Side B: horserace winner
Side B: horserace winner
[Image not available]
Three-dimensional approximation of the vase
| Collection: | London, British Museum |
| Summary: | Side A: Athena with Hermes and unidentified man. Side B: The winner in a horse race. |
| Ware: | Attic Black Figure |
| Painter: | Attributed to the Swing Painter |
| Context: | From Vulci |
| Date: | ca. 540 BC |
| Dimensions: | H 0.447m |
| Primary Citation: | |
| Shape: | Panathenaic amphora |
| Beazley Number: | 301539 |
| Region: | Etruria |
| Period: | Archaic |
Decoration Description:
Side A: At center stands Athena, facing left between two male figures, Hermes and Zeus(?). Her head, waist, and feet are shown in profile, while her shoulders are frontal. She holds her shield with her right hand and raises a spear high with her left. She wears a helmet, the high crest of which overlaps the tongue frieze on the upper border of the panel. Her shield bears the device of a ten-point star in added white. She wears a peplos, the upper part of which has borders in added red, the lower part with scales, girt at the waist, over which hangs her aegis decorated with a fringe of snakes in the front. Her face and arms are in added white for female flesh. Hermes on the left faces right, holding his caduceus in his right hand and raising his left to greet the goddess. He wears a petasos, a short chiton, an embroidered chlamys, and endromides (high boots). On the right stands the other male figure (Zeus?), facing left. He is bearded and wears a long chiton and himation. He carries a scepter of authority in his right hand.
Side B: A youthful male figure is shown on horseback at center, facing right. He reins in his magnificent horse with both hands and leans back slightly. He wears a short chiton bordered with dots. Behind him is a nude youth, facing right and carrying a tripod on his head and a wreath in his left hand. Both objects symbolize the victory. In front of the horseman a bearded figure walks to the right. This man, perhaps a herald, wears a long chiton, and white and red himation, and fillet. His head is raised slightly as if speaking the words inscribed before him,
On the neck there is a lotus-palmette chain. Beneath a raised fillet at the junction of neck and shoulder is a circumscribed tongue pattern in black and added red. On the lower body above the foot is a band of rays.
Inscriptions:
Inscribed before the herald are the words,
Collection History:
Found at Vulci in 1849.
Sources Used:
Other Bibliography: