Material Terracotta
Dimensions 45 cm
Place of Creation Greece
Status Not Vetted

About the Work

Athena strides to the left on the obverse of this imposing amphora. Before her, a young woman stands draped in a long peplos and cloak, both arms outstretched to present a wreath to the goddess. At the right, Hermes – identifiable by his winged boots and kerykeion (herald’s staff) turns to look back to Athena. Here in the mode of ‘Promachos’ the goddess is shown battle-ready, wielding a slim spear in her raised left hand and wearing a high-crested helmet, round shield (decorated by a bird in flight), and protective aegis with an exuberantly snaky fringe. Beneath, her form-fitting peplos takes on the scaled motif associated with the aegis, here bound by red stripes beneath the goddess’s knees. The reverse shows two young pugilists contraposed on either side of an amphora of Panathenaic shape – presumably the prize awarded to the victor (and a clever reference to the vase it decorates). The athletes' hair is indicated in red and worn short, their trained bodies with muscles indicated by incision, and fists wrapped in leather thongs. The fight takes place under the supervision of two bearded trainers, or referees, each draped in a long mantle. The staffs they hold are used to separate the athletes in the event of foul play. Non-figural ornament is plentiful and concentrated towards the upper zone of the vase with a lotus-palmette chain at the neck, alternating red and black tongues on the shoulder, and stripes of added red at the base of the neck, framing the figural panels, and above the rays at the foot. Details in added red and white throughout. At the reserve, next to the left handle a graphito: o>.


Note

Our amphora was produced during the decades after the inaugural Panathenaic festival of 566 B.C. The vase shape, with distinctive narrow foot and neck, was created specifically to contain the olive-oil prize awarded to victors and is a testament to an enthusiastic local response to the festivities. When made as prizes, the decoration invariably featured striding Athena Promachos between two columns on the obverse and vignettes of athletic competition on the reverse. So-called pseudo-Panathenaic prize amphorae departed from this format, if only slightly, and reached peak popularity in the third quarter of the sixth century B.C. Many amphorae of the Panathenaic shape were produced in two closely related workshops: those of the Princeton and the Swing Painters which, interestingly, did not produce prize amphorae. The pseudo-Panathenaic amphora described here, together with another in Bonn (Beazley vase no. 42068) are the only known examples on which women are depicted. Here, the woman holding a wreath addresses the goddess in the presence of Hermes and has been alternately interpreted as a relative - wife or sister - of the victorious athlete of the boxing contest depicted on the reverse, holding the victor's crown and giving thanks to Athena.

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Provenance

Antike Kunst: 21 (1978), Advertisement page I (A)Münzen & Medaillen AG Basel, Kunstwerke der Antike, Auktion 56, 9 February 1980, lot 69
Private collection, Switzerland, acquired from the above

Literature

Antike Kunst: 21 (1978), Advertisement page I (A)
Kunstwerke der Antike, Münzen und Medaillen, A.G., Basel, sale catalogue 56 (19.2.1980), 30, pls.24-25, no. 69 (A, B)
E. Böhr, Der Schaukelmaler, Mainz 1982, 92, no. 91, pl. 89
Antike Kunst: 30 (1987) 1, pl.9.3-4
Italia, Arte e Scienza nello Sport, Seoul 1988/Rome 1988, 125, no. 4
H.A. Shapiro, Art and Cult under the Tyrants in Athens (Mainz, 1989): pl.12B (A)
L’Olympisme dans l’Antiquité, tome 2, Lausanne: Musée olympique, 1996, 46, no. 63
M. Bentz and N. Eschbach (eds.), Panathenaika, Symposion zu den Panathenäischen Preisamphoren, Rauischholzhausen 25.-29.11.1998 (Mainz, 2001): 184, no.152 (not illustrated)
E. Dozio et al. (eds.), Gli atleti di Zeus, Lo sport nell'antichita (Milan, 2009): 174, no.104 (colour of A and B)
J.H. Oakley and O. Palagia (eds.), Athenian Potters and Painters, Volume II (Oxford, 2010): 299, fig.4, colour plate 25A-B (part, colour of A and B)
Panayota Badinou, Olympiaka: anthologie des sources grecques, Lausanne 2000, 35
Beazley Archive Pottery Database no. 4438 (Lausanne, Musée Olympique: 63)

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