1960.371: Panathenaic Amphora: Libation and Sacrifice

Identification and Creation

Object Number

1960.371

People

Group of Polygnotos (425 BCE - 400 BCE)
Author: Jenifer Neils

Title

Panathenaic Amphora: Libation and Sacrifice

Classification

Vessels

Work Type

vessel

Date

c. 420 BCE

Places

Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Europe, Attica

Period

Classical period, High

Culture

Greek

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/288857

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Terracotta

Technique

Red-figure

Dimensions

H. 34 cm (13 3/8 in.)

State, Edition, Standard Reference Number

Standard Reference Number

Beazley Archive #9020306

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line

Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of David M. Robinson

Accession Year

1960

Object Number

1960.371

Division

Asian and Mediterranean Art

Contact

am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu

Permissions

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Descriptions

Description

Red-figure Panathenaic Amphora. Side A: Low altar flanked by a bearded man pouring libation and a youth holding an oinochoe. The youth holds the vessel in his right hand and round objects, which may be astragaloi, in his left hand (Bundrick 2014). The bearded man wears a chiton and an ependytes, with a decorative pattern and adorned with a woven wreath in the center. He also holds similar round objects in his left hand and pours a libation from a kantharos with his right hand. The wine for the libation, which is added with red paint over the black, pours out onto a low mound, which is either an earthen mound with the curling tail of a sacrifical bull or a shield with a snake protome.
Side B: Poorly preserved. Youth holding a kanoun (sacrificial basket). He wears his himation tied around his waist, in a manner similar to the way in which the youth on the reverse side is dressed.

Publication History

• Fogg Art Museum, The David Moore Robinson Bequest of Classical Art and Antiquities, A Special Exhibition, exh. cat., Harvard University (Cambridge, MA, 1961), p. 20, no. 125
• Martin Bentz and Norbert Eschbach, Panathenaïka Symposion zu den Panathenäischen Preisamphoren, Rauischholzhausen (Mainz, 1998), tafel 32
• Yet Another Red-Figure Panathenaic Amphora: Australian and New Zealand Journal for the Archaeology of the Mediterranean World, Mediterranean Archaeology (Sydney, Australia, 2004), 17
• Sabine Albersmeier, ed., Heroes: Mortals and Myths in Ancient Greece, exh. cat., The Walters Art Museum (Baltimore, MD, 2009), p. 138, Fig. 87.
• Gunnel Ekroth, "Theseus and the Stone: The iconographic and ritual contexts of a Greek votive relief in the Louvre.", Divine Images and Human Imaginations in Ancient Greece and Rome, ed. Ioannis Mylonopoulos (Boston, 2010), v. 170, pg. 151
• Sheramy D. Bundrick, Selling Sacrifice on Classical Athenian Vases, Hesperia, American School of Classical Studies at Athens (Athens, 2014), vol. 83, no. 4, pp. 653-708, pp. 664-665, fig. 4
• John Oakley, A Guide to Scenes of Daily Life on Athenian Vases, University of Wisconsin Press (Madison, 2020), pp. 120-121, fig. 6.9

Exhibition History

• The David Moore Robinson Bequest of Classical Art and Antiquities: A Special Exhibition, Fogg Art Museum, 05/01/1961 - 09/20/1961

Verification Level