Side B: oblique from right

Side A: oblique from left

Side B: Dionysos

Side B: maenad

Side B: scene at center

Side B: Dionysos, maenad, and satyr

Collection: Toledo Museum of Art
Summary: Side A: Athena, Apollo and Hermes. Side B: Dionysos, maenad and satyr.
Ware: Attic Black Figure
Painter: Attributed to the Priam Painter
Date: ca. 510 BC - ca. 500 BC
Dimensions:

H. 0.435 m., d. rim 0.20 m., d. body 0.273 m., d. foot restored 0.14 m.

Primary Citation: Para, 146, no. 15 bis
Shape: Neck amphora
Period: Archaic


Decoration Description:

Side A: Athena with Apollo and Hermes. Athena stands in the center, with Apollo on the left and Hermes on the right. Athena's lower half points toward Hermes, but she twists at the waist to look back at Apollo. She holds her right hand up, as if greeting him. She wears a peplos, himation, fillet, aegis, and high-crested helmet with L-shaped cheek pieces. Apollo stands facing Athena, playing the kithara and wearing chiton, himation and fillet. Hermes, in chitoniskos, chlamys, boots and pilos, looks back at her and moves away. He is carrying a kerykeion in his right hand. A fawn with long ears is grazing behind Athena, where two leafed branches suggest trees.

Red added to the scene includes Apollo's fillet and the tuning pegs on his kithara, the front of Athena's helmet and the edges of her himation, and Hermes' beard. White is added for some parts of the kithara, Athena's skin, and Hermes' chitoniskos. All three figures' clothing show single, triple and quadruple dots in added red and white.

Side B: Dionysos, maenad and satyr. Dionysos forms the center of this scene, standing, like Athena on side A, with his lower half pointing right, and twisting in the middle to look back left. In his left hand he raises a kantharos; he is wearing a chiton, himation, and wreath. On the left, a wreathed maenad in chiton and himation dances facing him. On Dionysos's other side a satyr dances away from him while looking back. As on side A, trees are suggested as the setting for the scene.

Added red on this side is mostly given to hair: Dionysos's beard, the satyr's beard, forehead hair, and tail, as well as dots and strokes on wreaths and clothing. White appears in the maenad's skin and the dotted decoration on the himations.

A lotus-and-palmette chain fills the neck; black tongues cover the shoulder. Beneath the main panel buds and rays ring the vase, with a key pattern pointing left and a reserved band separating this zone from that above. Under each handle are quadruple lotus and palmette designs. Inside the mouth glaze extends downward for 0.05 m., while the flat surface of the mouth is reserved.

Collection History:

Ex collection A. Schiller.

Sources Used:

CVA, USA fasc. 17, p. 6, pl. 9

Other Bibliography:

Zahn, R. Sammlung Burat Schiller, Berlin, Rudolf Lepkes Kunst-Auctions-Haus Katalog Nr. 2008, 19.-20. März 1929, p. 128 and pls. 27-28, no. 400; Washington 1962, p. 78; Para., p. 146, no. 15 bis.