Ellen Reeder Williams, The Archaeological Collection of the Johns Hopkins University (Selections)

Baltimore, Hopkins AIA B64

B 64. Baltimore Society AIA, formerly Helbig Collection. Ht, 30 cm; max w across handles, 20.9 cm; diam at rim, 11.3 cm; diam of foot, 10.1 cm. Mended from several pieces, with part of lip and neck restored.

Ray pattern around rim. Inside neck are three glazed bands of varying heights separated by reserved strips. Strap handles have central vertical line flanked by bands of rays. On each side of neck is a combat between two pairs of boxers shown in profile. Added red on hair. Beneath foot of boxers on side A is signature: ΝΙΚΟΣΘ[Ε]ΝΕΣΜΕΠΟΙΕΣΕΝ.

Beneath neck, principal zone of decoration lies between two raised ridges around center of body and consists of double row of ivy leaves. Above is band of tongues above rightward key pattern. Beneath are bands of: tongue, rays, reserved zigzag upon a glazed background, and rays. Between body and foot is glazed ridge with incised groove on either side. Foot has echinus shape, with vertical side reserved.

Soon after 550 B.C., the Attic potter Nikosthenes¹ created a distinctive Attic version of a type of Etruscan bucchero amphora that originated in Caere (see E.R. Williams 1984, no. 125). He retained the wide lip, strap handles, and ridges around the body, but he substituted black-figure decoration for the relief ornament on the Etruscan prototype. All of the one hundred or more surviving Nikosthenic amphorae that have a provenance are said to come from Caere; therefore, it appears that the Attic version was made specifically for the city where the prototype originated.

Most of the Nikosthenic amphorae are signed by Nikosthenes as potter or shopowner, but none bears the signature of a painter. Beazley believed that all the amphorae were painted by a single hand, whom he called Painter N. More recently it has been proposed that we broaden this designation to the Group of Nikosthenes, since it is plausible that several artists, including apprentices, participated in the decoration of the vases.²

The Hopkins vase is typical of Nikosthenic amphorae both in the patterns and the representations of boxers.³ The shape, with the pronounced spherical body, is somewhat unusual, although Beazley noted that the echinus foot appears in the "B" Torlonia group assigned to the early years of Nikosthenes' career, about 550 B.C.⁴ It does indeed seem that the Hopkins example belongs among the early or middle phases, since the later amphorae, made around 520 B.C., have a more elongated neck and tapering body, and a greater simplicity of ornament that compares closely with decorative patterns employed on other black-figure vases of the last third of the sixth century.⁵

The workshop of the potter Nikosthenes was certainly one of the larger and more innovative Attic studios between 550 and 510 B.C. The Six technique may have originated here, as may have the practice of applying a white-ground background to black-figure ware. The shop certainly introduced the kyathos, which was inspired by an Etruscan shape. Prominent painters, such as Oltos, Psiax, Epiktetos, and the Theseus Painter, are thought to have been associated with this establishment.⁶

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