Olive Pickers

This stunningly detailed, terracotta vase depicts how Athenians used to gather olives.

It tells a story of four men beating an olive tree and picking up the fruits shaken down. This particular Attic black-figure amphora would have been filled with the finest olive oil and presented as a prize at the Panathenaic Games. It is attributed to the Artimenes Painter in 520BC.

From an artistic point of view, this amphora was hugely fun to draw, with its repetitive detail such as the leaves on the trees and decorative patterns around the base. The colours are bright on print and the detail is sharp.