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View: Side A

Two-handled jar (amphora) with Achilles and Ajax

Greek
Archaic Period
about 525–520 B.C.
Place of Manufacture: Greece, Attica, Athens

Medium/Technique Ceramic, Black Figure and Red Figure (Bilingual)
Dimensions Height: 55.5 cm (21 7/8 in.); diameter: 34 cm (13 3/8 in.)
Credit Line Henry Lillie Pierce Fund
Accession Number01.8037
ClassificationsVessels
These two versions of the same scene from the Trojan War appear on either side of an amphora, one painted in black-figure and the other in red-figure technique. During a lull in the fighting, the two most fearsome Greek warriors-Achilles and Ajax (the more familiar Latin names for Achilleus and Aias, as they were known to the Greeks)-sit playing pessoi, an ancient game akin to backgammon. The two heroes face each other across the table as equals; no winner is declared. Their equality emphasizes their distinction-often mentioned by Homer-as the strongest of the Greeks. Al-though this scene is not included in any extant written account of the Trojan War, more than 150 renditions survive in Greek vase painting, raising the possibility that it sprang from the imagination of an artist, rather than that of a writer. One candidate is the famed black-figure vase painter Exekias, who was known for his everyday approach to heroic subjects and who signed the earliest known vase featuring this scene.

Vases that have both red-figure and black-figure decoration are called "bilingual." In its earliest form, the red-figure technique was essentially a reverse of the black-figure, and for a short time artists employed both in tandem. Although the Andokides Painter is credited with the red-figure composition on this vase and the Lysippides Painter with the black, researchers debate whether one person or two painted the vessel; both names may refer to the same artist. Despite the similarity between the two scenes, a comparison reveals some of the characteristics of the red-figure style that would lead to its eventual displacement of black-figure. The more fluid nature of the compostion-the figures gesture with their spears, and their helmets overlap the upper vegetal border-and the greater emphasis on the human form are both hallmarks of the movement toward naturalism that would dominate later Greek art.

Catalogue Raisonné Caskey-Beazley, Attic Vase Paintings (MFA), no. 114; Highlights: Classical Art (MFA), p. 062-063.
DescriptionThis amphora is decorated on both sides but in different painting techniques. One side has a scene depicted in the Red Figure style, and the other side shows the same scene in the Black Figure style. This type of decoration puts the vase into the so-called Bilingual group.
The traditional attributions for the painter is: the Red Figure (side A) is by the Andokides Painter, and the Black Figure (side B) is by the Lysippides Painter.

This scene, known from other representations in Greek art, depicts the heroes Achilles and Ajax playing a board game. The warriors wear their helmets and hold two spears each. Ajax has his right hand near the board, ready to play when his turn comes. Both heroes wear short tunics (chitoniskoi), and are armed, with corslet, cushes, greaves; they wear short cloaks over their armour. Behind them, their shields lean against something, with their helmets perched on top; behind them, or beside them at arm's reach. Both sit with the hither leg drawn back; Ajax is farther from the table than Achilles, although he sits farther forward on his block (thakos).

Condition: Large pieces have been restored. On Side A, heads are restored.
ProvenanceBy date unknown: Alfred Bourguignon collection; by 1901: with Edward Perry Warren (according to Warren's records: bought privately from the collection of Alfred Bourguignon. Bourguignon's label [on the vase]: Orvieto); purchased by MFA from Edward Perry Warren, December 1901