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IMPORTANT ATTIC BLACK-FIGURE NECK AMPHORA FROM THE GROUP OF TORONTO 305 Amazonachy: Amazon before chariot wheeling around two warriors. Rev.: Dionysos and Ariadne with two satyrs and a maenad. Unbroken, with only minor scratches. The mouth, triple-handles, and torus foot are black. A red fillet separates foot and body. Published: J. Eisenberg, One Thousand Years of Ancient Greek Vases, 1990, no. 30. Ex English collection; Ex Patricia Kluge collection, Charlottesville, Virginia, acquired from Royal-Athena in 1990. Ca. 520-510 BC H. 16 in. (40.6 cm.) Art of the Ancient World, 2011, no. 108 1,000 Years of Ancient Greek Vases II, no. 40 PK0990K SOLD |
| Lotus and palmette chain on the neck, with incision and red detailing. Quatrefoils of palmettes and spiraling tendrils under the handles. Alternating red and black tongues on either side below the neck. The groundline consists of a single line of thinned glaze. A band of rays circles the lower body, and above this are bands of lotus buds and a key pattern to left. Side A: In a battle between Greeks and Amazons (Amazonomachy), a four-horse chariot (quadriga) is wheeling to the left. The horses have already turned, but the chariot itself still faces frontally, with the wheels foreshortened. The charioteer is not visible, but we see the Theban shield he wears on his back, with its red rim, device of white balls, and characteristic indented sides; in vase-painting, most charioteers in battle carry such a shield on their back. Of the warrior riding beside the charioteer, we see only his high-crested Corinthian helmet, his scabbard, his two long spears, and his round Argive shield, with red spots on the rim. The chariot box is red, as are the chest-straps of the horses facing frontally (the normal arrangement in such scenes). An air of equine ferocity is reinforced by the open mouths and white teeth. At the left is an Amazon carrying a spear and shield and wearing a short chiton, a bronze cuirass, and a high-crested Attic helmet with a red fillet. The shield has a red rim and is foreshortened to show part of the interior. The Amazon falls to the left; at first glance, the horses seem to be trampling her, but in fact she is behind them. Her attacker is probably the warrior at the far right, who strides to the left behind the chariot, his face hidden by the shield of the charioteer. The warrior wears a short chiton, red-rimmed greaves, a scabbard, and a high-crested Corinthian helmet. He holds a spear in each hand: one held high in the right hand, the other carried low in the left. Side B: In the center, Dionysos stands to the right holding a rhyton (drinking horn) in his left hand and a grapevine in his right. He wears an ivy wreath with red and black leaves, a red-striped himation, and a chiton with embroidered hem and collar and white rosettes. Like the two satyrs in the scene, the god has a long red beard. One satyr stands empty-handed at the far right; the other stands behind Dionysos holding a jug, ready to fill the god’s rhyton when summoned. Behind this satyr, at far left, is a maenad wearing a deerskin (nebris) over a chiton decorated with stars, white rosettes, and red dots. A second woman, probably Dionysos’ consort, Ariadne, stands before the god, in a chiton and red-striped himation, her right hand gesturing toward him. Both women have white skin; both satyrs, red tails. Both subjects are relatively common in Attic black-figure of the last quarter of the 6th century. Wheeling chariots first become popular about 530 B.C. and continue to be represented on a variety of shapes until the end of the century. Two of the earliest examples appear on either side of a splendid belly amphora in the Toledo Museum of Art (80.1022), signed by Exekias as potter, and attributed to a Painter of Group E; see CVA, Toledo 2, pls. 81-83. For other black-figure scenes of an Amazon confronting a wheeling chariot, see Dietrich von Bothmer, Amazons in Greek Art (Oxford 1957) 84-88, pl. 57, 3-5. The Group of Toronto 305 was identified by Beazley as being related to the Antimenes Painter: ABV 282-83, and 692; Paralipomena 124-25; Beazley Addenda 74. Beazley attributed most of the vases in the Group to the same hand, the Painter of Toronto 305. The Dionysos on this vase recalls the god on the Toronto amphora (ABV 282, 2), but there are enough differences to prevent a firm attribution to the same hand. No other vase in the Group has a wheeling chariot, but Amazons appear on three other vases in battle with Herakles: ABV 283, 14; Paralipomena 124, 2 ter and 2 quarter. |
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