ATTRIBUTED TO THE GOLTYR PAINTER, CIRCA 560 B.C.

Vases of the Tyrrhenian Group were made in Athens explicitly for the Italian export market, especially for customers in the Etruscan cities of Caere and Vulci (“Tyrrhenian” is derived from the Greek word for the Etruscans, “Tyrsenoi”). As Boardman informs (pp. 36-37 in Athenian Black-Figure Vases), the decorative scheme generally resembles that of Corinthian vases, and the scenes emphasize Herakles and the Amazonomachy, some komasts and their successors (as here), as well as an interest in everyday life. The amphora necks typically carry a lotus and palmette cross or interlace.

The body of the present vase is decorated in three registers. The top register displays on one side a nude masturbating man and a draped woman flanked by cocks and sphinxes; the other with a nude man between two sirens and cocks. Below are two encircling registers, one with a palmette lotus chain and one with panthers. For a related scene on another amphora by the Goltyr Painter, see Beazley Archive Pottery Database no. 6433.