Neck-Amphora (Front)

An unusual scene decorates this neck amphora: a nude youth wearing a chlamys over his shoulders walks to the left, holding a morsel of food for a long-tailed cat. Viewed from above with a frontal face, the cat leaps up with its forelegs extended to snatch the tempting treat. On the reverse is a winged horse, perhaps Pegasus, in profile toward the left, with its wings spread as if ascending or landing.

The amphora has been attributed to the Lotus Bud Group, a workshop active in Cerveteri or Orvieto during the first quarter of the 5th century B.C. Depictions of cheetahs and cats as domestic pets occur relatively frequently in Etruscan art, although scenes of cat-teasing are rare and are more typical in Greek art. On vases and tomb paintings in Tarquinia and Orvieto, domestic felines crouch expectantly under banquet tables and couches.