The Kleophrades Painter
Michael Padgett, Princeton University

16. Shapes: Neck-Amphorae

Some of the finest works of the painter's maturity are his neck-amphorae with twisted handles, a type originating in the Pioneer Group and a particular favorite of Euphronios.[80] The Berlin Painter and his imitators, such as the Harrow Painter, also favored these large, well-potted vessels. Like the Berlin Painter, the Kleophrades Painter placed single, unframed figures on either side, but unlike him he made them part of the same spatial and temporal continuum. Thus two satyrs bring up the armor which Dionysos will wear in the battle with the Giants, Herakles attacks a rock-wielding centaur, and Apollo confronts Herakles as he steals the Delphic tripod.[81]

The varied ornament on the neck-amphorae are found on other shapes as well. The aulode and flute-player on London E 270, mentioned above (Illustration 97), stand on short groundlines consisting of interlocked maeanders, facing alternately left and right, separated by black boxes and saltire-squares.

Illustration 97

This was a favorite ornament in the painter's mature and late periods, and variations of it appear on a number of shapes, including amphorae of Panathenaic shape and those with twisted handles.[82] On some of the latter, the figures stand on bands of key-pattern; in one case, a key-pattern circles the neck below the mouth.[83] The discus-thrower on St. Petersburg 613 (ARV 183, 17) stands on a key-pattern while the trainer on the other side stands on a band of egg-pattern, a type limited to late works and used also as a groundline on the painter's two neck-amphorae with triple handles. One of the latter is of Nolan shape, like those favored by the Berlin Painter;[84] the other has a neck decorated on either side with lotus and palmette chains, like those on the black-figure neck-amphorae which the Kleophrades Painter was also painting at this time (see below).[85]

82. E.g. ARV2, 183-84, nos. 7-13, and 15. It also occurs as a groundline on the bell-krater Basel BS 482 (ARV2, 1632, 49 bis), and on the upper rim of the volute-krater Malibu 77.AE.11, discussed above Illustration 98, where on one side the boxes are replaced by "Macedonian" stars; Illustration 99; see Greifenhagen 1972, pls. 17 and 19.

Illustration 98

Illustration 99