Perseus Art and Archaeology Browser

ID:

aa_4352

Type:

Vase

Date:

ca. -520 — ca. -510

Period:

Late Archaic

Painter:

Attributed to the Leagros Group

Dimensions:

H. 0.391 m.; D. 0.262 m.

Ware:

Attic Black Figure

Shape:

Neck amphora

Shape Description

Standard neck-amphora type for the period, with tapering body, triple-reeded handles, echinus mouth, torus foot, and fillet between foot and body.

Decoration Description

Side A: A hoplite has just taken leave of an older man, probably his father, and is preparing to board a chariot, which has already been already mounted by a charioteer. The chariot and horses are in profile to the right, and the warrior and father stand behind them. The father's legs and lower body are largely hidden by the horses. The warrior's body is obscured from chin to mid-thigh by his round shield, while his legs are largely concealed by the tails of the horses. The father, his age indicated by his bald head, wears a chiton, himation, and red fillet and carries a staff. The warrior wears greaves and a Corinthian helmet with a stilted crest, the latter overlapping the upper border and edged with a stripe of added red that trails off into two strands. The shield has a red rim and a white device, the latter now effaced and unrecognizable. The warrior's two spears cross his father's staff, which in turn crosses the goad of the charioteer. The latter stands erect in the chariot box, pulling the reins taut with both hands. He has a red beard and forelock and wears a long gown, the added white of which is largely worn off. The trace horse in the foreground has a red tail and mane, the latter now badly worn.

Side B: A warrior stands in profile to the left between two frontal horsemen, their mounts so severely foreshortened that only their legs, tails, breasts, and heads are visible. Both horses have red manes and both turn to look toward the warrior. The riders look away from the warrior, to left and right; they are beardless youths, each with a red forelock and short tunic and carrying a long spear. The warrior is represented in the same way as the one on Side A, with a round shield covering his body from chin to mid-thigh. He wears greaves and a Corinthian helmet with a stilted crest, which overlaps the upper border. He carries a pair of spears, and a swag of drapery emerging from behind the shield implies a cloak of some kind. The added white of the shield device has worn off, but one can see that it was a disembodied human leg, bent to suggest running (cf. Harvard 1960.314). The rim of the shield is red.

On either side of the neck is a lotus and palmette chain; added red is used for the cuffs of the lotuses and the cores of the palmettes. On either side of the shoulder, above the figures, is a band of black tongues. The groundline consists of a band of key pattern to right, framed by triple stripes. Below this, separated by triple stripes, are a band of upright lotus buds and a band of rays. Below the handles on either side is a symmetrical quatrefoil of palmettes linked by coiling tendrils, with a lotus flower on either side of the central junction and a third pendant below it; in the heart of the intersection is a cross. The fillets between foot and body and between body and neck are painted red, and there is a red stripe around the edge of the rim. The mouth is black inside and out, but reserved on top. The foot is black, as are the outsides of the handles.

Collection:

Cambridge, Harvard University Art Museums

David M. Robinson Bequest.

Citations and Bibliography

Sotheby's, July 29, 1949, no. 168; Robinson exhibition catalogue 1961, no. 70.