LOT 0076

Campanian Red-Figure Neck-Amphora with Cavalryman

340-330 B.C.

15 7/8 in. (1.55 kg, 40.2 cm high).

The piriform body with broad, stepped rim and two round-section handles; red-figure frieze depicting two standing women facing, wearing a himation and stephane; the other side with a nude standing warrior wearing an Apulo-Corinthian helmet, holding the reins of his horse, acanthus leaves, ovolo and wave motifs to the neck and lower body; probably from a Cuma workshop.

Ex private collection Mr S., Geneva, by inheritance.

Accompanied by an academic report by Dr Raffaele D’Amato.
Accompanied by an original thermoluminescence analysis report no.N123k3 from Oxford Authentication.
This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate number no.11784-206515.

Trendall, A.D., The red-figured vases of Lucania, Campania and Sicily, second supplement, University of London, Institute of Classical Studies Bulletin n°31, 1973, planche XLII.

Cf. Trendall, A.D., ‘Paestan Pottery: a Revision and a Supplement’, in Papers of the British School at Rome, 1952, no.20, pp.1-53, pl.XVIa, for similar amphora but with different iconography.

The illustration of the horse is noteworthy: contemporary descriptions speak about the Sicilian horses as 'generous, swift and with firm foot' (Aeneid III, 704). The Oscan poet Lucilius of the 2nd century B.C. quotes the Campanian chargers as ‘fiery and brave although not very fine in their look’. The artistic evidence, like here, depicts well-built horses with fine legs suitable for middle-light cavalry.