Horsehead Amphora

Horse-head amphorae were a special form of amphora that were produced in Athens around 600 BC. There were very bulbous vessels that showed style on both sides Pferdeprotomen in Black figure. In a single case, a woman's head was on one side to see. Unlike other early Bauchamphoren the painter renounced here on the separate neck frieze. The decoration was placed in recessed, rectangular picture window, with the remaining vases body is painted black. There are over 100 such amphorae known to have been painted by different artists, including less talented painters. These amphorae had a very specific meaning, but is not very clear today. Some researchers hypothesized that it is grave vases with amphoras, but it is a use of the vases prove as grave times in any case. If this interpretation is correct, one must in the horses probably see the Hades horses or the horses of Poseidon, assuming Poseidon in his role as god of the underworld. Another possibility is that the vases had served as a victory prize. Also, it is possible, according to Erika Simon, that the horse-head amphora were ordained Objects tab of the Attic nobility. The Horsehead could thus have served as a status symbol. According to John D. Beazley these vases were not even half a century the repertoire of Athenian artists. A stylistic development can not be determined. It is possible that these amphorae were the forerunners of the Panathenaic Preisamphoren. After his horse-head amphorae, the painter of the Aachen horse's head was named.