This magnificent replica amphora from 520 b.c. depicts a scene from the last labor of Hercules. Hercules was sent to the underworld, Hades, to bring back the three-headed dog, Kerveros to King Eurystheas. He was allowed to leave with Kerveros only if he could subdue the animal without use of his weapons. He did so by seizing the dog in his hands and crushing him tightly until the animal was tamed. The vase shows Hercules returning to the King’s court with the dog, and the frightened king trying to hide in a large amphora. Hercules then returned the animal to the underworld where he remained as the guardian of Hades.
The reverse side of the vase shows Hercules and Folos the centaur greeting each other. Hercules was on his fourth labor trying to catch the boar of Mt. Erymanthos. On the way he passed through the forest of the centaurs and met Folos. Folos invited Hercules to a feast at which Hercules drank from the centaur’s magic wine. The odor of the wine spread through the forest, causing the other centaurs to arrive at feast and drink of the wine. They became wildly drunk and began fighting with Hercules while Folos ran off to hide. Hercules killed many centaurs in this famous "Centaurmachos", and when Folos returned, he too was killed when he accidentally scratched himself with one of Hercules poisoned arrows.
The black figure amphora, is a replica of a vase from 470 b.c.. Although the black figure style of vase painting originated in Corinth, it was the rise to power of the city-state of Athens and its subsequent export of pottery throughout the Mediterranean that brought the Athenian black figure vase painting style to the forefront in the 5th Century.
The vases were first completed in the well-known yellow-orange color by mixing red ochre with the clay. The figures and scene were then painted on the vase in black in a silhouette format. The artist could then engrave or incise lines of clothing, faces, and other details on the black figures, allowing the ochre color to show through. Often times another color such as white or red, or sometimes purple, was added to a few objects on the vase.
Unlike the earlier vase painting styles of Geometric and Corinthian, the black figure vase artists did not feel compelled to cover the entire vase with design. The spacing was more centered, with a primary scene on the body of the vase, and the neck and foot of the vase usually left blank, or lightly filled with vines or checkerboards, as if the vase were a canvas for the painting itself, and not an object on its own to be decorated.
