Attic Red-Figure Neck Amphora with Double Handles (Side A)

The vase is entirely black save for the figural decoration on front and back. On one side (A), a young man crowned with an ivy wreath cavorts with his left leg flexed off the ground. Nude save for the cloak over his left arm, he rotates his right arm to aid his balance as he endeavours to keep the cup in his left hand upright. On the reverse (B) an older male adopts a similar pose. Lacking a cup from which to drink, he extends his left hand, and holds his right to his hip. Wreathed like his companion, he has a receding hairline, and, to some eyes, a pug nose. He could be a slave accompanying his young master in a komos that occurred in connection with a festival such as the Apatouria, when boys were registered into the phratry (tribal association) of their father.

Once in the collection of Prince Albrecht of Prussia (1837-1906), this doubleen bears a graffito underfoot and is likely to have been found in Italy. The vase has been reassembled from numerous fragments and large sections of the black background and part of the lip have been restored. There are sizable areas of misfire, especially on the neck of side A.