A Nikosthenic amphora is a type of Attic vase invented in the late 6th century BC by the potter

Nikosthenes Nikosthenes was a potter of Greek black- and red-figure pottery in the time window 550–510 BC. He signed as the potter on over 120 black-figure vases, but only nine red-figure. Most of his vases were painted by someone else, called Painter ...

, aimed specifically for export to Etruria. Inspired by Etruscan

Bucchero Bucchero () is a class of ceramics produced in central Italy by the region's pre-Roman Etruscan population. This Italian word is derived from the Latin ''poculum'', a drinking-vessel, perhaps through the Spanish ''búcaro'', or the Portuguese '' ...

types, it is the characteristic product of the Nikosthenes-Pamphaios workshop. Characteristic features are the angular body of the amphora and the broad flat handles. The Etruscan predecessors were black-painted, whereas the Attic vases were decorated in the

black-figure style Black-figure pottery painting, also known as the black-figure style or black-figure ceramic ( grc, , }), is one of the styles of Ancient Greek vase painting, painting on pottery of ancient Greece, antique Greek vases. It was especially common bet ...

. Nearly all know examples were found in

Caere : Caere (also Caisra and Cisra) is the Latin name given by the Romans to one of the larger cities of southern Etruria, the modern Cerveteri, approximately 50–60 kilometres north-northwest of Rome. To the Etruscans it was known as Cisra, t ...

, while the majority of Nikosthenes products in other shapes were discovered in

Vulci Vulci or Volci ( Etruscan: ''Velch'' or ''Velx'', depending on the romanization used) was a rich Etruscan city in what is now northern Lazio, central Italy. As George Dennis wrote, "Vulci is a city whose very name... was scarcely remembered, b ...

. This suggests that the type was specifically made for sale in or to Caere, which indicates that Nikosthenes must have been a gifted salesman and that an efficient system of intermediate traders must have existed. Niksothenes created or introduced several vase shapes, but the Nikosthenic amphora is his most famous innovation. The clay of the Nikosthenic amphorae is bright orange-red, and thus provides a perfect base for black-figure vase painting. Their decoration follows quite varied patterns. Sometimes, they are subdivided in two or three separate friezes, mostly of plant and animal motifs. In other cases, images cover the whole vase body. Apparently most, perhaps even all, Nikosthenic amphorae were painted by

N Painter The N Painter was an Attic black-figure vase painter of the third quarter of the 6th century BC. His real name remains unknown. The N Painter was named after the potter Nikosthenes, as he worked in the latter's workshop and was his most important ...

, which has been suggested to be identical with Nikosthenes. Production began around 530 to 520 BC and continued under Nikosthenes' successor

Pamphaios Pamphaios was an Attic potter active around the end of the 6th century BC. Pamphaios was the successor of Nikosthenes in that artist's workshop, and thus took over from one of the most influential and creative potters of antiquity. He probably too ...

– at that stage in the red-figure style – to cease between 500 and 490 BC.Production periods of different amphora shapes on Gießen University website
– here wrongly classified as belly amphorae.

Bibliography

* John Boardman: ''Schwarzfigurige Vasen aus Athen. Ein Handbuch'', Mainz 1977, p. 72 (Kulturgeschichte der Antiken Welt, Vol. 1) *

Thomas Mannack Thomas Mannack (born in 1958) is a German classical archaeologist. Mannack obtained his Doctorate in 1992 with at the University of Kiel. The thema of his dissertation was ''Beazleys spätere und späteste Manieristen''. He is a specialist in ...

: ''Griechische Vasenmalerei. Eine Einführung''. Theiss, Stuttgart 2002, . * Wolfgang Schiering: ''Die griechischen Tongefässe. Gestalt, Bestimmung und Formenwandel''. 2. Auflage. Mann, Berlin 1983, p. 37f., 46–48, 152 (Gebr.-Mann-Studio-Reihe) .

References

External links

{{Greek amphorae Ancient Greek pot shapes Amphorae