Among painted vases the amphora holds a high place, especially in the black-figure period, during which it was most prominent. It is distinguished from the plain type, as already pointed out, by the proportions of the body, as well as by the graceful curve of the handles and the flat circular foot. The variations in its form at different places and periods are so marked that they have led to the adoption of qualifying adjectives for each kind. Although these names cannot now be accepted in a strict sense, they are sometimes useful as conventional expressions. We proceed to describe these in detail.
(1) The origin of the Greek amphora is clearly to be sought in the pithos of primitive times, as may be seen in the vases of the Melian and Proto-Attic classes, and in the early vases with reliefs from Boeotia, Crete, Thera, and elsewhere. It is not found in the Mycenaean style, the large vases of which come under the heading of the krater (see below); and its appearance in Greece dates from the developed stage of the Geometrical period. The earliest specimens among the painted vases are virtually small pithoi, characterised by a long cylindrical neck, and large elaborate handles obviously imitating metal (see p. [495]). Of this type are several of the Boeotian Geometrical and Proto-Attic vases discussed in Chapter [VII.],[[533]] and the Boeotian vases with reliefs.[[534]] Among the Proto-Attic vases found at Vourva a development occurs, in which the neck is greatly elongated, and the body becomes exceedingly slim, while the handles are simplified into plain flat bands united to the neck by bars of clay (see Fig. [89], p. 299). This form is found still further developed in the prothesis-amphorae of the B.F. period[[535]]; but these are comparatively rare, and the more normal evolution of the amphora with cylindrical neck is to be traced in the varieties (2) and (6) described below.
FIG. 25. “TYRRHENIAN” AMPHORA.
(2) The early amphorae preceding the ordinary B.F. Athenian types were divided by Gerhard into two classes, “Egyptian” and “Tyrrhenian.”[[536]] He describes the former as a vase with tolerably pronounced curve of body, entirely covered with horizontal bands of figures; the latter as of similar form, but with decoration confined to a panel on either side. As regards shape, therefore, the two are actually one, and may be regarded as such for our present purpose; but it is curious to note that the particular class called “Egyptian” by Gerhard has since his time been generally known as “Tyrrhenian,” while his “Tyrrhenian” class has now received, from the peculiar mannerisms of the paintings, the name of “affected” vases.[[537]] At all events the word is convenient to adhere to for the description of this particular shape (Fig. [25]), with its long, egg-shaped body, the vertical section of which is almost an ellipse, a shape common to all early B.F. fabrics—Athenian, Rhodian, Ionic, and Corinthian—but best illustrated by the “Corintho-Attic” class described by Thiersch.[[538]] It is seldom found in purely Attic examples, and disappears after the middle of the sixth century.
FIG. 26. PANATHENAIC AMPHORA.
(3) Gerhard’s next class is that of the Panathenaic amphorae, which have a long body shaped something like a top, and tapering sharply downwards; the mouth, handles, and neck are small, as is also the foot (Fig. [26]). It is so called as being the characteristic form of the earlier (sixth-century) Panathenaic prize-vases, but is also occasionally found in the ordinary fabrics. This type, together with the two following examples, not mentioned explicitly by Gerhard or the other early writers, form the class of “black-bodied” amphorae, as they may conveniently be termed, in order to distinguish those with panel-decoration from those in which the body is entirely covered with red glaze (see below).
(4) The second variety of “black-bodied” amphora (Fig. [27].) is closely akin to the Panathenaic, but the body is better proportioned. It is characterised by the wide mouth in the form of a thick ring, the cylindrical handles, and the concave curve of the shoulder. From the style of the paintings it is probable that this variety must be placed early in the black-figure period.
