and quiver are rendered in engraved pattern.
The lion's pelt gives the most notable use of
engraving: paired strokes indicate the shaggy
fur and massed strokes fill out the mane. Apparently, the artist used color and texture to
enliven the otherwise melted contours of the
figures and the slack drawing of the larger elements. He succeeded in increasing the interest
in the scene with all the added color and engraved texture, but his lack of care is noticeable
in the details. For instance, the shield of the
Amazon on the right has a rim that was not
painted completely around. And Herakles has
a red-painted left thigh muscle which the
painter mistook for the skirt of the hero's tunic.
Herakles fought the Amazons as a result of
his ninth labor, which was to obtain the belt of
the Amazon queen. This was a popular theme
in Greek art from the seventh century B.C. on.
It first appears in Athenian vase painting in
the second quarter of the sixth century, continuing to be portrayed down to the middle of
the fifth century.12 In Athenian black-figure
alone, 391 examples of Herakles fighting the
Amazons have been catalogued and published; the Kelsey Museum amphora adds another example to this corpus."3
Among scenes of Herakles's battle with the
Amazons, the most popular type is that found
on the Kelsey amphora, where Herakles alone
is pitted against three or more women warriors. In his comprehensive study of Amazons
in Greek art, Dietrich von Bothmer listed sixtynine examples of the scene which correspond
to our depiction.14 Within this group, parallels
can be found for nearly every feature of the
pose, dress, and choice of weapons of the Amazons and of Herakles on the Kelsey amphora.
See, for example, the scene on a belly amphora
details in added red: shield rims, tunic skirts, fillets on
helmets and on the Skythian cap, stripes on helmet crests,
the lips and spotted neck of the lionskin.
12. Von Bothmer, Amazons, pp. 6, 133; P. Devambez,
"Amazones," Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae,
volume 1, Munich, 1981, pp. 586-597.
13. Von Bothmer, Amazons, pp. 6-69, 224-226, 230.
14. Von Bothmer, Amazons, pp. 56-60, 225 (Category
III Gy).
in Madrid, which is a particularly close analogue (Fig. 6).15
One feature of the composition of the Kelsey version of the battle with the Amazons is
unusual: Herakles extends his left arm out
from under his cloak, as if clutching at the
shield of the Amazon at the right. Usually,
Herakles grasps Andromache, often by the
crest attachment of her helmet.'6 It is possible
to interpret the ambiguous action of Herakles's hand as yet another indication of lack of
attention by the artist, muddying the composition at its heart. Extending the left arm with
the cloak as a shield, however, is a common
gesture of attack, especially for hunters.'7
Herakles only rarely makes this gesture, since
he needs no shield while wearing the impermeable skin of the Nemean lion. When he
does use a cloak for a shield, he is hunting the
lion itself, and therefore in need of some protection.18 Interestingly, on several vases slightly
later than the Kelsey amphora, Herakles is
shown fighting the Amazons with his arm extended in the lionskin, much as the Athena of
the Archaic pediment on the Acropolis holds
out her aegis.19 Perhaps the peculiar gesture
on the Kelsey amphora represents the artist's
attempt to use this new image of the invincible
15. Madrid 10918: ABV 367.96, illustrated in Corpus
Vasorum Antiquorum Madrid 1, 1930, pl. 23.2b, Spain 41.
The only differences from the Kelsey's version are the
helmet of the Amazon on the left and the profile shield
of the one on the right.
16. For examples of Herakles grasping Andromache's
helmet, see von Bothmer, Amazons, pls. 28-31, 35-39,
41-44.
17. This gesture is discussed by the author in Gestures in
Attic Vase Painting: Use and Meaning, 550-450 B.C., unpublished doctoral dissertation, The University of Michigan, 1982, pp. 74-75, (listed in Dissertation Abstracts,
volume 43.6, 1982, 1730-A).
18. For example, on the amphora attributed by Burow
to the circle of Exekias, Tibingen H.10 1202 (Corpus
Vasorum Antiquorum Tiubingen 3, 1980, pl. 6.1, Germany
2251), a skyphos of the mid-sixth century and the shoulder of a hydria by an artist related to the Bucci Painter
(ABV 316), both in the Robinson Collection at the University of Mississippi (Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum Robinson Collection 1, 1934, pl. 24.1a, United States 157, and
pl. 34.1c, United States 167).
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