Apulian Red Figure Amphora, ex-Sotheby's, Royal Athena

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Exceptional Day 1: Antiquities & Asian Art

By Artemis Gallery

Sep 26, 2019

Set Reminder 2019-09-26 10:00:00 2019-09-26 10:00:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : Exceptional Day 1: Antiquities & Asian Art https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/artemis-gallery/exceptional-day-1-antiquities-asian-art-4437
Day 1 of an important 2-day auction featuring exceptional, museum-worthy examples of Egyptian, Greek, Etruscan, Roman, Viking, Russian, Near Eastern, as well as Asian Art from China, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, Burma and India. Artemis Gallery info@artemisgallery.com

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• Lot Description
  Magna Graecia, Apulian, Group of Bologna, ca. 340 to 320 BCE. A wonderful red-figured amphora by the Group of Bologna 572 with an impressive iconographic and decorative program. Side A depicts woman holding a situla and a fan before a seated figure of Eros with a phiale and cascading rosette chain. Though nude as is traditional, Eros is elaborately decorated with a beaded sash and necklace, bracelets, wristlets, headdress, and drop earring. Side B features two cloaked figures holding walking sticks and facing each other. In addition to this iconography, the decorative program is quite extensive. There is a register of Greek key/meander below both scenes, stylized palmettes below the handles, a band of running meander followed by a wider band of tongues adorning the shoulder, stylized palmettes on the neck, and a white painted laurel wreath around the mouth. Size: 8.5" in diameter x 20.875" H (21.6 cm x 53 cm)
  
  The red-figure technique, invented in Athens around 525 BCE and beloved by artists of Magna Graecia including the Group of Bologna, was a very exciting innovation in Greek vase painting. This technique allowed for much greater flexibility as opposed to the black-figure technique. Suddenly the artist could use a soft, pliable brush rather than a rigid metal graver to delineate interior details, play with the thickness of the lines, as well as build up or dilute glazes to create chromatic effects. The painter would create figures by outlining them in the natural red of the vase, and then enrich these figural forms with black lines to suggest volume, perspectival depth, and movement, bringing those silhouettes and their environs to life. Beyond this, fugitive pigments made it possible for the artist to create additional layers of interest and detail as we see in this example.
  
  Published in A.D. Trendall, "The Red-Figured Vases of Apulia" Vol. II, Oxford, 1982, p. 751, 23/217, 20/326.
  
  Provenance: private Alabama, USA collection; ex-Roy Green collection; ex-Royal-Athena Galleries, New York, New York, USA; ex-Sotheby's, London (April 29, 1974, lot 309), illustrated; ex-private American collection, acquired in London in 1974
  
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  #148723

  Condition

  Normal surface wear with minor scuffs, nicks, and pigment loss commensurate with age. This said, the painting is remarkably well preserved with vivid details and wonderful fugitive white pigment details remaining. The black glaze has developed a marvelous iridescence over the course of 2300+ years.
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