The Amasis Painter and His World: Vase-painting in sixth-century B.C. Athens

250 Pages·1985·46.459 MB·English

by  Dietrich Von Bothmer

•
Vase-Painting it1
Sixth-Centt1ry B. C. Athe11s
THE AMASIS PAINTER AND HIS WORLD
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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
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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
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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