Harvard 1927.150 (Vase)
Side A: Triton. Side B: Nereid.
- ID:
- aa_5335
- Beazley Number:
- 201859
- Type:
- Vase
- Date:
- ca. -490
- Period:
- Late Archaic
- Painter:
- Attributed to the Berlin Painter
- Condition:
Unbroken and in excellent condition.
- Dimensions:
-
H. 0.307 m.; D. 0.18 m.
- Ware:
- Attic Red Figure
- Shape:
- Neck amphora
Shape Description
Small, with double handles (i.e. a "doubleen"). Disk foot. Flaring mouth. Not a Nolan.
Decoration Description
Side A: Triton swims to the right, his human upper half erect and his serpentine lower body undulating behind and terminating in a forked tail similar to a dolphin's. The spotted tail is tinted with brown dilute glaze and has two pairs of fins. Triton's human half is clothed in a himation decorated with dot-rosettes and a chiton with folds drawn in dilute glaze. His long hair is tied in a krobylos secured with a wreath of added red. In his right hand he holds a scepter and in his left, a dolphin. The little finger of his right hand is stiffly extended.
Side B: A Nereid in a belted chiton runs to the left; the chiton folds are drawn with diluted glaze. She seems to be in a state of agitation, for she stretches forth both arms and her loose hair gives her a somewhat wild appearance. If she is running to relate the news of her sister Thetis' capture by Peleus the normal task of running, agitated Nereids then the figure on Side A might not be Triton, but rather her father Nereus, the normal recipient of this news. Although Nereus is normally represented in human form in this period, on early black-figure vases he was sometimes depicted in fish-tailed form. On a kylix by the Kleophrades Painter,
The groundlines below each figure consist of a band of key pattern to right. The vase is otherwise entirely black, save for two incised lines framing the fillet above the foot.
- Collection:
- Cambridge, Harvard University Art Museums
Gift of Mr. E. P. Warren.
Citations and Bibliography
CVA, Fogg-Gallatin.
