Nolan Amphora showing Athena and Hermes

This Nolan Amphora was decorated using the red-figure technique by an artist known today as the Berlin Painter, widely regarded as one of the most talented vase painters of the early fifth century B.C. Unlike many other painters who preferred to demonstrate their mastery by creating complicated figural scenes, heavy with ornament, the Berlin Painter tended to simplify his compositions, frequently limiting them to a single figure set against a black ground. Such is the case here, where he has decorated one side of the vase with a depiction of Athena, standing with a spear in her left hand and a helmet in her right, and the other side with Hermes, wearing his characteristic winged sandals and holding a kerykeion (herald's staff) in his left hand. Representations of Athena holding rather than wearing her helmet are thought to show a "peaceful Athena," perhaps commemorating the peace following the victory of Athens over the Persians at the Battle of Salamis in 480 B.C.

Geography: Made in Athens, Attica, Greece

Culture: Greek, Attic

Period: Late Archaic

Credit: Gift of Rebecca Darlington Stoddard