Darrell A. Amyx
Encyclopedia
Darrell Arlynn Amyx was an American classical archaeologist
. His principal field of study was the archaic pottery
of Corinth
. Complimenting the pioneering work of John Beazley
, Amyx applied stylistic analysis to the work of previously unnamed and unstudied Corinthian painters, discerning many otherwise forgotten "hands".
Born in Exeter, California
, Amyx studied classics at Stanford University
where he earned a bachelor's of arts degree in 1930. He pursued futher studies at the University of California, Berkeley
; earning first a master's degree in Latin in 1932 and later a Ph.D. in Latin and classical archaeology in 1937. He then studied in Greece as a Fulbright Scholar. He later was the recipient of two Guggenheim Fellowship
s and four grants from the American Council of Learned Societies
. In 1946 he joined the faculty at Berkeley where he taught until his retirement in 1978. In addition to teaching classes at Berkley he served variously as the art department's chair, assistant dean of the College of Letters and Science, and curator of classical art in the University Art Museum as well as the R.H. Lowie Museum of Anthropology. He died after a long illness in 1997 at the age of 85.
Classical archaeology
Classical archaeology is the archaeological investigation of the great Mediterranean civilizations of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. Nineteenth century archaeologists such as Heinrich Schliemann were drawn to study the societies they had read about in Latin and Greek texts...
. His principal field of study was the archaic pottery
Pottery of Ancient Greece
As the result of its relative durability, pottery is a large part of the archaeological record of Ancient Greece, and because there is so much of it it has exerted a disproportionately large influence on our understanding of Greek society...
of Corinth
Corinth
Corinth is a city and former municipality in Corinthia, Peloponnese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Corinth, of which it is the seat and a municipal unit...
. Complimenting the pioneering work of John Beazley
John Beazley
Sir John Davidson Beazley was an English classical scholar.Born in Glasgow, Scotland, Beazley attended Balliol College, Oxford, where he was a close friend of the poet James Elroy Flecker. After graduating in 1907, Beazley was a student and tutor in Classics at Christ Church, and in 1925 he...
, Amyx applied stylistic analysis to the work of previously unnamed and unstudied Corinthian painters, discerning many otherwise forgotten "hands".
Born in Exeter, California
Exeter, California
Exeter is a city in Tulare County, California, United States. It is situated near the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range. The population was 10,334 at the 2010 census....
, Amyx studied classics at Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
where he earned a bachelor's of arts degree in 1930. He pursued futher studies at the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
; earning first a master's degree in Latin in 1932 and later a Ph.D. in Latin and classical archaeology in 1937. He then studied in Greece as a Fulbright Scholar. He later was the recipient of two Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are American grants that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts." Each year, the foundation makes...
s and four grants from the American Council of Learned Societies
American Council of Learned Societies
The American Council of Learned Societies , founded in 1919, is a private nonprofit federation of seventy scholarly organizations.ACLS is best known as a funder of humanities research through fellowships and grants awards. ACLS Fellowships are designed to permit scholars holding the Ph.D...
. In 1946 he joined the faculty at Berkeley where he taught until his retirement in 1978. In addition to teaching classes at Berkley he served variously as the art department's chair, assistant dean of the College of Letters and Science, and curator of classical art in the University Art Museum as well as the R.H. Lowie Museum of Anthropology. He died after a long illness in 1997 at the age of 85.
Published works
- An Amphora with A Price Inscription in the Hearst Collection at San Simeon. Berkeley 1941
- Echoes from Olympus: Reflections of Divinity into Small Scale Classical art. Berkeley 1974 (with Barbara A. Forbes (ed.))
- Archaic Corinthian Pottery and the Anaploga Well. Princeton, NJ 1975, ISBN 0-87661-072-6 (with Patricia Lawrence)
- Corinthian Vase Painting of the Archaic Period. 3 vols. Berkeley 1988, ISBN 0-520-03166-0
- Studies in Archaic Corinthian Vase Painting. Princeton, NJ 1996, ISBN 0-87661-528-0 (with Patricia Lawrence)
Secondary Literature
- Mario A. Del Chiaro (ed.): Corinthiaca. Studies in honor of Darrell A. Amyx, Columbia, Missouri 1986, ISBN 0-8262-0617-4 (with bibliography)
- Evelyn E. Bell, Barbara A. Forbes: "Darrell Arlynn Amyx, 1911-1997". In American Journal of Archaeology 102 (1998) S. 179-180
- Evelyn E. Bell, Barbara A. Forbes: "Darrell A. Amyx". In Gnomon 70 (1998) S. 575-576