• Vase-Painting it1 Sixth-Centt1ry B. C. Athe11s THE AMASIS PAINTER AND HIS WORLD This page intentionally left blank HIS WO VASE- PAINTING IN SIXTH- CENTURY B .C. ATHENS DIETRICHVONBOTHMER with an introduction by ALAN L. BOEGEHOLD THE ]. P AuL G ETTY M usEUM T HAMES AND H uDSON L TD. M alibu, C alifornia New York I London Exhibition dates: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, September 13-October 27, 1985 The Toledo Museum of Art, November 24, 1985-January 5. 1986 Los Angeles County Museum of Art, February 20- April 6, 1986 © 1985 The]. Paul Getty Museum 17985 Pacific Coast Highway Malibu, California 90265 Copublished by Thames and Hudson New York and London Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Von Dothmcr, Dietrich, 1918- The Amasis Painter and his world. Bibliography: p. 32 Includes concordances 1. Amasis, 6th cent. B. c.-Exhibitions. 2. Vase painting, Greek- Grcccc- Athcns Exhibitions. I. Title. ND115A55A41985 738'.092'4 85-12590 ISBN 0-89236-086-0 (pbk.) ISBN 0-500-23443-4 (hbk.) The cover illustration is a detail of side B of a panel amphora (type B) by the Amasis Painter in the collection of the Staatlichc Antikensammlung und Glyptothek, Munich (Cat. 4). CONTENTS Directors Foreword 7 Preface 11 Abbreviations 13 The Time of the Amasis Painter Alan L. Boegehold 15 The World of the Amasis Painter Dietrich von Bothmer 33 Color Plates 59 Catalogue 69 Amphorae 70 Panel-amphorae (type B) 70 Panel-amphorae (type A) 109 Psyktcr neck-amphora 118 Neck-amphorae 119 Oinochoai 138 Olpai 138 O inochoai, shape Ill (choes) 154 Oinochoai, shape I 163 Lekythoi 168 Shoulder type 168 Sub-Deianeira shape 192 Aryballos 194 Drinking vessels 198 Mastoid 198 Cup-skyphos 200 Band-cups 204 Lip-cup 212 Cups of type A 215 Special cups, approximating type B 223 Appendix 1. 229 Signature by Amasis as potter on a vase not painted by the Amasis Painter Appendix 2. 230 Signatures of Kleophrades, son of Amasis, on two cups in the Getty Museum 232 Appendix 3. Shapes of vases painted by the Amasis Painter 236 Appendix 4. Tripod-pyxis from the sanctuary of Aphaia on Aegina Martha Ohly-Dumm Chronology 239 240 Glossary 242 Concordances 246 Illustration Credits This page intentionally left blank DIRECTORS' f OREWORD --. xhibitions of Greek and Roman art have become increasingly popular in the United States in the last thirty years. Greek vases ....._. . were singled out in Attic vase Painting New England Collections i11 (Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, 1972), Greek i11 Ulse-Paintir~g Midwestem Collectio11s (The Art Institute of Chicago, 1980), and Art, Myth, and Culture: Greek Ulses from Southem Collections ( New Orleans Museum of Art and Tulane University, N ew Orleans, 1981 - 1982). of The horizon w as widened and the focus sharpened with The Art South Italy: Vases from Magna Graecia (Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond; Philbrook Art C enter, Tulsa; and Detroit Institute of Arts, 1982 - 1983). The current exhibition and catalogue continue in this direction; yet they concentrate neither on vases now located in a given region, nor on those from a certain geographic area of the ancient world. Instead, the opportunity is taken to unite many of the preserved works of a single Archaic artist, the Attic vase-painter known as the Amasis Painter. Dietrich von Bothmer, Chairman of the Department of Greek and Roman Art at the M etropolitan Museum of Art, pro posed opening the exhibition on September 13, 1985, the centenary of the birth of SirJohn Beazley (1885 -1970), the man who in sixty years of scholarly life did more for the recognition and appreciation of Attic vase-painting than anyone else. A one-man exhibition was first suggested by Kurt T Luckner, C urator of Ancient Art at the Toledo Museum of Art, whose first choice was the great Attic master Exekias. At a meeting held in Toledo in May 1983 with Dr. von Bothmer, however, the difficulties ofe xhib iting Exekias in a representative manner led to the selection instead of Exekias' colleague the Amasis Painter for a variety of reasons: the 7 much larger number of his works that have been preserved, the high proportion of his vases already owned by museums and collectors in the United States, and the w illingness of certain European museums to lend their vases, a willingness that had already been expressed in 1972 when Dr. von Bothmer first thought of holding an exhibition of the artist's work at the Metropolitan Museum. In subsequent meetings the project was carried forward with the active support of four institu tions, the Toledo Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, J. the Paul Getty Museum, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Dr. von Bothmer is responsible for the selection of the painter's work and has written an essay on the painter and the entries for this J. catalogue, which the Paul Getty Museum undertook to fund and produce. Alan L. Boegehold, Professor of Classics, Brown University, kindly agreed to write an introductory essay, "The Time of the Amasis Painter," which gives a concise account of the geography, history, and political and cultural climate of Athens in the days of the Amasis Painter. M artha Ohly-Du mm contributed a special appendix (Appen dix 4), an advance publication of the unique and important fragmen tary tripod-pyxis excavated in 1971 by Dieter Ohly at the temple of Athena Aphaia on Aegina. The catalogue has been seen through pro duction with admirable skill by Sandra Knudsen Morgan, Director of Publications at the ]. Paul Getty Museum. Educational materials accompanying the exhibition were produced jointly by the Education Department of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, under the guidance of William Lillys and Jane Burrell, and by Kurt Luckner and Rose Glennon at the Toledo Museum of Art. We owe warm thanks to our museum colleagues and private collectors in the United States and Europe for their exceptionally generous response to our requests for loans from their collections. In many instances, vases have been cleaned or restored expressly for this exhibition. We wish to extend particular thanks to Prof Dr. H erbert Cahn, Basel; Dr. Ernst Berger, Director, and Dr. Margot Schmidt, Assistant Director and Curator, Antikenmuseum und Samrnlung Ludwig, Basel; Pro( Dr. Wolf-Dieter Heilmeyer, Director of the Staatliche Museen PreuRischer Kulturbesitz, Antikenmuseum, Berlin; Thomas T. Solley, Director, and Adriana Calinescu, Curator of Ancient Art, Indiana University Art Museum, Bloomington; Cor nelius C. Vermeule, Curator of Classical Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Dietrich von Bothmer, Centre Island, New York; Steffen Trolle, Assistant Keepe r, Antiksamlingen, Nationalmuseet, Copcnhagen;Jacques Chamay, Conservateur, Mwsee d'art et d'histo ire, Geneva; Norbert Schimmel, Kings Point, New York; Brian F. Cook, Keeper, and Dyfri Williams, Assistant Keeper, D epartment of Greek and Roman Antiquities, The British Museum; Prof Dr. Bur- 8 khardt Wesenberg, Chief of Department, and Pro£ Dr. Robert Fleischer, Institut fi.ir Klassische Archaologie, Universicit Mainz;John and Elsbeth Dusenbery, Montclair, New Jersey; Dr. Klaus Vierneisel, Director, Staatliche Antikensanunlungen und Glyptothek, Munich; Martha Ohly-Dumm, Munich; P.R.S. Moorey, Keeper, and Michael Vickers, Assistant Keeper, Department of Antiquities, Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, Oxford; Alain Pasquier, Conser vateur en Chef, Departement des Antiquites Grecques et Romaines, Musee du Louvre, Paris; Andre Miquel, Adrninistrateur General, and Andree Pouderoux, Conservateur, Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris; Irene Aghion, Conservateur, Cabinet des Medailles, Paris; G. Roger Edwards, Keeper of Collections, Mediterranean Section, The Univer sity Museum, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia; Dr. B. von Freytag gen. l.Oringhoff, Kustos der Antikensammlungen, Archa ologisches Institut der Universicit Ti.ibingen; Pro£ Carlo Pietrangeli, Director General, Monumenti, Musei, e Gallerie Pontificie, Vatican; and Prof Dr. Erika Simon, Director, and Dr. Guntram Beckel, Kon servator der Antiken, Martin von Wagner Museum der Universicit Wiirzburg. The organization of the exhibition was directed by Kurt T Luck ner. The securing ofloans and grant support and the management of myriad details were coordinated from Toledo. Special thanks are due to J. Patricia Whitesides, Registrar at the Toledo Museum of Art, for her care in organizing the transportation, insurance, and indemnification. Kim Coventry, curatorial intern at Toledo, assisted Kurt Luckner. At the Los Angeles County Museum, John Passi acted as exhibition coordinator. We also thank the members of the curatorial departments of our museums for their efforts in making this exhibition a reality. Kurt Luckner in Toledo; Marion True and Arthur Houghton, Associ ate Curators of Antiquities at the Getty Museum; Dietrich von Both mer, Chairman, and Joan Mertens, Curator and Administrator, of the Department of Greek and Roman Art at the Metropolitan Museum; and Constantina Oldknow, Associate Curator of Ancient Art at the Los Angeles County Museum, became a team that effectively addressed every aspect of the exhibitionS organization. We are grateful to Kurt Forster and Herbert Hymans, Director and Program Director oft he Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities, Marion True, Arthur Houghton, and Constantina Oldknow for their joint efforts in bringing together leading scholars from the United States and Europe for two symposia held in Los Angeles in the spring of 1986 on the political, economic, and cultural life of sixth-century Athens. Support for the exhibition has come from public and private sources. We are indebted to the National Endowment for the Human ities, a Federal Agency, for generous grants underwriting the planning and implementation. The exhibition is also supported by an indemnity 9