The boxer, his hand bound in leather, reels as his opponent lunges forward and swings at his head with an open palm. Behind the fighters, their trainer looks on sternly, staff in hand, his flowing cloak folded over one arm.

Locked in combat, the opponents remain frozen in a scene that is as powerful now as it was when a Greek artist painted it on the Attic black figure amphora more than 2,500 years ago.