1. Terracotta lekythos (oil flask), Lekythos, ca. 550–530 B. C
Terracotta lekythos (oil flask), Lekythos, ca. 550–530 B.C.; ArchaicAttributed to the Amasis Painter Greek, AtticTerracotta; height 6 3/4 in. (17.15 cm) Metropolitan Museum, NY About eight items have the signature: “Amasis made me”
Terracotta lekythos (oil flask), Lekythos, ca. 550–530 B.C.; ArchaicAttributed to the Amasis Painter Greek, AtticTerracotta; height 6 3/4 in. (17.15 cm)Fletcher Fund, 1931 ( ) Enlarge ZoomAdd to My Met Gallery Description Alternate Views Description On the shoulder, a seated woman, perhaps a goddess, is approached by four youths and eight dancing maidens; on the body, women are making woolen cloth. One of the most important responsibilities of women in ancient Greece was the preparation of wool and the weaving of cloth. Here, in the center, two women work at an upright loom. To the right, three women weigh wool. Farther to the right, four women spin wool into yarn, while between them finished cloth is being folded. The Amasis

2. Dionysus, Maenades. Louvre

3. Amasis painter. Eye Cup.

4. Amasis eye cup (up-angle)
Our last example, though not unique for vessel shape in the potter Amasis' work (it is a variant of the new Type A, of which he has also several surviving examples of more canonical form), is most unusual in subject matter. This cup, in Boston,(18) has now been published thrice with serious discussion, and despite its remarkable scenes has entered more or less into the main-stream of discussion of Greek painted pottery.(19) On the A side there is a male eye-siren, its face painted red, but its other exposed flesh black, with the heavy incision characteristic of the Amasis Painter's male figures. Below each of the handles - and both of them facing towards the eye-siren, which is one of the better reasons for considering this the A side - there is a dog. One squats; the other is more hunched over. Both are shown defecating: in itself extremely rare for animals in Attic painted pottery to my knowledge,(20) but made all the more unusual by the fact that both have diarrhoea, their stools shown in added red. Our last example, though not unique for vessel shape in the potter Amasis' work (it is a variant of the new Type A, of which he has also several surviving examples of more canonical form), is most unusual in subject matter. This cup, in Boston,(18) has now been published thrice with serious discussion, and despite its remarkable scenes has entered more or less into the main-stream of discussion of Greek painted pottery.(19)
On the A side there is a male eye-siren, its face painted red, but its other exposed flesh black, with the heavy incision characteristic of the Amasis Painter's male figures. Below each of the handles - and both of them facing towards the eye-siren, which is one of the better reasons for considering this the A side - there is a dog. One squats; the other is more hunched over. Both are shown defecating: in itself extremely rare for animals in Attic painted pottery to my knowledge,(20) but made all the more unusual by the fact that both have diarrhoea, their stools shown in added red.
The B side is the more remarkable of the two. Here two men (their beards shown them to be adults; their paunches suggest middle age) are shown masturbating. Each wears around his neck a broad red garland with white bordering dots. The man to our left reclines on the ground. He wears a red fillet in his hair, and has a black beard. His penis is done in added red so that it stands out against his black thigh, and he uses his left hand (thumb inward) to stroke his phallos.
The second man leans against a folded pillow (the dog's tail seems to brush against it). His beard is red, his hair arranged in two rows of incised curls. He reaches his right hand around his right thigh and grasps his penis, foreskin retracted, the glans and foreskin in added red, the folds of the foreskin incised. With his left hand he makes a gesture variously identified as one of greeting or of conversation.
Bothmer (Amasis, p. 222, and see chart p. 239 for parallels mentioned p. 222) places this cup in the Amasis Painter's Late period, which he dates at B.C. He accepts Beazley's identification of a strong element of parody in our cup, which is necessarily later than the famous cup by Exekias in Munich which, in the view of these two scholars, is the first cup of Type A and also the first example of the Attic standard Eye-Cup (Munich 2044: Beazley, Black-Figure, , 686; id., Paralipomena, 60; Carpenter, Addenda, 41).

5. Amasis painter. Eye cup. Boston MFA
Our last example, though not unique for vessel shape in the potter Amasis' work (it is a variant of the new Type A, of which he has also several surviving examples of more canonical form), is most unusual in subject matter. This cup, in Boston,(18) has now been published thrice with serious discussion, and despite its remarkable scenes has entered more or less into the main-stream of discussion of Greek painted pottery.(19) On the A side there is a male eye-siren, its face painted red, but its other exposed flesh black, with the heavy incision characteristic of the Amasis Painter's male figures. Below each of the handles - and both of them facing towards the eye-siren, which is one of the better reasons for considering this the A side - there is a dog. One squats; the other is more hunched over. Both are shown defecating: in itself extremely rare for animals in Attic painted pottery to my knowledge,(20) but made all the more unusual by the fact that both have diarrhoea, their stools shown in added red. The B side is the more remarkable of the two. Here two men (their beards shown them to be adults; their paunches suggest middle age) are shown masturbating. Each wears around his neck a broad red garland with white bordering dots. The man to our left reclines on the ground. He wears a red fillet in his hair, and has a black beard. His penis is done in added red so that it stands out against his black thigh, and he uses his left hand (thumb inward) to stroke his phallos. The second man leans against a folded pillow (the dog's tail seems to brush against it). His beard is red, his hair arranged in two rows of incised curls. He reaches his right hand around his right thigh and grasps his penis, foreskin retracted, the glans and foreskin in added red, the folds of the foreskin incised. With his left hand he makes a gesture variously identified as one of greeting or of conversation. Bothmer (Amasis, p. 222, and see chart p. 239 for parallels mentioned p. 222) places this cup in the Amasis Painter's Late period, which he dates at B.C. He accepts Beazley's identification of a strong element of parody in our cup, which is necessarily later than the famous cup by Exekias in Munich which, in the view of these two scholars, is the first cup of Type A and also the first example of the Attic standard Eye-Cup (Munich 2044: Beazley, Black-Figure, , 686; id., Paralipomena, 60; Carpenter, Addenda, 41).

6. Exechias cup.

7. Kylix. Follower of Exekias. Ca. 530. MetropolitanMuseum
Shape: Kylix (Type A cup)Painter: Follower of Exekias Date: ca. 530 B.C. - ca. 520 B.C.Period: ArchaicDimensions H: m.; d. body m.; d. 289 m.; d. with handles m; d. foot m.Gift of Harlan E. and Theresa MooreShape:Kylix. Short thick flaring stem, concentric ring between stem and bowl, flanged foot, round handles. The Type A cup was used for drinking wine mixed with water. In vase paintings drinkers are commonly depicted holding such a cup for drinking or playing games, such as kottabos, a game that consists of flinging a drop of wine from the cup to hit a target. For further discussion of this type of vase see: Bloesch, H. (1940). Formen attischer Schalen. Zurich: Hans Rohr. Boardman, J. (1974). Athenian Black-figure Vases London: Thames and Hudson, pp Richter, G.M.A. (1935). Shapes and Names of Athenian Vases. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, p Villard, F. (1946). "L'Évolution des Coupes Attiques Á Figures Noires ( )." Revue des Études Anciennes, 48, p Decoration: Reserved areas (left in natural red clay): Exterior--body, lip of foot. Interior-- tondo (round area in center). Body: eyes with eyebrows and nose. In handle areas: Athena fighting two giants. Tondo: Triton.