Provenance
Their name is misleading - the adjective "Melian" is often put in quotation marks. After Alexander Conze found the first three examples of this type on the Cycladian island of Melos in 1862, he named them Melische Thongefäße (Melian clay pots) after their find spot. The name has been retained, although it has meanwhile been shown that production did not occur on Melos. A majority of researchers (such as Ingeborg Scheibler place their production on Paros, others on Naxos, others still (such as Thomas Mannack) think it possible that there were two varieties. Dimitrios Papastamos and for a long time John Boardman, while not denying a Parian origin, supported the view that some had a Melian origin. The longtime excavator of Paros, Otto Rubensohn, denied that there were any useful clay deposits on the island. Many scholars believe that it is not possible to come to a conclusion from the current evidence. To this day only a comparative few of these vases are known; eleven in total, nine complete and two fragmentary. Despite the small number of examples, their geographical range is wider than that of other Cycladian pottery. Their export stretches beyond the Cyclades to the Parian colony of Thasos, where imitations of the type have been found, and even to North Africa. In Delos some fragments have been found of vases which were probably destroyed before the cleansing of the island in 426 BC.
Shape and decoration
The amphorae are up to 107 centimetres high and come in two forms: one older and somewhat stouter and another later and somewhat slenderer. The construction was clearly divided into three parts: the body, the neck which in the standard form of the amphora is almost as wide as the neck, and the high conical foot. The foot has holes to let out steam during the firing process at regular intervals.
The pots stand within the tradition of the older cycladian pottery, such as the early Cycladian taper necked vessels (Kandiles) and the Geometric-Theran amphorae of the linear island style. Unlike these early forms, the pithamphorae seem to be organic in construction. The belly-handles on the sides are arranged as horizontal double handles. They can also contribute an additional optical effect through their decoration. On one type they can convey the impression of goats' horns, so that the amphora looks like a goat's head with broad horns. On a second variety eyes are drawn under the handles so that they look like eyebrows.
All the amphorae have a central image on the body, depicting animals, gods, heroes, and monsters. Often there is also figural decoration on the neck, less often on the foot. With a few exceptions, the neck is entirely or mostly decorated with metopes, which take up the whole height of the neck. The main image occupies roughly the upper half of the body with the lower half of the body usually filled with two bands of spiral or volute patterns. Between the vents, the foot is mostly decorated with double volutes, bordered above and below by geometric bands. An aureola follows as a conclusion. The figural images are usually quite graceful and elegant; the painters used opaque watercolours in very great quantities. Late examples depict figures in the Black figure style and others imitate the late animal frieze style.
An amphora is a type of container with a pointed bottom and characteristic shape and size which fit tightly against each other in storage rooms and packages, tied together with rope and delivered by land or sea. The size and shape have been determined from at least as early as the Neolithic Period. Amphorae were used in vast numbers for the transport and storage of various products, both liquid and dry, but mostly for wine. They are most often ceramic, but examples in metals and other materials have been found. Versions of the amphorae were one of many shapes used in Ancient Greek vase painting.
Black-figure pottery painting, also known as the black-figure style or black-figure ceramic is one of the styles of painting on antique Greek vases. It was especially common between the 7th and 5th centuries BC, although there are specimens dating as late as the 2nd century BC. Stylistically it can be distinguished from the preceding orientalizing period and the subsequent red-figure pottery style.
Red-figure vase painting is one of the most important styles of figural Greek vase painting.
Panathenaic amphorae were the amphorae, large ceramic vessels, that contained the olive oil given as prizes in the Panathenaic Games. Some were ten imperial gallons and 60–70 cm (24–28 in) high. This oil came from the sacred grove of Athena at Akademia. The amphorae which held it had the distinctive form of tight handles, narrow neck and feet, and they were decorated with consistent symbols, in a standard form using the black figure technique, and continued to be so, long after the black figure style had fallen out of fashion. Some Panathenaic amphorae depicted Athena Promachos, goddess of war, advancing between columns brandishing a spear and wearing the aegis, and next to her the inscription τῶν Ἀθήνηθεν ἄθλων "(one) of the prizes from Athens". On the back of the vase was a representation of the event for which it was an award. Sometimes roosters are depicted perched on top of the columns. The significance of the roosters remains a mystery. Later amphorae also had that year's archon's name written on it making finds of those vases archaeologically important.
Geometric art is a phase of Greek art, characterized largely by geometric motifs in vase painting, that flourished towards the end of the Greek Dark Ages, c. 900–700 BC. Its center was in Athens, and from there the style spread among the trading cities of the Aegean. The Greek Dark Ages lasted from c. 1100 to 750 BC and include two periods, the Protogeometric period and the Geometric period, in reference to the characteristic pottery style. The vases had various uses or purposes within Greek society, including, but not limited to, funerary vases and symposium vases.
The pottery of ancient Greece has a long history and the form of Greek vase shapes has had a continuous evolution from Minoan pottery down to the Hellenistic era. As Gisela Richter puts it, the forms of these vases find their "happiest expression" in the 5th and 6th centuries BC, yet it has been possible to date vases thanks to the variation in a form’s shape over time, a fact particularly useful when dating unpainted or plain black-gloss ware.
The Analatos Painter was an Attic vase painter of the Early Proto-Attic style.
The Tydeus Painter was an ancient Greek vase painter working in the Corinthian black-figure style. His real name is unknown. He was active during the Late Corinthian phase ; his works are dated to about 560 BC.
The Tyrrhenian amphora is a specific shape of Attic black-figure neck amphora. Tyrrhenian amphorae were only produced during a short period, about 565 to 550 BC. They are ovoid in shape and bear striking decorations. The handle is usually decorated with a lotus-palmette cross or vegetal tendrils. It always terminates in a red-painted ridge. The vase body is painted with several friezes. The uppermost of these, on the shoulder, is usually especially notable. It often contains mythological scenes, but the first erotic motifs in Attic vase painting also occur here. Unique motifs include the sacrifice of Polyxene. Often, the figures are explained by added inscriptions. The other friezes, usually two to three in number, are often decorated with animals. At times, a frieze is replaced with a vegetal band.
A Nikosthenic amphora is a type of Attic vase invented in the late 6th century BC by the potter Nikosthenes, aimed specifically for export to Etruria. Inspired by Etruscan Bucchero types, it is the characteristic product of the Nikosthenes-Pamphaios workshop.
The Princeton Painter was an Attic black-figure vase painter, active in the third quarter of the sixth century BC, just after Group E. His real name is not known.
The Northampton Group was a stylistic group of ancient Greek amphorae in the black-figure style.
The Pontic Group is a sub-style of Etruscan black-figure vase painting.
Pseudo-Chalcidian vase painting is an important style of black-figure Greek vase painting, dating to the 6th century BC.
Cycladic vase painting was a regional style of Greek vase painting, produced in the Cycladic islands.
Campanian vase painting is one of the five regional styles of South Italian red-figure vase painting. It forms a close stylistic community with Apulian vase painting.
Paestan vase painting was a style of vase painting associated with Paestum, a Campanian city in Italy founded by Greek colonists. Paestan vase painting is one of five regional styles of South Italian red-figure vase painting.
Submycenaean pottery is a style of ancient Greek pottery. It is transitional between the preceding Mycenaean pottery and the subsequent styles of Greek vase painting, especially the Protogeometric style. The vases date to between 1030 and 1000 BC.
The Horse Amphora is the name given to a Melian pithamphora in the National Archaeological Museum, Athens with the inventory number 913. It is dated to around 660 BC.
The Euphiletos Painter Panathenaic Amphora is a black-figure terracotta amphora from the Archaic Period depicting a running race, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. It was painted by the Euphiletos Painter as a victory prize for the Panathenaic Games in Athens in 530 BC.
