3-045-257 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Attic White-Ground Alabastron with an Archer, about 480 BC. Additional Info: With its narrow neck, flat mouth, and swelling cylindrical body, this vessel is perfectly designed for dispensing fragrant oil. The clay body is covered with a white-ground slip, while the neck and mouth are painted black, as is the bottom. The top of the figure-decorated zone bears two black bands, one thick, one thin, and there is a reserved band beneath the ground-line. Much of the surface is worn. On the body stands a figure looking back to the left, dressed in a distinctive costume: trousers decorated with dots and stripes; a sleeved jerkin, with a dot pattern on the arms; and a chlamys (mantle) draped over both arms. A quiver is visible, hanging at the hip, and the figure holds an axe in one outstretched arm, a bow in the other. The hairstyle and facial features match other stereotyped depictions of Black Africans on Athenian vases, and a palm tree on the reverse situates the scene in non-Greek lands. Around 80 vessels like this one are known, and the Black African archers are often interpreted as mythical figures, for they sometimes appear alongside Amazons.