Terracotta amphora (jar)

Princeton Painter

ca. 500–490 BCE · Terracotta · Greek and Roman Art

Obverse, battle scene with quadriga (4-horse chariot) Reverse, departing warriors Battle scenes like the one on this amphora would have brought to mind Homeric passages such as this: As inhuman fire sweeps on in fury through the deep angles of a drywood mountain and sets ablaze the depth of the timber and the blustering wind lashes the flame along, so Achilleus swept everywhere with his spear like something more than a mortal harrying them as they died, and the black earth ran blood. (Iliad, book 20, lines 490-94).

Artist

Princeton Painter

Date

ca. 500–490 BCE

Medium

Terracotta

Culture

Greek, Attic

Department

Greek and Roman Art

Credit line

Fletcher Fund, 1956