek and Roman Art
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