Horse amphora
As horses amphora one is melic Prunkamphore in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens called with the inventory number 913th It is made around the year 660 BC. Dated.
The horse amphora is the oldest known Melische amphora . It is one of the broader specimens of the genus. The vessel was named after its main picture, which shows two slender, graceful, long-legged horses facing each other. Both are separated by a large palmette . While the bodies are drawn as silhouettes, the heads are shown in outline drawings. The free spaces were filled with various accessories, including zigzag stacks that are reminiscent of earlier pictures by Group Ad . Still, the drawings are far more detailed than those of the ad group. In addition, double volutes and leaf rosettes are shown. There are also everted double volutes on the neck, which are filled with hatching. The two ornamental bands of the body of the vessel are decorated with simpler double volutes and concentric circles. The horizontal double handles are reminiscent of goat horns. Two horses facing each other were also found on the back, but they are shown in a different form. Both sides were thus equivalent, but the back is almost completely peeled off. The horse motif is suitable for use as a grave vase, as the horses have a sepulcral meaning. The lid has not been preserved. The amphora is 88 centimeters high.
literature
- Werner Ekschmitt : Art and Culture of the Cyclades, Part II: Geometric and Archaic Time , Mainz am Rhein 1986 ( Kulturgeschichte der Antike , Volume 28.2), pp. 137-138, plate 42 ISBN 3805309007