The unsigned Würzburg amphora of Amasis (Fig. [95]), like all the vases of this master peculiar in shape and of perfect technique, is more progressive and probably somewhat later than the Stesias amphora of Exekias: the cloak of Dionysos on the obverse is laid in three folds; on the reverse the shaggy satyrs, stylized in a quite un-Attic way, who to the sound of the flute are gathering, pressing, and distributing into jars the beloved gift of the god, show the same connection with the ‘Phineus’ factory as the eye kylix ([p. 102]). The technical perfection and the fine decorative effect of Amasis’ vases are only surpassed by a wonderful contemporary group, which is usually called the ‘affected’ class, because it consciously sacrifices the living representation of the figure world to the ornamental general effect.
The over-elegant works of Exekias, the ‘affected’ vases, the minute ‘little master’ kylikes represent the last refinement of the silhouette style, its last trump-card. The future belonged not to the masters of the adorned surface, but to the delineators of the surface in movement. In the last phase of the body amphora prior to the red-figured style, in which the band-like handles and the narrower neck are drawn higher and the stiff palmette pattern becomes canonical, Exekias in his riper development passes over to rich rendering of folds; on the harmonious amphora in Rome, which no longer praises Stesias but Onetorides (Fig. [ 96]) he exhibits in the cloaks of the players the last possibilities of his subtle technique with an almost incredible devotion to detail, but even these fine clothes have their edges overlapping, and on the reverse of the vase, besides foldless patterned clothes, appear cloaks richly animated with folds. The amphora must be of the same period as the eye kylix (Fig. [93]); not only the feeling as a whole but the dark-red chitons in layers on the outside point to the late activity of the master.
The necked amphorae complete our idea of the two great masters. The old heavy shapes with the arched foot take up Chalkidian influences and go through the same processes of change, which we know from Chalkis. The old-fashioned decoration with animal stripes is retained by the Tyrrhenian vases, that with continuous pictorial field by the ‘affected’ group for a time, till the later Chalkidian type conquers the whole field (Fig. [69]). Amasis seems not merely to have introduced it into Athens but also to have created the pretty variation with the flat shoulder with a rectangular turn and the wide handles running out below into tendrils: for these continuous tendrils are old property of his eastern home. The handle ornament separates off the pictures on the two sides and liberates the figures from the constraints of a frieze. The Paris amphora with Dionysos and the interesting group of embracing Maenads (Fig. [98]) is closely connected with the Würzburg amphora (Fig. [ 95]) not only by the double rays, which Amasis loves,
PLATE LIV.
[Fig. 96]. ACHILLES AND AIAS PLAYING AT DRAUGHTS: FROM AN AMPHORA BY EXEKIAS.
[Fig. 97]. ATTIC NECKED AMPHORA WITH SATYR-MASK.