Apulian Red-Figure Amphora

A tall red-figure amphora from Apulia, in Magna Graecia (southern Italy), made in the 4th century BC. The slender body rests on a high stem and a moulded foot, with two elegant handles rising to a wide, flaring mouth decorated in added white. The neck carries palmettes and radiating tongues, and a band of waves runs around the shoulder. The main scene shows two women on either side of a white funerary stele: one carries a casket and a string of beads, the other a small pail, or situla, as if bringing offerings to the tomb. A meander band frames the scene below. White pigment highlights the garments, the jewellery and the stele itself, enhancing the contrast against the black ground. Apulian workshops were famous for their elaborate red-figure pottery. Amphorae of this kind were not utilitarian vessels but ceremonial and funerary objects, decorated with mythological, Dionysian or commemorative scenes linked to the afterlife.