Black figure panel amphora

¶ … Black-Figured

Panel Amphora At The Dallas Museum Of Art

An amphora, a tall, two-handled jar for wine or oil containment and with an opening large enough to admit a ladle and usually fitted with a cover, represents the formative phase in Greek art known as the Geometric style, and although certain decorative aspects have been borrowed from earlier sub-Mycenaean styles its composition and execution is more delicate and delineated.

For the most part, amphora from the 6th century B.C.E. exhibit a form of decoration known as the black figure technique. Dark figures are usually silhouetted against a light background of the natural reddish clay; at times, a glaze coating was applied to the amphora before firing in the kiln which resulted in a more orange-like coloration. The details were first incised into the silhouettes with a sharp, pointed instrument in order to expose the red beneath; touches of white and often purple added color to the dominant monochrome decoration. Although the black areas were customarily referred to as glazes, it should be mentioned that the black on these amphora is neither a pigment nor a glaze but engobe, a slip of finely-sifted clay that originally was the same color as the clay of the amphora itself.

In the three-phase firing process used by Greek potters, the first or oxidizing phase turned both the pot and slip red. During the second or reducing phase, the oxygen supply into the kiln was shut off and both the pot and slip turned black, and in the final or re-oxidizing phase, the coarser material of the pot reabsorbed oxygen and became red again while the smoother, silica-laden slip did not and remained black. Thus, after many years of experimentation, Greek potters developed a velvety, jet-black "glaze" of this type. The touches of white or purple were then used more sparingly with the result being that the figures stood in even stronger contrast against their reddish/orange backgrounds. This superb formal control provided the framework for a wealth of naturalistic detail, some of it extremely new and influential.

The number of amphora currently being held in museums around the world is quite staggering, due to the efforts of archeologists and historians since the middle of the 19th century. One of the finest examples can be found in the collection of the Dallas Museum of Art, namely the untitled black-figure panel amphora, made in the last quarter of the 6th century B.C.E. (ceramic, 18 1/4 by 11 1/4 inches, collection # 1965.29.M). As pointed out on the Dallas Museum of Art website, the "panel scenes on either side of this amphora depict armed warriors fighting. The chief scene possibly shows the Greek hero Achilles fighting over the dead body of Antilochus with the Trojan hero Prince Memnon. To either side stand the warrior's mothers as mournful figures." Artistically, this amphora "has an heraldic grandeur and a sharply pointed sense of tragic dignity."

Analytically, this beautiful amphora is very similar to the Revelers, ascribed to the painter and designer Euthymides, circa 510 to 500 B.C.E. With this particular piece, the artist was less concerned with anatomical description than with the problems of foreshortening in the figures and of showing them from different viewpoints. The turning and twisting of the figures indicate that the artist was beginning to view them as three-dimensional volumes with free mobility in a space deeper than the flat, two-dimensional surface of a picture plane, a significant departure from the pre-Greek tradition.

Essentially, the representations on the black figure panel amphora were obviously inspired by the Homeric epic of the Iliad, a poem which relates the famous tale of the attack by the Greek army on the city of Troy. The character of Achilles is by far the most important, for he was considered the best of the Greeks and without equal, the mighty warrior and pre-eminent holder of the Greek principle of excellence in all things. As he engages in battle with Prince Memnon, the body of the injured and perhaps dying Antilochus lies prostrate on the ground between the two enemies. Both Achilles and Prince Memnon are carrying spears and shields and are wearing the typical Greek plumed helmet. The two female figures, described as mourning mothers, are certainly mere onlookers to what is occurring before them and stand quite helpless as Achilles and Price Memnon fight one another for supremacy on the battlefield. The central motif of the curvilinear snake appears to be the shield of the figure on the right and might represent a form of family heraldry. The lower portion of the amphora contains black, blade-shaped decorations that draw the eyes upward into the middle section of the amphora and then still higher toward the highly-fashioned lip. The overall balance of this piece is exquisite and one can easily notice that the figures are in rapid motion and rhythmically proportioned.