Collection Online as of September 29, 2023

Black-Figure Neck-Amphora (Storage Vessel): Herakles and Nemean Lion (A); Dionysos, Satyrs, and Maenads (B)

515–510 BC

attributed to Painter of Berlin 1899

(Greek, Attic)

Greek, Attic

Ceramic

Overall: 39.8 cm (15 11/16 in.); Diameter: 29 cm (11 7/16 in.)

Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund 1970.16

Location

001A ArtLens Exhibition

Fun Fact

After Herakles strangled the Nemean lion, he wore its pelt as a protective trophy.

Description

The neck-amphora, one of the most popular vase shapes in Archaic Athens, provided painters with ample space for both figural and ornamental decoration. Herakles, the greatest of Greek heroes, performs his most famous deed on the obverse, wrestling the Nemean lion. His patron goddess Athena, together with his nephew Iolaos, holding the hero’s club, stand by. On the other side is an unrelated scene, showing the wine god Dionysos with dancing maenads and satyrs. Abundant ornament covers other areas: stylized lotus blossom and palmette chains on the neck; intricately linked palmettes and lotuses beneath each handle; and a key pattern, linked lotus buds, and rays on the lower body.

Provenance

1970-

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Citations

Beazley Archive. n.d. Beazley Archive Pottery Database. Oxford: Beazley Archive. BAPD 1494 www.beazley.ox.ac.uk

Kathman, Barbara. "A Trio of Late Black-Figure Vase Painters." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 66, no. 2 (1979): 50-66. pp. 57-63, figs. 13-16. www.jstor.org

Boulter, C. G., Jenifer Neils, and Gisela Walberg. Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1971. p. 9, plates 13 & 14, I

Lee, Sherman E. "The Year in Review for 1970." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 58, no. 2 (1971). p. 27 www.jstor.org

Kathman, Barbara A. A Cleveland Bestiary. Cleveland, OH; Cleveland Museum of Art, 1981. Reproduced: p. 26; Mentioned: p. 25, p. 61

Lexicon iconographicum mythologiae classicae (LIMC). Zürich: Artemis, 1981. V, PL.42, HERAKLES 1852

Mededelingen van het Nederlands Instituut te Rome: 9-10 (1983) Pl. 4, Fig. 6

Keuls, Eva C. The Reign of the Phallus: Sexual Politics in Ancient Athens. 1985.

Hedreen, Guy Michael. Silens in Attic Black-Figure Vase-Painting: Myth and Performance. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1992. p. 57

Even, Yael. "Andrea Del Castagno's Eve: Female Heroes as Anomalies in Italian Renaissance Art." Woman's Art Journal 14, no. 2 (1993) p. 41 www.jstor.org

Keuls, Eva C. Painter and poet in ancient Greece: iconography and the literary arts. Stuttgart: Teubner, 1997. p. 385, Fig.19

Neils, Jenifer. "Hercle in Cleveland." Cleveland Studies in the History of Art 3 (1998). Mentioned and reproduced: p. 6 www.jstor.org

Mahlerbe, Anne. “La Quete du Rouge: Reve et Cauchemar du Potier.” La Revue de la Ceramique et du Verre 236 (Janvier-Fevrier 2021): 50-53. Reproduced: P. 50

Exhibition history

Year in Review: 1970. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 10-March 7, 1971).

A Cleveland Bestiary. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 15-December 16, 1981).

Artlens Exhibition 2019. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer).