Wrzburg L 508 (Vase)
Scenes of interrupted duels: Side A: Ajax and Phoinix; Side B: Hektor and Priam or Antenor
- ID:
- aa_4992
- Beazley Number:
- 201658
- Type:
- Vase
- Date:
- ca. -480
- Period:
- Late Archaic
- Context:
- From Vulci
- Region:
- Etruria
- Painter:
- Attributed to the Kleophrades Painter
- Dimensions:
-
H. 0.432 m.
- Ware:
- Attic Red Figure
- Shape:
- Amphora, type A
Date Description
A later work of this painter.
Shape Description
Amphora of Type A
Decoration Description
The topic, the interruption of the duel of Ajax and Hektor, is developed on both sides of the vase. The picture is divided into two groups corresponding closely to each other. Each of them shows an old, white-haired man in a chiton and mantle, leaning on a long staff, who leads a warrior after him. The warriors follow reluctantly with hostile backwards glances.
Side A: A Greek hoplite is restrained and led away by an old man leaning on a long stick. The group is moving to the left, but both men look backwards. The warrior, who is fully armed and helmeted, opens his mouth to speak. He has long black hair falling in ringlets over his shoulder and black beard. On his right hand he holds a sword in a scabbard with a sword belt. He carries a spear and a round shield with an Ethiopian (?) as a device. The black slim figure on the shield is blowing a long trumpet and carries a sword on a scabbard. The foot of the warrior, seen from the front breaks the frame underneath: a meander band. The drawing of his armor on the body, the legs and the greaves are missing.
The warrior is drawn by his right hand by the old man dressed in chiton and himation or mantle, labelled
Side B: Another group of a hoplite and an old man moving to the right but turning their heads to look backwards. The hoplite is seen from his back. He is bearded and his long black hair falls down over his back in ringlets. He carries in his left hand a round shield seen from the back, showing the inner side of the shield and its handle, and a spear. In his right he carries a decorated belt. His position, the position of his feet is the same as that of the hoplite on Side A, but from the back; the two figures thus correspond symmetrically to one another. The old man who is leading him away is dressed in long chiton and himation, and has white hair and beard. His hair is gathered back in a small pony tail. He leans in a long staff. The name of the hoplite is preserved:
Even though the name of the warrior on side A is not preserved, he must be Ajax, and the picture represents the episode described by Homer (
The artist, however, treats the subject with the customary license. In Homer it is the heralds Talthybios and Idaios who part the combatants. Instead, the Kleophrades Painter made two venerable old men as a mediators, calling the one on Ajax's side Phoinix, whom he must have found particularly suited to represent sober reflection. The second old man was no doubt also named, but his name is not preserved. Beazley suggested that the old man restraining Hector could be Antenor, as the counterpart of Phoinix who restrained Ajax on the other side of the vase. Later Beazley preferred to identify this person as Priam, citing an inscribed stamnos by the Triptolemos painter in a Swiss private collection (
The apparently hostile attitude and reluctance to let themselves be parted manifested by the warriors do not correspond either to the idyllic conclusion of the duel in
Graffiti
Figures are labelled:
- Collection:
- Martin von Wagner Museum, University of Wrzburg
From the Feoli Collection
Citations and Bibliography
Opus Nobile: Festschrift U. Jantzen, 1969, 144 ff
