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Lot Essay
The obverse depicts the capture of the Cretan bull for King Minos; the seventh labour of Herakles. The hero is shown forcing the bull to the ground, flanked by an elaborately decorated Athena Promachos, and his nephew Iolaos, a companion for a number of his heroic tasks. The present vase depicts the bull restrained by ropes around a hind leg and - unusually for depictions of this scene - around the bull's mouth and nose. In the background, the heroes' bow and quiver rest in the branches of a tree.
The reverse shows a group of five bearded revellers, each nude except for a chlamys. The figure furthest to the right gesticulates to the others, a kantharos balanced in his left hand. Three of the five figures are ambitiously yet awkwardly composed, simultaneously displaying a frontal and profile stance. Such a technique became increasingly popular in the late 6th century B.C., another notable example being the contemporaneous 'reveller's vase' by Euthymides. The rim is decorated with two lions interspersed with four boars, evocative of Herakles' earlier encounters with the Nemean Lion and the Erymanthian Boar.
For a similar black-figured amphora depicting Herakles subduing the Cretan bull, cf. inv. no. 389 at the Museo Gregoriano Etrusco, Vatican City (Beazley Archive Pottery Database no. 320311).
The reverse shows a group of five bearded revellers, each nude except for a chlamys. The figure furthest to the right gesticulates to the others, a kantharos balanced in his left hand. Three of the five figures are ambitiously yet awkwardly composed, simultaneously displaying a frontal and profile stance. Such a technique became increasingly popular in the late 6th century B.C., another notable example being the contemporaneous 'reveller's vase' by Euthymides. The rim is decorated with two lions interspersed with four boars, evocative of Herakles' earlier encounters with the Nemean Lion and the Erymanthian Boar.
For a similar black-figured amphora depicting Herakles subduing the Cretan bull, cf. inv. no. 389 at the Museo Gregoriano Etrusco, Vatican City (Beazley Archive Pottery Database no. 320311).