Ask the Scholar

Document scope · 4 pages
obj
Scholar
Ask about this object, its catalog metadata, its source description, or the page inventory. For page-specific OCR and visual context, open one of the page chats.

Source Description

On side A, Athena is striding to the left with a spear in her raised left hand and a shield in her right with a large snake, a popular shield device on Panathenaic vases of the late Archaic period. She is wearing a patterned garment, a high-crested helmet, and the "aegis," from which several snake heads clearly emerge. Two thin columns crowned by roosters frame the scene. The reverse shows two young jockeys in high gallop in the heat of the race. Both boys are nude and ride without saddles or stirrups, guiding the horse with their reins. The rider in the back is using a whip in his raised right hand to gain some ground on his opponent. The focus is clearly on the rider on the left, whose horse occupies the composition's foreground, its head partially obscuring the other rider. The prominence of the horse and rider, captured at a decisive moment in the race, may signal the contest's victor. The amphora lacks the prize inscription on the front that is characteristic of small-scale copies, created for trade and as commemorative souvenirs, of the Panathenaic prize amphoras (see Bentz 1998, 19-22). Dorothy Hill noted that the piece is stylistically and thematically close to the work of the Eucharides Painter, who painted at least three full-scale Panathenaic prize amphoras depicting two riders competing (Maul-Mandelartz 1990, 105).

Scholar Source Context

Document identity
localId
39632
label
Pseudo-Panathenaic Amphora with Horse Race
core
obj
dtoType
object
pageCount
4
Source metadata
id
39632
contentType
object
stage
normalized
title
Pseudo-Panathenaic Amphora with Horse Race
description
On side A, Athena is striding to the left with a spear in her raised left hand and a shield in her right with a large snake, a popular shield device on Panathenaic vases of the late Archaic period. She is wearing a patterned garment, a high-crested helmet, and the "aegis," from which several snake heads clearly emerge. Two thin columns crowned by roosters frame the scene. The reverse shows two young jockeys in high gallop in the heat of the race. Both boys are nude and ride without saddles or stirrups, guiding the horse with their reins. The rider in the back is using a whip in his raised right hand to gain some ground on his opponent. The focus is clearly on the rider on the left, whose horse occupies the composition's foreground, its head partially obscuring the other rider. The prominence of the horse and rider, captured at a decisive moment in the race, may signal the contest's victor. The amphora lacks the prize inscription on the front that is characteristic of small-scale copies, created for trade and as commemorative souvenirs, of the Panathenaic prize amphoras (see Bentz 1998, 19-22). Dorothy Hill noted that the piece is stylistically and thematically close to the work of the Eucharides Painter, who painted at least three full-scale Panathenaic prize amphoras depicting two riders competing (Maul-Mandelartz 1990, 105).
provenance
St. Audries Collection [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Sale, Sotheby's, February 23, 1920, no. 230, pl. 1; Dr. Hamonic, [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Joseph Brummer, Paris and New York, 1930, by purchase [Brummer inv. no. P7163]; William Randolph Hearst, San Simeon, 1930, by purchase; William Randolph Hearst Estate Sale, May 1958; Walters Art Museum, 1958, by purchase.
date
ca. 500-480 BCE (Late Archaic)
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
genreSpecific
Ceramics
amphorae (storage vessels)
vases
imageCount
4
pageCount
4
source
import
dimensions
units
cm
width
41
height
26.4
dimensionsRaw
H: 16 1/8 x Diam: 10 3/8 in. (41 x 26.4 cm)
Source extras
cul
Greek
style
Attic
med
terracotta, wheel made; black figure
creator_ids
16426
collection_ids
GRC
exhibition_ids
2089
Page inventory
seq
1
type
photo
mediaId
54f0c1b2f49818ea
hasOcr
no
hasDescription
no
seq
2
type
photo
mediaId
535b602c76d7e6ab
hasOcr
no
hasDescription
no
seq
3
type
photo
mediaId
3d4b3bce252f61d8
hasOcr
no
hasDescription
no
seq
4
type
photo
mediaId
bfdb604e2897c0b2
hasOcr
no
hasDescription
no