Bowdoin 1913.10
UPPER PART OF A BLACK-FIGURE AMPHORISKOSLent by the Bowdoin College Museum of Art; gift of E. P. Warren (1913.10)
Height: 4 3/8 in. (11 cm.); Diameter: 4 3/8 in. (11 cm.)
Broken and repaired; missing pieces restored and painted; surface worn in places.
Neck, handles, and part of shoulder and belly of one side preserved.
On the shoulder: panther and swan. On one side, a panther with body in profile, face frontal; on the other side, a swan with wings outstretched. In the field, incised dot rosettes. At the handles, palmettes with tendrils ending in a lotus bud. On each side of the neck, dot rosettes bracketed by pairs of vertical wavy lines. On the body: animal friezes. In the upper zone, a griffin-bird (head, neck, and part of wing preserved), a panther, and a ram (forepart of body). In the field, dot rosettes. In the zone below, the upper parts of a swan and a panther. Red: worn in places, used for anatomical articulation, e. g. shoulder of panther, wings of crane.
Unattributed ca. 610 - 550 B. C. The black-figure technique, characterized by decoration in black glaze with added red and white paint as well as incision, originated in Corinth during the early seventh century B. C. and was introduced into Attica about a generation later where it flourished until the end of the sixth century. This fragment shows much Corinthian influence and is dated by comparison with Corinthian vases. The application of the palmettes to the base of the handles was infrequent before the second quarter of the sixth century, and the type of panther and swan also support this date (Payne 1931, 67, 76, 152). The shape is paralleled by Corinthian amphoriskoi.