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Panoply game2/1/2024 ![]() Laurie Schneider has demonstrated how careful Exekias was about the composition. The whole gaming scene is divided into three plains by the players’ spears. The middle plain is a triangle pointing downwards. Within it we see Achilles and Ajax’s heads at the top and their hands at the bottom. This effect draws our focus to the players’ faces and also communicates the idea that their heads (that is, their thoughts) are dictating the moves that their hands make. It is praised for the sophistication of its composition and the excellence of its execution. 28, 1976).Įven with all these different versions, many still consider the Exekias vase to be the most artistically impressive. While a huge number of vases were decorated with the Achilles-Ajax gaming scene, it also featured on other items. Shield bands found at the sanctuary at Olympia show the familiar design, and a marble frieze found on the Athenian acropolis also seems to show the same episode. It’s been suggested that the acropolis marble may be the original image that inspired the vase-painters (see D.L Thompson, Arch.Class. This bilingual amphora is housed in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. © MFA Boston (01.8037) c.500BCE ![]() ![]() It has a black figure scene by the Lysippides Painter on one side (left) and a red-figure scene by the Andokides Painter on the other (right). ![]() The amphora below, made c.530-520BCE, shows the same scene in two styles - making it what's known as a bilingual vase. Hydria by a member of the Leagros Group. © Metropolitan Museum (56.171.29) c.510BCE © Vatican Museum (343). Photo from Schefold, 1992Īthena appears between the players in many of the Achilles-Ajax scenes. The vase below is a hydria by a painter from the influential Leagros Group. Athena was thought to have taken a keen interest in the Greek heroes at Troy and this is reflected in the vase-maker's decision to include her in this scene. Some scholars, such as Karl Schefold (1992, 273-4) have argued that the cup below shows the earliest surviving version of the Achilles-Ajax playing scene. They date it to c.550, making it earlier than the famous version by Exekias. Other scholars, notably Susan Woodford (1982) and Mary Moore (1980) consider that date much too early for that cup. They are amongst a large number of scholars who think that Exekias was the first to present the Achilles-Ajax gaming scene on a vase and that all other versions were based on his work. There is no consensus because so many vases of these vases were produced within a very small window of time, making it difficult to put the vases in chronological order on stylistic grounds. Many vase-painters created versions of the gaming scene around this time. More than a hundred examples survive. © Vatican Museum (344). Photo Steven Zucker. Like the gaming scene on the other side, this is an image of famous figures in a moment of leisure. The vase scene shows her parents, Tyndareos and Leda, and her twin brothers, Castor and Polydeuces (aka 'Pollux’ to the Romans) with a horse. Before she was Helen of Troy, she had once been Helen of Sparta. The reverse of the vase shows the family of Helen of Troy. The vase is an Attic black figure amphora, made c.540-530BCE by the greatest of the black-figure painters, Exekias, who has signed his name on the vase. The vase shows Achilles and Ajax playing a game during the Trojan War. Both men still have their shields, spears, and helmets at the ready.
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