Kylix: Achilles killing Penthesilia

Creator: Penthesilea Painter, ca. 475-450 B.C

Title: Kylix: Achilles killing Penthesilia

Date: c.455 B.C

Location: Attike (Greece)

Description: From Attica; found at Vulci

From the British Museum: "Athenian red-figure vase-painter [the Penthesilea Painter] whose name is unknown. Nevertheless consistent individual characteristics of style suggest the existence of a unique artistic personality. Beazley called him the Penthesilea Painter naming him after the grandly conceived tondo on a cup in Munich showing a battle of Greeks and Amazons and featuring a Greek killing an Amazon, presumably Penthesilea. A prolific decorator of cups, he occasionally painted impressive, large tondos, but generally produced rather routine work. He seems to have been the leading painter in a large workshop. He and his colleagues sometimes collaborated on individual pieces. A very large number of cups have been attributed to his hand on the basis of style."

Supplemented by Britannica (original writing): Penthesilia was the Amazon's warrior queen, a deeply respected and formidable opponent. As the allies of the Trojans, Achilles was forced to fight and ultimately kill Penthesilia, of which stories account his feelings of remorse for slaying an honored warrior. But as with many Greek myths, other instances of retelling the myth indicate that his remorse was after he fell in love with her upon meeting her eyes, disastrously after his blade plunges into her. Penthesilia's skills are renowned, with some saying that she had killed Achilles, but the latter had been brought back to life by Zeus in favor of the Greeks. Her notability is what leads to the assumption that Penthesilia is on the kylix featured above, as it is most likely to have portrayed two prominent figures of an iconic moment of the Trojan war.

A kylix is the term for a regularly seen pottery cup of ancient Greece, commonly used to drink wine.

Source: https://library-artstor-org.offcampus.lib.washington.edu/#/asset/ARTSTOR10341822000410025

Penthesilea Painter, ca. 475-450 B.C. Kylix: Achilles killing Penthesilia. c.455 B.C. Artstor, library-artstor-org.offcampus.lib.washington.edu/asset/ARTSTOR10341822000410025