Fragments of an Amphora (Storage Jar) (520-500 BCE): Artwork and History

Fragments of an Amphora (Storage Jar) (520-500 BCE) is in the Art Institute of Chicago collection. The museum lists its creator attribution as Greek; Athens.

The work and its context

The Art Institute of Chicago describes the work:

The front of this vase depicts Dionysos in the Gigantomachy. He is in the centre of the scene. He holds the island (white) of Nisyros on his shoulder as he thrusts down with his spear at a fallen giant (Polybotes: shield device is an ivy quatrefoil); on the left another giant flees. On the other side of the vase is a fight over a fallen warrior, who is down on his knees. The warriors wear short chitons, cuirasses and helmets, and have spears and shields (devices, crescents on left; disc in centre; winged dolphin? on right).

Object facts

• Title: Fragments of an Amphora (Storage Jar)
• Date: 520-500 BCE
• Artist attribution: Greek; Athens
• Place of origin: Greece
• Medium: terracotta, red-figure
• Dimensions: 41.3 × 28 × 28 cm (16 1/4 × 11 × 11 in.)
• Type: Vessel
• Department: Arts of Greece, Rome, and Byzantium
• Reference number: 1889.94

Collection credit

Museum Purchase Fund

View the original

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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.