Rider amphora
As Reiter amphora a is melic Prunkamphore in archaeological National Museum Athens designated with the inventory number 912th It is made around the year 660 BC. Dated.
The rider amphora is one of the broader specimens of the genus. The vessel was named after its main image, which is reminiscent of that of the somewhat older horse amphora . Here, too, two horses face each other, with a large palmette between them . In this picture a rider is sitting on the back of each horse. Each of the riders leads another horse on a leash, which is shown slightly offset behind the mounts. The painter of this amphora does not show the talent of the painter of the horse amphora , his horses have a body much too long. But the riders look unnaturally small. The conventions obviously forced the painter to adapt his motif to the given space. The open spaces are filled with various accessories, including zigzag stacks and diamond lozenges taken from earlier Cycladic art. The neck is adorned with everted double palmette volutes , which are separated from one another by columns. On the reverse, the painter shows two horses facing each other without riders. So both sides are not equal. The vessel is 90 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. 138-139, plate 40 ISBN 3805309007