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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

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu