Harvard 1977.216.2244
BLACK-FIGURE PANEL AMPHORA (TYPE B)Lent by the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University; bequest of H.W. Haynes (CC 2244)
Height: 14 13/16 in. (37.7 cm.)
Broken and repaired; missing pieces restored and painted.
Side A: assembly of gods. Zeus is seated on a throne and holds a javelin in one hand. Hermes with caduceus approaches from the right; Poseidon holding trident and fish stands to the left. At the far right stands another god, perhaps Dionysos since he wears the skin of a feline. At the far left is a youth with garlands, perhaps Ganymede. Zeus sits on an elegant throne with a slightly curved back ending in a swan's head; it has low hand rails supported on columns, and a sphinx resting on stretchers between legs which end in lion's paws. On the ground beneath the throne is a hare. Hanging above from their forepaws are a dead hare and fox. Suspended in the field are fillets. Side B: assembly of gods. Zeus with javelin and Poseidon with trident and fish face each other in the center. To the right is a nude youth; to the left, a youth with a javelin. Behind him is a bearded man carrying a fish. He may be Nereus, the old man of the sea. Again the field is punctuated with hanging fillets. A dead hare hangs by his forepaws at one side of the scene. Both panels are framed above by a lotus chain with points downward. On side B there are dots in the interstices above the lotus flowers. At the base are staggered rays which are a favorite of this painter. Red and white are used profusely to articulate parts of the shape as well as of the figure scenes. Red: drapery ornament and folds, fillets, hair, petasos, animal skins, breasts of the nude men, tails and breasts of the animals, wings and hair of the sphinx, and the fillets which litter the field. On the upper rim and base of the lip, on the foot, a line around the inside of the lip, lines circling the vase at the base of the scene, lines above and below the zone with rays. White: frame of the throne, dots of the wreaths, fillets, dots of the rosettes on the drapery, dots on the baldrics, face of the sphinx, and breast of the fox and hare.
Attributed to the Affecter [Chase] ca. 550 - 530 B.C. The Affecter is chief among the black-figure mannerists, a group of painters who carry formalism to an extreme and who retain traditional stylistic elements (e. g. profuse use of red and white, attention to decorative detail). Although his oeuvre is large, there is little variation within it, and one finds the same large trunks and long skinny limbs everywhere. His figured panels are frequently crowded and unclear, and narrative clarity tends to give way before the emphasis on decorative detail (see Beazley 1928a, 23, 37-38 and Karo 1899, 147-163).