On view
Amphora (storage vessel) depicting Theseus and the Minotaur (A); Zeus seated between the Eileithyiai (B),
ca. 545–535 BCE
The shape and basic decorative scheme of this black-figure amphora are standard for the third quarter of the sixth century BCE, when Athens was a major exporter of pottery to Italy, where this vase was found in a tomb at Nola. In this panel, the hero Theseus is about to kill the Minotaur, seizing the bull-headed monster by the arm as he readies his sword. The youths standing at either side are presumably those that Theseus accompanied to Crete, having been demanded by King Minos as a sacrifice to the Minotaur. On the other side of the vase, Zeus is seated between the Eileithyiai, goddesses who have come to assist with the birth of Athena from the head of Zeus. Scholars often identify anonymous Greek potters by naming them for the location of a key work that was attributed to them; the Princeton Painter was named for another amphora in the Museum’s collection.
Information
ca. 545–535 BCE
Europe, Italy, Campania, southern Italy, tomb at Nola
- William C. Prime, Pottery and porcelain of all times and nations, (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1879). , fig. 267; p. 392
- J. D. Beazley, Attic Black-figure Vase-painters, (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1956)., 12.22; Paralipomena, 8.
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"Galleries of Ancient Art: given by the Class of 1929," Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 25, no. 1/2 (1966): 46–48.
, p. 47 (illus.) - John Boardman, Athenian black figure vases, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1974). , p. 17, fig. 16
- J. Michael Padgett, "The collections of ancient art: the early years," in "An art nuseum for Princeton: the early years", special issue, Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 55, no. 1/2, (1996): p. 107-124., p. 113, fig. 6
- Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collection (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007)
- Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collections (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Art Museum, 2013), p. 279
- Alan W. Johnston, Trademarks on Greek vases: addenda, (Oxford, UK: Aris and Phillips, 2006)., p. 115, 4E
