Terracotta amphora (jar)

Signed by Andokides 

Period:
Archaic
Date:
ca. 540 B.C.
Culture:
Greek, Attic
Medium:
Terracotta; black-figure
Dimensions:
H. 10 3/8 in. (26.4 cm)
Classification:
Vases
Credit Line:
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Christos G. Bastis, in honor of Carlos A. Picón, 1999
Accession Number:
1999.30a, b
  • Description

    Obverse and reverse, chariot

    This is the earliest preserved vase with the signature of the potter Andokides. Thus it constitutes a most important piece of evidence concerning the beginnings of the artist from whose workshop the red-figure technique emerged. It shares features with vases of Nikosthenes and Group E. The shape and the allocation of ornament—the zone of ivy for instance—testify to an independent artistic personality.

  • References

    Christie's London, Sale Catalogue, 15 July, 1948, Lot 12.

    Parke-Bernet, New York, Sale Catalogue, 7 December, 1951, no. 8.

    Ancient Art in American Private Collections. 1954. Harvard University, 28 December 1954- 15 February, 1955, Exhibition Catalogue. Cambridge, Mass.: The Museum, no. 254.

    Beazley, John D. 1956. Attic Black-Figure Vase-Painters. Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 253.

    von Bothmer, D. and C. Vermeule. 1956. "Notes on a New Edition of Michaelis: Ancient Marbles in Great Britain Part II." American Journal of Archaeology 60: 346.

    Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1961. Ancient Art from New York Private Collections: A Catalogue of an Exhibtion held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, December 17, 1959-February 28, 1960. New York: The Museum, no. 198.

    von Bothmer, Dietrich. 1966. "Andokides the Potter and the Andokides Painter." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 24(6): p. 202.

    Cohen, B. 1978. Attic Bilingual Vases and Their Painters. New York: Garland Publications, p. 3.

    Beazley, John D. 1986. The Development of Attic Black-figure. Berkeley: University of California Press, p. 69.

    Mackay. E. Anne. 1996. “Time and Timelessness in the Traditions of Early Greek Oral Poetry and Archaic Vase-Painting.” In Voice into Text: Orality and Literacy in Ancient Greece [Mnemosyne Supplement 157], ed. Ian Worthington. Leiden: Brill, p. 53 n. 17, fig. 6.

    Mertens, Joan R. 1999. "Recent Acquisitions, A Selection: 1998-1999." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 57(2): p. 8.

    Moore, Mary B. 2001. "Andokides and a Curious Attic Black-Figured Amphora." Metropolitan Museum Journal 36: pp. 15-19, 21-22, 24-32, figs. 1-8, 23-25.

    Picón, Carlos A., et al. 2007. Art of the Classical World in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, no. 95, pp. 89, 423.

    Mertens, Joan R. 2010. How to Read Greek Vases. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 104, fig. 38.

  • See also
    Who
    What
    Where
    When
    In the Museum
    Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History
    MetPublications
130017449:1

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