On the neck, obverse, battle of centaurs and Lapiths; reverse, youths and women Around the body, Amazonomachy (battle between Greeks and Amazons)
The ancient Greeks almost never depicted contemporary or historical events in art. Thus, while literary works of the fifth century B.C. make clear that the Greeks understood the magnitude of their victory in the Persian Wars, there was no concern among artists to illustrate major events or personalities. Instead, their preference was for grand mythological battles between Greeks and eastern adversaries, notably Amazons. The Amazons were a mythical race of warrior women whose homeland lay far to the east and north. The most celebrated Amazonomachies in Athens during the first half of the fifth century were large-scale wall paintings that decorated the Theseion and the Stoa Poikile (the Painted Portico). Their influence was considerable and underlies the representation here and on the adjacent krater, 06.286.86.
#1036. Terracotta volute-krater (bowl for mixing wine and water)
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Artwork Details
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Title:Terracotta volute-krater (bowl for mixing wine and water)
Artist:Attributed to the Painter of the Woolly Satyrs (namepiece)
Period:Classical
Date:ca. 450 BCE
Culture:Greek, Attic
Medium:Terracotta; red-figure
Dimensions:H. 25 in. (63.5 cm)
Classification:Vases
Credit Line:Rogers Fund, 1907
Accession Number:07.286.84
Said to be from Numana (Eastern Italy)
[Until 1907, with Alfredo Barsanti, Naples]; acquired in 1907, purchased from A. Barsanti.
Hauser, F. 1909. Griechische Vasenmalerei Serie II pp. 297–303, pls. 116–17, F. Bruckmann.
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Richter, Gisela M. A., Marjorie J. Milne, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1922. Shapes of Greek Vases. New York.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1927. Handbook of the Classical Collection. pp. 138, 140, fig. 95, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1930. Handbook of the Classical Collection. pp. 138, 140, fig. 95, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Richter, Gisela M. A. and Marjorie J. Milne. 1935. Shapes and Names of Athenian Vases. p. 7, figs. 51–52, New York: Plantin Press.
Richter, Gisela M. A. and Lindsley F. Hall. 1936. Red-Figured Athenian Vases in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. no. 98, pp. 126–29, pls. 97, 98, 171, New Haven: Yale University Press.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1944, 1949. Greek Painting: The Development of Pictoral Representation from Archaic to Graeco-Roman Times. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1946. Attic Red-Figured Vases: A Survey. p. 102, fig. 74, New Haven: Yale University Press.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1950. The Sculpture and Sculptors of the Greeks, 3rd edn. pp. 170, 512, fig. 483, New Haven: Yale University Press.
Metzger, Henri. 1951. Les représentations dans la céramique attique du IVe siècle. no. 25, pp. 124–30, 138, Paris: E. de Boccard.
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von Bothmer, Dietrich. 1972. Greek Vase Painting: An Introduction. no. 29, pp. 7, 58–59, 71, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
von Bothmer, Dietrich. 1972. "Greek Vase Painting." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 31(1): no. 24, pp. 7, 56–7, 68.
Barron, John P. 1972. "New Light on Old Walls the Murals of the Theseion." The Journal of Hellenic Studies, : pp. 25–28, 34, 35 n. 115, 39, pls. IIa–b, IVa.
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Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC). 1981. Vol. 1: Aara-Aphlad. "Amazones," p. 606, no. 295, pl. 478, Zürich: Artemis Verlag.
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Bol, Renate. 1998. Amazones Volneratae: Untersuchungen ze den Ephesischen Amazonenstauen. n. 502, Mainz am Rhein: Verlag Philipp von Zabern.
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Cohen, Beth. 2000. Not the Classical Ideal: Athens and the Construction of the Other in Greek Art p. 444, fig. 17.2, Leiden: Brill.
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Gebauer, Jörg. 2002. Pompe und Thysia: Attische Tieropferdarstellungen auf schwarz- und rotfigurigen Vasen. no. Ov 15, p. 575, Münster: Ugarit-Verlag.
Blundell, Sue. 2002. "Clutching at Clothes." Women's Dress in the Ancient Greek World, Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones, ed. London: Gerald Duckworth.
Veness, Ruth. 2002. "Investing the Barbarian? The Dress of Amazons in Athenian Art." Women's Dress in the Ancient Greek World, Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones, ed. p. 102 n. 34, fig. 5, London: Gerald Duckworth.
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Kimberly Cionca Sebesanu, MuSe intern in the Digital Department, writes about two ancient Greek myths involving the Amazons that are depicted on Greek ceramics at The Met.
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![Greek Vase Painting [adapted from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 31, no. 1 (Fall, 1972)]](/-/media/images/art/metpublication/cover/1987/greek_vase_painting.jpg)
