Collection Online as of March 27, 2023

Black-Figure Nikosthenic Amphora (Storage Vessel): Dancing Youths; Sphinxes and Lions; Satyrs and Maenads

c. 530–510 BC

potter

signed by Nikosthenes

(Greek, Attic, active c. 545–510 BC)

painter

attributed to Painter N, Thiasos Group

(Greek, c. 530–510 BC)

Greek, Attic

Ceramic

Diameter: 16.9 cm (6 5/8 in.); Overall: 31.1 cm (12 1/4 in.); Diameter of rim: 13.3 cm (5 1/4 in.); Diameter of foot: 10.7 cm (4 3/16 in.)

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1974.10

Location

102B Greek

Fun Fact

The painter of this vase decorated nearly every available surface; the undecorated handle section is modern.

Description

The distinctive shape of this amphora—wide strap handles, conical neck, and ribs running around the upper body—is a trademark of the potter Nikosthenes, who signed his name below the partially restored handle (together with the verb EPOIESEN, for “made”). Nikosthenes signed nearly 150 surviving vases, more than any other named potter or vase-painter. Made in Athens with an Etruscan clientele in mind, Nikosthenic amphorae emulate precious metal and ceramic bucchero vases made in Etruria (central Italy), where many examples have been discovered. The painted figures include dancing youths (on the neck), sphinxes between lions (on the shoulder), and a continuous procession of dancing satyrs alternating with women (on the body).

Inscriptions

Inscription

inscription Under handle A/B:

Painter N, Thiasos Group

Attic vase painter, active ca. 550-540 BCE

Provenance

1974-

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Citations

Beazley Archive. n.d. Beazley Archive Pottery Database. Oxford: Beazley Archive. BAPD 201945 www.beazley.ox.ac.uk

Classical Art p. 9, fig, 16

Beazley, J. D. Attic Black-Figure Vase-Painters. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1956. p. 219, No. 24

Arias, P. E., and Max Hirmer. A history of 1000 years of Greek vase painting. New York, N.Y.: Abrams, 1962. p. 294, color plate XIII

Beazley, J. D. Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1963. p. 122, No. 4

Arias, Paolo Enrico. Storia della ceramica di età arcaica, classica ed ellenistica e della pittura di età arcaica e classica. Torino: Soc. Ed. Internazionale, 1963. pl. 57.1

Beazley, J. D., J. D. Beazley, and J. D. Beazley. Paralipomena: Additions to Attic Black-Figure Vase-Painters and to Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters (Second Edition). Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971. 104

Boulter, C. G., Jenifer Neils, and Gisela Walberg. Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1971. pp. 26-27, PLS. 60-62, PLS.16, 100.28

Eisman, Michael M. "Nikosthenic Amphorai: The J. Paul Getty Museum Amphora." The J. Paul Getty Museum Journal 1 (1974) p. 43, n. 3 www.jstor.org

Lee, Sherman E. "The Year in Review for 1974." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 62, no. 3 (1975): 62-102. p. 65, fig. 1 www.jstor.org

EISMAN, MICHAEL M. "Attic Kyathos Production." Archaeology 28, no. 2 (1975). p. 82 www.jstor.org

Tiverios, M. "The 'Tyrrhenian' (Attic) Amphorae, Their Relation to 'Pontic' (Etruscan) Amphorae and to Nikosthenes" (in Greek) Archaiologike Ephemeris (1976). pl. 20a

Simon, Erika, Max Hirmer, and Albert Hirmer. Die Griechischen Vasen. München: Hirmer, 1976. pp. 81-82, color pl. XXII

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 22 archive.org

Kontoleōn, Nikolaos Michaēl. Stēlē: tomos eis mnēmēn Nikolaou Kontoleontos. Athēna: To Sōmateion tōn philōn tou Nikolaou Kontoleontos, 1980. . pl. 80

Cleveland Museum of Art, and Jenifer Neils. The World of Ceramics: Masterpieces from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: The Museum in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1982. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 10, fig. 12

Schöne, Angelika. Der Thiasos: eine ikonographische Untersuchung über das Gefolge des Dionysos in der attischen Vasenmalerei des 6. und 5. Jhs. v. Chr. Göteborg: P. Åström, 1987. p. 278, no, 247

Carpenter, Thomas H., J. D. Beazley, Thomas Mannack, Melanie Mendonça, and Lucilla Burn. Beazley Addenda: Additional References to ABV, ARV² & Paralipomena. Oxford: Published for the British Academy by Oxford University Press, 1989. p. 58

Baumann, Hellmut, William T. Stearn, and Eldwyth Ruth Stearn. The Greek Plant World in Myth, Art, and Literature. Portland, Or: Timber Press, 1993. p. 218, fig. 433

Immerwahr, Henry R. A Corpus of Attic Vase Inscriptions (CAVI). [Place of publication not identified]: [publisher not identified], 1998. p. 792, no. 3205

Tosto, Vincent. The Black-Figure Pottery Signed Nikosthenesepoiesen. Amsterdam: Allard Pierson Museum, 1999. p. 213, no. 28, pl. 16, fig. 32, pl. 68 AP 3.2, pl. 100

Smith, Tyler Jo. Komast Dancers in Archaic Greek Art. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010. p. 327, pl. 21c

Exhibition history

The World of Ceramics: Masterpieces from the Cleveland Museum of Art, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (June 30-September 5, 1982).

Year in Review: 1974. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 11-April 6, 1975).