1965.29.M, Black figure panel amphora, Attributed to the Painter of the Medea Group (Bothmer), Greek, Attic, c. 520-510 BCE, ceramic

GENERAL DESCRIPTION

Throughout the 6th century BCE, Greek pottery painters experimented with ways to describe reality on the curved surface of a vase. In the best examples, the urge toward description is balanced by the necessity of creating an effective two-dimensional design. For instance, this stately amphora has two panel scenes representing combats from the Trojan War. The heroic ethos attributed to the contestants of this duel appears not in Homer's Iliad, but in the Aethiopis, an epic poem by Homer or Arctinus of Miletus. In this scene from the Trojan War, the Greek hero Achilles battles over the body of a fallen warrior with Prince Memnon of Ethiopia, who fought on the side of Troy. Combat here is frozen in a central heraldic group which maintains the nature of the vessel in its flat pattern. Although we know from texts that Achilles will kill Memnon, we also know that Achilles himself will die soon afterwards, having chosen a short but glorious life and heroic death. To either side of the heroes are their chinton-clad divine mothers, mourning a battle which can only end in loss for one of them. Recognizing the tragic nature of life, the mothers of both heroes raise their arms in mourning on either side of the struggle. The scene is both ornamental and filled with a sense of tragedy; it is purely humanistic, without any scenic distraction from the confrontation of armed warriors, one of whom must die.

The artist who did the painting on this amphora is unknown, only identified as a member of the Medea Group who was a part of the staff of a small, home-based pottery factory. The Group takes its name from an amphora in the British Museum showing a scene of the sorceress Medea rejuvenating a ram.

Drawn from

Anne Bromberg, Dallas Museum of Art: Selected Works (Dallas, Texas: Dallas Museum of Art, 1983), 101.
Sir John Beazley, Attic Black-figure Vase Painters, (London and New York: Oxford University Press, 1965), 321.
Bonnie Pitman, ed., Dallas Museum of Art: A Guide to the Collection, (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2012), 132.

NOTES

updated provenance
updated geo x refs
added Gods Men Heroes catalog essay as a text entry in TMS
fun fact source: Dallas Museum of Fine Arts Catalogue Worksheet found in Collections Records Object File 1965.29.M

As part of our effort to clean up department tags and make sure that the two existing TeachingIdeas tags (one with an asterisk and the other with a period) serve different purposes, I pulled the teaching ideas from this note and placed them in a note for Jennie to review. I am also removing the *TeachingIdeas tag from this note. Jennie can tag the note with .TeachingIdeas if she creates the corresponding note in her notebook. (EAS, Jan 6, 2017)

Catalogue essays

Munger Fund

The Greeks

Greece: The Human Image

Black-figure panel amphora with Achilles and Memnon, 6th century BCE

Artist/designers

Cultures

Geography

Process/materials

Greek Ceramics

Historical periods

Individuals

Subject terms

amphora

Chiton

RELATED OBJECTS

PROVENANCE

Until 1966: Elie Borowski, Basel, Switzerland [1]

From 1966: Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Munger Fund (accessioned 1966) [2], [3]

[1] See multiple documents in the Collections Records Object File 1965.29.M

[2] The name of the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, founded in 1933, was changed to the Dallas Museum of Art in 1983.

[3] Works of art purchased by the Mrs. Stephen I. Munger Endowment are placed in the custody of the Dallas Museum of Art for the purpose of exhibition. The title to all works of art purchased by the Munger Fund remains with the Fund.

AUDIO ASSETS

VIDEO ASSETS

IMAGE ASSETS

WEB RESOURCES

ARCHIVAL RESOURCES

FUN FACTS

This Greek vase was discovered in an Etruscan tomb at Montealto dei Castri which is on the site of the Etruscan necropolis of Vulci, located north of Rome in Italy.

TEACHING IDEAS

RULES

Apply to objects where number equals 1965.29.M

General Description

Throughout the 6th century BCE, Greek pottery painters experimented with ways to describe reality on the curved surface of a vase. In the best examples, the urge toward description is balanced by the necessity of creating an effective two-dimensional design. For instance, this stately amphora has two panel scenes representing combats from the Trojan War. The heroic ethos attributed to the contestants of this duel appears not in Homer's Iliad, but in the Aethiopis, an epic poem by Homer or Arctinus of Miletus. In this scene from the Trojan War, the Greek hero Achilles battles over the body of a fallen warrior with Prince Memnon of Ethiopia, who fought on the side of Troy. Combat here is frozen in a central heraldic group which maintains the nature of the vessel in its flat pattern. Although we know from texts that Achilles will kill Memnon, we also know that Achilles himself will die soon afterwards, having chosen a short but glorious life and heroic death. To either side of the heroes are their chinton-clad divine mothers, mourning a battle which can only end in loss for one of them. Recognizing the tragic nature of life, the mothers of both heroes raise their arms in mourning on either side of the struggle. The scene is both ornamental and filled with a sense of tragedy; it is purely humanistic, without any scenic distraction from the confrontation of armed warriors, one of whom must die.