Magna Graecia, South Italy, Apulian, ca. 4th century BCE. A gorgeous red-figure pelike meticulously hand-painted with the image of a nude erote on one side and a female, perhaps a goddess, on the other. Striding left, the nude deity holds out a patera before him as his wings span behind him, his coiffure pulled up in a feminine kekryphalos, suggesting this may be the erote Hermaphroditus who was both male and female. On the alternate side, the female figure also strides left, draped in a peplos as she holds up a tympanum in one hand and a fan in the other. The field of both is adorned with floral and vegetal motifs, while a band of egg-and-dart pattern embellishes the area above and a row of crested wave designs is below. Elaborate palmettes lie between the 2 figures, just beneath each tubular handle. Size: 6.7" Diameter x 10" H (17 cm x 25.4 cm)
Perhaps the most exciting innovation in Greek vase painting was the red-figure technique, invented in Athens around 525 BCE and beloved by other artists of Magna Graecia. The red-figure technique allowed for much greater flexibility as opposed to the black-figure technique, for now 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, at times perspectival depth, and movement, bringing those silhouettes and their environs to life.
Provenance: private New York, New York, USA collection; ex-G. Ford collection, Brooklyn, New York, USA, 2020s; ex-private Massachusetts, USA collection
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#179602
Condition
Some chipping to side and along peripheries of foot. Some nicks and abrasions, but otherwise intact and excellent with impressive remaining pigment and detail. Encrustations in areas. Crested wave motif painted on underside of foot.