LOT 0063

Greek Attic Red-Figure Kylix with Dancing Nymphs and Satyrs

5TH CENTURY B.C.

14 5/8 in. (875 grams, 37 cm wide).

With short stem and broad bowl with carination at the shoulder; two strap handles with an ivy-leaf with tendrils and volutes underneath; the underside of the bowl with a frieze of four satyrs and four maenads performing a dance, the maenads dressed in fancy Ionian dress, long peplos and himation, and a kekrykephalos (hair net) on their heads, and holding a thyrsus in their right hands; the centre of the cup showing dancing Silenus and a nymph, dressed in a similar manner and holding a thyrsus, border of meanders and chequered squares surrounding; restored.

Ex Dr Gonik and the late Mr Wirth, 1960-1970s.
Private collection, Switzerland.

Accompanied by an academic report by Dr Raffaele D’Amato.
This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by a search certificate number no.12573-232109.
This lot has been cleared against the Art Loss Register database, and is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.

Cf. the Harvard Art Museums, museum number 1959.124, for a similar kylix in Topper, K., The Imagery of the Athenian Symposium, Cambridge University Press, New York, 2012, p.55, fig. 22; see another similar example of such Attic red-figure deep-bowled kylix in the Cleveland Museum of Art, inv. no.1915.718 (Hinman B. Hurlbut Collection), also representing Satyrs and Maenads; another similar, with a Maenad fighting a Satyr within the tondo, in Yale University Art Gallery, inv. no.2016.147.1.

Silenus, the only individualised satyr, was a companion and tutor to the wine god Dionysus, and he is represented here in the place of honour. He is typically older than the satyrs of the Dionysian retinue (thiasos) and his representation on the tondo symbolises respect towards his senior position.