Attributed to the Arno Painter, (Southern Italian, Lucanian), Red-Figure Neck-Amphora of Panathenaic Shape, 500-450 BC
Earthenware, 21 ¾ x 14 ½ in. diameter
Gift of Mrs. Morton C. Nichols in memory of Mr. and Mrs. Robert E. Dietz, 71.17

The pottery traditions of ancient Greece extend from 1000 BC to the end of the first century BC. The variety of shapes developed over this time stands among the most distinctive in the history of ceramics and continues to be influential today.

Painted pottery of ancient Greece was used for fetching, storing, pouring and consuming either water, wine or oil in domestic, funerary or ceremonial settings. In addition to its functionality, Greek pottery is noteworthy for the balance achieved between the shape of the vessel and the application of decoration. However, neither potter nor painter signed his works.

A pottery made of clay with a high iron content giving its characteristic reddish-brown color, Attic pottery was first decorated in black-figure and later red-figure technique. Red Attic ware is characterized by naturalistic decoration, aided by the rise of a technique that could more naturally trace the details of the human body as well garements.

The Everson's Red-Figure Neck-Amphora was produced in one of Greece's outlying Mediterranean colonies, the Lucanian region of southern Italy. The shape of the vessel yields two broad areas for decoration, attributed to the Arno Painter. On one side, two youths are shown conversing with two women. The four figures stand around a washbasin, on which one youth is leaning. Both youths, although naked, carry chlamydes (short mantles) and lances. One woman holds a sash; the other carries a small wooden chest. On the opposite side, a woman holds a sash as two youths carrying spears walk toward her. One of them holds a bronze strigil, a body-scraper used to cleanse the body. Above the figures, two lines of graffiti have been scratched into the surface of the pot. In Doric dialect, the text indicates that the owner of the vase was Damoteles toxetas, or "Damoteles, the archer."

The exact meaning of the scenes is unknown. It has been suggested that the two youths represent the Dioscuri, the mythological hero-athletes Castor and Pollux. Another interpretation holds that the youths are athletes preparing for a contest or ceremony.