This magnificent Attic amphora from 525 b.c. can be found in the Museo Civico, in Brescia, Italy. It has been determined to be in the style of the Psiax Painter.
On the front side there is one of the most complete interpretations of Hercules’ fight with the Lion of Nemea. The hero has his leg bent almost to the ground and he is trying with his right arm to hold the back leg of the beast. With his other hand, he is attempting to grasp the lion tightly towards him. In the picture, Hercules is naked and bearded, with only his knife scabbard breaking up his nudity. His robe is hanging from the tree along with his quiver. It’s possible that the Psiax painter included the tree to suggest the event happened the in forest of Nemea.
The goddess Athena stands on the right, while on the left, there is a beardless youth, possibly Iolaos the nephew and helper of Hercules. The goddess, the protectress of Hercules, is wearing a chiton and necklace, and is encouraging on with a movement of her hand. Athena wears her traditional Attic-style helmet, and holds a spear and shield, bearing her symbol of the owl. Iolaos, wearing a short chiton, looks worriedly at the struggle and bears two spears- both probably Hercules’.
The second side of the vase depicts two dismounted horsemen, in Thracian clothes. Each is wearing a small chiton, tied on the right shoulder, high-top shoes with knee protectors, and helmets made from foxes skins. The horsemen are holding the reins and spears. A woman and a seated old man wait excitedly for them to arrive. The old man is wearing a wreath on his head and sits on a small stool. The woman wears a band on her head and a necklace. Although the picture has no names, there is a similarity between this picture and others portraying the Dioskouros brothers, Castor and Pollux, brothers to Helen of Troy. Although Castor and Pollux were not Thracian, the Psiax Painter, of the Keramikos School, frequently dressed his heroes that way.
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.