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Paestan Red-Figure Neck Amphora

Creator

Painter

Artist

Asteas was the most important of the vase-painters working at Paestum in South Italy. The principal artist of a large workshop, he may have invented the free-standing half-palmettes, used to frame an image, that became characteristic of Paestan vase-painting. Asteas decorated hydriai and kraters, as well as some smaller vases, in the red-figure technique. Asteas was one of only two South Italian v

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Date: about 340 B.C.
Medium: Terracotta
Culture: Greek (South Italian, Paestan)
Department: Vessels
Institution: Getty Museum

Large amphora with reconstructed neck and proper right handle. On A, Orestes is about to slay Clytemnestra. The scene is framed within reserved bands, with a third bar at the top left (with a fillet draped over the crossbar) forming a triangle. Orestes attacks from the left. He is nude save for his chlamys, pilos and high laced boots. He also wears a decorated band (amulet?) on his right thigh. In his right hand he grasps a sword, and with his left, grasps Clytemnestra's hair. Fallen to her knees, she wears a peplos and a necklace, and looks to Orestes with a gesture of entreaty, holding her left hand to her exposed breast. At the upper right, a bust of a Fury watches the action, with snakes in her hair and arms. The attack takes place on rocky ground. On B: two youths wearing himatia facing one another. The chest of the youth on the left is partally exposed, his counterpart fully swathed. Ornament: on the shoulders, laurel leaves; under the handles, large palmettes; under the picture field, running wave pattern.

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