Amphora (Storage Jar) (4th century BCE): Artwork and History

Amphora (Storage Jar) (4th century BCE) is in the Art Institute of Chicago collection. The museum lists its creator attribution as Faliscan; Latium, Italy.

The work and its context

The Art Institute of Chicago describes the work:

With its monumental proportions, white volute handles, and red-figure decoration, this amphora bears a striking resemblance to vases from Apulia on the eastern coast of southern Italy. However, this vase belongs to the Faliscan culture, the Etruscans’ southernmost neighbor in the region of modern-day Tuscany. Together, the Etruscans and Faliscans would struggle against Roman expansion. The high quality and popularity of the Faliscan wares vied with Roman ceramic production, intensifying the tension between the regions. Here a nude female hands a young warrior his armor, and around the neck are sea-creatures.

Object facts

• Title: Amphora (Storage Jar)
• Date: 4th century BCE
• Artist attribution: Faliscan; Latium, Italy
• Place of origin: Central Italy
• Medium: terracotta, red-figure
• Dimensions: 62.2 × 29.2 × 28.9 cm (24 1/2 × 11 1/2 × 11 3/8 in.)
• Type: Vessel
• Department: Arts of Greece, Rome, and Byzantium
• Reference number: 1889.86

Collection credit

Museum Purchase Fund

View the original

Explore the artwork in the Art Institute's collection, including its image and the museum's current catalogue details.

The description above is credited to the Art Institute of Chicago and reused under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0; HTML formatting has been converted to plain text. Other catalogue metadata and the public-domain image are provided under CC0 1.0.