From Ancient Jar to Contemporary Jewelry

We’ve deconstructed the decorations on an ancient Greek vessel (ca. 540 BCE) in The Met collection to create three new suites of jewelry: Greek Key Gems, Greek Meander, and Greek Amphora Motif.

On view in the Museum’s Greek and Roman Art galleries is a type of terracotta jar called a neck-amphora—traditionally used for storing and transporting wine and foodstuffs—bearing remarkable imagery attributed to the potter and painter Exekias.

Exekias is regarded as a master of black-figure painting, which embellished fine pottery made in Athens between the beginning of the 6th and the end of the 4th century BCE. Black-figure painting was a laborious technique achieved by applying ornamentation with a slip that turned black in the kiln during the firing process, creating a striking contrast with the natural color of the clay. Vase painters further articulated their decorations by incising the slip or adding white and purple pigment.

The imagery on such painted vessels provides insight into many aspects of Athenian life. The neck-amphora that inspired our jewelry bears depictions of a man and woman on a chariot accompanied by a woman and kithara player on the obverse and reverse of the body, and on the shoulder, a combat of foot soldiers and horsemen. 

Around the base of the jar are two bands of a meandering rectilinear pattern known as the Greek key, one of art history’s most pervasive and enduring motifs, which we’ve adapted for our Greek Key Gems and Greek Meander jewelry collections. 

Our Greek Key Gems Jewelry reimagines this perennial motif with lapis and tiger’s-eye gemstones, while the Greek Meander collection is made with glossy black enamel offset by sparkling cubic zirconia.

Our distinctive Greek Amphora Motif Jewelry draws from the foliate pattern around the jar’s neck, adapting it into a contemporary design featuring crossbar elements with jasper accents, interspersed with circular onyx gemstones. 

This neck-amphora is the only vessel in The Met collection directly attributed to Exekias for the brilliance of its execution. Although the jar’s essential elements are traditional, it bears a notably robust shape, and the black-figure paintings are extraordinarily careful, vital, and visually balanced against the terracotta base.

Around 530 BCE, a more naturalistic technique known as red-figure painting was developed. Red-figure painting was essentially the inverse of black-figure painting in that the blackening slip was applied to the vessel, while the decorative motifs remained the color of the clay. Figures could be articulated with glaze lines or diluted washes of glaze applied with a brush, which allowed for greater precision in the portrayal of anatomy, garments, and emotions. As artisans recognized the possibilities that came with drawing rather than incising forms, red-figure painting eventually replaced black-figure painting as the preferred mode of pottery decoration. 

Our jewelry pays homage to a magnificent example of ancient black-figure painting in The Met collection.

Shop our Greek Key Gems, Greek Meander, and Greek Amphora Motif jewelry in-store at The Met Fifth Avenue and online.