How does this artwork elucidate its Description?
The amphora was made on a potter's wheel in three sections that were joined to form a single large vessel, standing at over five feet tall (1.55 m).The artist's construction was intended to fit the specific proportions of having the same height and width, and possessing a neck that's half of the body's length. The base has a hole to allow libations to be poured for the dead, and it has small handles on the shoulders of the ovoid body.
The supposed purpose for the shape of the Dipylon Amphora potentially stems from the artist's usage of the composition for the decorated registers on the piece. A specialist of ancient ceramics, Dr. Thomas Mannack, indicates that the style of the Geometric period derived certain aspects of the Protogeometric and intertwined new features, hence the separated bands on the neck and body of the pottery. The geometric patterns are what define the style, with an array of shapes within and around the friezes: including battlements, concentric circles, meanders, and key patterns. The entirety of the vase, excluding the main frieze, is ornamented with precisely balanced patterns utilizing light and dark pigments; these decorative forms including meanders have been proposed by multiple scholars to be the invention of the very Dipylon Master.The belly of the vase between the handles is not only the widest section, but structurally the most delicate since the clay is the thinnest in width at that point, further dictating that the frieze within that format is the most important visual aspect of the scene. A rectangular panel between the handles on one side depicts a prothesis scene, the lying in repose of a draped dead woman on a bier, with a checkered shroud above the body, and stylized mourners to either side. There are thirty-nine human figures total- both men and women- on the handle zone of the piece. Placed underneath each handle are six figures, with eight more on the backside panel, and a large group of nineteen people depicted on the frontal frieze. The tall cylindrical neck, includes bands of repeated stylized deer and goats. The goats in particular, are shown with their legs tucked underneath and heads turning back upon themselves, almost as if to simulate the meanders throughout the amphora.
bier Geometric period libation prothesis Geometric key patterns potter's wheel lying in repose frieze Amphora meanders Dipylon mourner concentric circles composition Dipylon Master Protogeometric pigment geometric amphora shroud