Amphora Stand with Bread-Making Scene

Place of OriginGreece, Attica

Dateabout 510 BCE

DimensionsH: 6 11/16 in. (17 cm); Diam (rim): 6 15/16 in. (17.6 cm); Diam (foot): 7 11/16 in. (19.5 cm)

MediumBlack Figure; Wheel-thrown, slip-decorated earthenware with incised details.

ClassificationCeramics

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1958.69B

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 02, Classic

DescriptionThis cylindrical stand features concave walls with strong torus moldings at the top and bottom and is designed to support a pointed amphora. The decoration, executed in black-figure technique, wraps continuously around the body and shows a domestic narrative scene interpreted as figures baking bread or, alternatively, heating water and engaging in a washing ritual. The interior shows blackened accretions and scoring. The vessel is broken and repaired, with restorations in plaster, especially in areas above the heads of the figures.

Label TextThis Attic black-figure stand, made around 510 BCE, is decorated with a rare genre scene of bread-making. The continuous frieze depicts men and a woman collaborating in various stages of baking: a man pours from a basket onto a fire while another fans the flames; a third approaches carrying what appears to be a loaf. The woman, the only clothed figure, kneads dough at a trough, which is now understood as a kneading table rather than a wash basin. These details provide valuable insight into domestic labor and food preparation in classical Athens. The stand was acquired with a pointed amphora (1958.69A), though the two were painted by different artists and do not form an original set.Published References

Kunstwerke Der Antike, Auktion XVLLL, Münzen und Medaillen A.G., Basel, Nov. 29, 1958, lot. 102 (2).

"Accessions of American and Canadian Museums, July-September 1959," Art Quarterly, vol. 22, 1959, p. 385, repr. p. 384.

La Chronique des Arts, (Supplement a la Gazette des Beaux-Arts), no. 1092, Jan. 1960, p. 29, repr.

Sparkes, Brain, "Greek Kitchen," Journal of Hellenic Studies, vol. 82, 1962, p. 135.

Washington, Selden, "Greek Vase Painting," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, new series, vol. 5, no. 4, Winter 1962, repr. p. 90.

Vermule, Emily, "Myths, Shapes and Colors," Apollo, vol. 86, no. 70, Dec. 1967, p. 424, repr. figs. 7, 8, p. 422.

Riefstahl, Rudolf M., "Greek Vases," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, new series, vol. 11, no. 2, 1968, p. 37, repr.

Beazley, Sir John Davidson, Paralipomena, Oxford, 1971, pp. 168-169, p. 169.

Griefenhagen, A., "Neue Fragmente des Kleophrodesmales," Sitzunberichte der Hildelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften, Phil, -hist. Klasse, 1972, 4, p. 10.

Luckner, Kurt T., "Greek Vases: Shapes and Uses," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, vol. 15, no. 3, 1972, pp. 64, 65, repr. fig. 2, cover (col.).

Vasenlisten zur griechischen Heldensage, 3rd. ed., Marburg, 1973, p. 76.

Boardman, John, Athenian Black Figure Vases, London, 1974, p. 111, repr. fig. 209.

Sparkes, B.A., "Illustrating Aristophanes," Journal of Hellenic Studies, vol. 95, 1975, p. 134, repr. pl. XVII d.

Boulter, Cedric G., and Kurt T. Luckner, Corpus vasorum antiquorum: Toledo Museum of Art, U.S.A. Fasc. 17, Toledo, 1976, p. 10, repr. pl. 16, profile drawing fig. 3.

Johnston, Alan, "Hunting scenes on Greek vases," Connoisseur, vol. 196, no. 789, Nov. 1977, p. 165, repr. (col.) p. 161.

Greek Vase-Painting in Midwestern Collections, Chicago, Art Institute, 1979, no. 74, p. 131, repr. also (col.) pl. IV.

Moore, Mary B. and Mary Zelia Pease Philippides, The Athenian Agora. Volume XXIII: Attic Black-Figured Pottery, Princeton, The American School of Classical Studies at Athens, 1986, p. 31.

Van Straten, Folkert T., Hiera kala: Images of Animal Sacrifice in Archaic and Classical Greece, Leiden; New York; Brill, 1995, p. 149, n. 111.

Smith, Tyler Jo, Komast Dancers in Archaic Greek Art, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2010, p. 236.

Erdkamp, Paul, editor, A Cultural History of Food in Antiquity, London, 2012, fig. 6.1, p. 119, repr.

Exhibition History

Toledo Museum of Art, Treasures for Toledo, Dec. 1964-Jan. 1965.

Chicago, Art Institute, Greek Vase-Painting in Midwestern Collections, 1979-1980.

Comparative ReferencesSee also Beazley, Sir John Davidson, Hesperia, vol. V, 1936, pp. 68-69.
cf. Walters, H.B., Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, Great Britain, fascicule 4, British Museum, fascicule 3, London, 1927, Group III H e, p. 6-7.

cf. Deppert, Kurt. Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, Germany, fascicule 30, Frankfurt-am-Main, fascicule 2, Munich, 1968, pl. 46, nos. 4-6, pp. 11-12.

cf. Lullies, Reinhard, Die Spitzamphora des Kleophrades Malers, Bremen, 1957, list no. 9.

cf. Robinson, David M., Cornelia G. Harcum and J.H. Iliffe, Greek Vases at Toronto, Toronto, 1930, p. 99, pl. XXVII.

cf. Smith, Sir Cecil H., Catalogue of the First Portion of the Foreman Collection of Antiquities, 2 vols., 19, p. 64, no. 330.