Common between the 7th and 5th centuries BC, Black Figure ware can stylistically be distinguished from the preceding orientalising period and the subsequent red-figure pottery style. Figures and ornaments were painted on the body of the vessel using shapes and colours reminiscent of silhouettes. Delicate contours were incised into the paint before firing, and details could be reinforced and highlighted with opaque colours, usually white and red. The principal centres for this style were initially the commercial hub Corinth, and later Athens. Showing double figural scenes, one of two men riding horses in an unusual frontal profile, and one of a group of four men engaged in pederastic courtship. Pederasty in ancient Greece was a socially acknowledged romantic relationship between an adult male (the erastes) and a younger male (the eromenos) usually in his teens. It was characteristic of the Archaic and Classical periods. The influence of pederasty on Greek culture of these periods was so pervasive that it has been called "the principal cultural model for free relationships between citizens."

Published

Munzen and Medaillen AG, Auction 34, 6th May 1967, no. 124

Provenance

Formerly Munzen und Medaillen AG, Basel, 1967
Thereafter Private Swiss Collection
Thence by descent in the family of J.D. Beazley, Paralipomena (Oxford 1971) 136.5BIS. Beazley Archive Pottery Database no. 351013.

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