Terracotta lekythos (oil flask)

Painter of Vatican G.31

late 6th century BCE · Terracotta · Greek and Roman Art

Ajax and Achilles playing a board game, and Athena During the second half of the sixth century B.C., a popular subject was that of the Greek heroes Ajax and Achilles playing a board game to while away their time during the siege of Troy. The most famous representation occurs on an amphora now in the Vatican Museums. Exekias, perhaps the greatest black-figure artist, made and painted the amphora, and he may also have invented the iconography. The subject was applied to all manner of other vases, as this representative example indicates.

Artist

Painter of Vatican G.31

Date

late 6th century BCE

Medium

Terracotta

Culture

Greek, Attic

Department

Greek and Roman Art

Credit line

Rogers Fund, 1962