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Room with three-dimensional approximations of Greek vases in the British M...
Main panel: harnessing the chariot
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Three-dimensional approximation of the vase
| Collection: | London, British Museum |
| Summary: | Shoulder: Battle scene |
| Ware: | Attic Black Figure |
| Painter: | Attributed to the Antimenes Painter |
| Context: | Vulci |
| Date: | ca. 530 BC - ca. 510 BC |
| Dimensions: | H 0.460m |
| Primary Citation: | |
| Shape: | Hydria |
| Beazley Number: | 320014 |
| Region: | Etruria |
| Period: | Archaic |
Decoration Description:
Shoulder: A quadriga on the right races toward the center with the horses straining to move ahead. Beneath their hooves lies a dead warrior on his stomach, his beardless face down in the dust and his body stripped of armor. Another seems to fall in front of them stumbling to his knees, as he tries to run to the left, and looking back at the horses. In vain he tries to protect himself with his shield as he holds his spear with his right hand. Behind him another foot soldier tries to defend him, holding his shield with his left arm and his spear raised in his right hand. At the far left another soldier strides vigorously to the right with his spear ready and his shield up. Beside and behind the horses a soldier runs to attack the man falling on the left. He carries a shield with a white dolphin device and a spear. The bearded charioteer is next to the right, bending far forward over the horses and keeping a tight grip on the reins. He wears a long white chiton and his shield is strapped to his back. Following him is an archer at the far right who stoops to aim his bow. He wears a peaked Phrygian cap, jerkin, anaxyrides (tight trousers), and high boots. All of the foot soldiers are fully armed with helmets, cuirasses, short chitons, greaves, spears, and shields. Above the panel is a circumscribed tongue pattern in red and black. Below the panel is meander frieze, running to the left.
The main design shows the harnessing of horses to a quadriga, much quieter in spirit than the shoulder composition. The moment before the battle is shown here with the nude, long-haired groom on the far right, quieting the horses, the bearded charioteer with fillet and long white chiton beside their girths making adjustments to the harness, and the nude young youth hopping up into the chariot itself with a goad in his right hand. A third horse, the paraseiros, of pie-bald color, is being brought up on the left by a male figure who is barely visible because of overlapping. The fourth horse has not yet arrived. On the sides of the scene are vertical ivy borders.
Predella: A boar hunt is shown here with nude mounted hunters attacking a central boar with spears from both sides. The one on the left is beardless, the other wears a peaked Phrygian cap. The animal lowers its snout. Three spears stick in the boar's back while hunters on foot rush in from both ends.
At the bases of the handles are circumscribed tongues.
Collection History:
ex Canino Collection, 1764.
Sources Used: