Terracotta pelike (wine jar)
Attributed to the Amazon Painter
Obverse, Greeks fighting Amazons
Reverse, maenad between two satyrs
In many Attic vases of the fourth century B.C., the figural decoration and the surface of the vase are no longer in the perfect harmony that earlier vase-painters were able to achieve. The bodies seem almost three-dimensional, and the composition is confused apparently in an attempt to imitate large contemporary panel and wall paintings. The addition of much white, yellow, and gilding is typical of what is traditionally known as the "Kerch style" because many such vases have been found in princely tombs in the area of Kerch in the Crimea on the northern shore of the Black Sea.
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