Panathenaic Prize Amphora: A: Athena, B: Four-horse chariot Artist, attributed to: Kleophrades Painter (Greek, Attic, ca. 505–475 B.C.)

ca. 490 B.C.

Ancient Art

On view, 1st floor, Ancient Art

The Panathenaic Games, held in Athens every four years in honor of Athena, featured athletic and musical competitions. This special amphora, filled with valuable olive oil, was given by the city to the winners. Athena strides between two columns on one side, while the event for which the prize was given—here, a four-horse chariot race—is shown on the reverse. The Greek inscription reads, “From the Games at Athens.”

Medium

Terracotta, black-figure, with applied red and white

Dimensions

25 11/16 × 15 3/4 in. (65.2 × 40 cm)
diameter of mouth: 11/16 × 7 1/8 in. (1.7 × 18.1 cm)
preserved height: 19 1/2 in. (49.5 cm)

Credit Line

Gift of Frederic W. Stevens, B.A. 1858

Accession Number

1909.13

Culture

Greek, Attic

Period

Late Archaic

Classification

Containers

Disclaimer

Note: This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect the Yale University Art Gallery’s complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of records is ongoing.

Provenance
Said to have come from Etruria; conservation treatment in Rome in 1837; probably ex collection J. Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913); ex collection Frederic W. Stevens (1839-1928)
Bibliography
  • Susan B. Matheson, Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, Yale University Art Gallery (Darmstadt, Germany: Verlag Philipp von Zabern, 2016), 13–15, no. 7, pls. 73–74, 75.5–.7, fig. 5
  • Lisa R. Brody et al., "A Grecian Urn," Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin (2010), 90, fig. 4
  • Martin Bentz and Norbert Eschbach, Panathenaïka: Symposion zu den Panathenäischen Preisamphoren (Mainz: Verlag Philipp von Zabern, 2001), 66, note 11
  • Thomas Mannack, "Beazley Archive Database," http://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/xdb/ASP/browse.asp?tableName=qryData&newwindow=&BrowseSession=1&companyPage=Contacts&newwindowsearchclosefrombrowse= (accessed 1997–2019),
  • Wendy M. Watson and Susan B. Matheson, Altered States: Conservation, Analysis, and the Interpretation of Works of Art, exh. cat. (South Hadley, Mass.: Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, 1994), 126–29, no. 23
  • Erika Kunz-Goette, Kleophrades-Maler (Mainz, Germany: Verlag Philipp von Zabern, 1992),
  • Jenifer Neils, Goddess and Polis: The Panathenaic Festival in Ancient Athens, exh. cat. (Hanover, Germany: Hood Museum of Art, 1992), 174–75, no. 45
  • Handbook of the Collections, exh. cat. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 1992), 261
  • Susan B. Matheson, "Panathenaic Amphorae by the Kleophrades Painter," Greek Vases in the J. Paul Getty Museum 4 (1989), 95–112, fig. 3, 10
  • Beazley Addenda: Additional References to ABV, ARV2 and Paralipomena, 2nd (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989), 105
  • Arnold Lewis, Steven McQuillin, and J. Turner, The Opulent Interiors of the Gilded Age: All 203 Photographs from "Artistic Houses" (New York: Dover Publications, 1987), 48–49, fig. 22
  • Sir John Davidson Beazley, Attic Black-Figure Vase-Painters, 1st (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1956), 404, no. 5
  • D. W. Sheldon, Artistic Houses: Being a series of Interior Views of a Number of the Most Beautiful and Celebrated Homes in the United States, with a Description of the Art Treasures Contained Therein, 67 ed., printed for L. M. Bates, New York, 2 vols. (New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1883–84), 101, ill
Object copyright
No Copyright - United States
Additional information

Object/Work type

amphorae, mythology

Subject

Panathenaia chariots (ancient vehicles)

Inscriptions

Along the left edge of the panel on A: in Greek: TON ATHENE THEN ATHLON

Technical metadata and APIs

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