CIRCA 400-350 B.C.

While stylistically the painting on this amphora has much in common with the South Italian and Sicilian red-figure schools, it is unusual in terms of the shape. The mouth has a projecting ridge, suggesting it was intended to be fitted with a lid, and the foot is not typical for any of the contemporary Western Greek fabrics. In correspondence from 1993 between A.D. Trendall and a previous owner, the scholar suggested that this vase is most likely a local product from one of the Illyrian colonies on the western coast of Albania directly across the Adriatic from Apulia in South Italy. The two most important cities were Epidamnos-Dyrrhachion (modern Durres) and Apollonia, where a number of red-figured vases have been found which are thought to have been locally produced (see Minollari, “Red-figure vases from Durres – A reflection of a local culture,” Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 2016). Most of these are of relatively small scale and offer a limited iconography, including women in domestic contexts and Dionysiac scenes. The obverse of the amphora presented here is centered by a laver in added white, in which swim three swans. Below, a squatting nude woman prepares to put on her peplos; to the left, a partially draped woman gazes into a mirror; to the right a draped woman holds the rim of an oinochoe, while a nude Eros, behind the laver, presents her with an offering. Another nude Eros sits on a tendril on the vessel neck, while the reverse has three women around an altar.