Horse-Headed Amphora

The head of a horse wearing a simple halter appears in a panel on each side of this amphora, a vessel intended to store wine. The horse is rendered in silhouette, which has been enlivened before firing with incision and added red to articulate details such as mane and harness. This technique, known for self-evident reasons as black-figure, was developed in Corinth in the late seventh century BC and quickly adopted in Athens. It is precisely during the years when this amphora was made that Athenian potters and painters, encouraged by Solon's legislation encouraging craftsmen to settle in Athens and teach their trades to their children, began to outstrip work in the potters' quarter at Corinth.

Over 120 so-called horse-head amphorae have survived to the modern era. Canonical in appearance, they were made over a period of several decades in the first half of the sixth century BC and were widely circulated throughout Greece and much of the Mediterranean basin, especially Egypt and Italy. Their significance is not certain. Some scholars have offered the intriguing suggestion that they served as prize vessels for the Panathenaic Games before their reorganization and the introduction of the famous Panathenaic amphorae. For others, the vases were destined to be grave goods, and therefore associated with the afterlife and aspects of the cults of Athena and Poseidon, the two principal deities of Attica.

The present vase, with its ample, swelling body, is one of the earliest known amphorae of its type.