The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 29, 2024

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

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

c. 530–510 BCE
potter

signed by Nikosthenes

(Greek, Attic, active c. 545–510 BC)
painter
(Greek, c. 530–510 BC)
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.)
Location: 102B Greek

Did You Know?

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).
  • 1974-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • 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
  • 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).
  • {{cite web|title=Black-Figure Nikosthenic Amphora (Storage Vessel): Dancing Youths; Sphinxes and Lions; Satyrs and Maenads|url=false|author=Nikosthenes, Painter N, Thiasos Group|year=c. 530–510 BCE|access-date=29 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

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https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1974.10