Amphora

Uninscribed Panathenaic amphora, black figure. obverse: Athena standing and holding a large shield with a star on it. On the other side there are two young riders on galloping horses. The riders are represented as long and schematic figures, the representation of the horses is better although their bodies seem too big and long. There is a sense of movement in the scene and some foreshortening and sense of space. The incision for the horse's details and the bodies of the athletes is very convincing but the slip seems not to be of a great quality because it is not very thick and is almost of an orange colour or perhaps was not fired properly. There is Etruscan graffito under one handle to the left of the standing Athena. The typical decoration of Panathenaic amphoras was always in the black figure technique, even though their production continued during the times that most pottery was in red figure. They would show on one side the sport or game of the Panathenaic festival that athletes competed in and on the other side always Athena, the goddess celebrated during the festival. Panathenaic amphoras were normally awarded to the winning athletes as a prize and they would be filled with oil. In these cases they were much bigger in size that this example and they would also be inscirbed with the name of the winning athlete