Details

LOT 0092

Greek Black-Figure Kylix with Warriors and Sphinxes

ATTIC, CIRCA 530 B.C.

10 3/4 in. (414 grams, 27.3 cm wide).

Comprising: a broad shallow bowl with two loop handles curving up towards the rim, short stem and broad foot with chamfered outer edge; the bowl with reserved central disc to inner face, palmette motifs at the junctions of the handles, frieze depicting two standing nude males flanking a crouching sphinx in profile; restored and with old dealer's labels beneath base.

Provenance

Ex Prof. F.S., Villingen-Schwenningen, Germany, 1991.
with Gallery Drees Archeo S.P.R.L., Brussels.
Acquired from the above, 16 December 2017.

Accompanied by a copy of an Art Loss Register certificate, no.S00041086.
Accompanied by a Gallery Drees Archeo certificate of authenticity.
Accompanied by a thermoluminescence report no.0102 0910 from Laboratory Ralf Kotalla, 6 September 2010.
This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate number no.12945-246388.

Literature

For similar examples of kylikes with black-attic figures see the British Museum, London, 1836,0224.65 (Gorgoneion and hippalectryon), 1864,1007.1701 (Hermes and Dionysos); compare with 1864,1007.1688 (Heracles and the Erymanthian boar), 1864,1007.296 (satyrs and dolphin); Athens, Museum of Cycladic Art ΝΓ0702 (‘eyes’ kylix); New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art 44.11.1 (Menelaos and Helen), 56.171.36 (‘eyes’ kylix with ships and warriors), 96.18.64 (‘eyes’ kylix), 98.8.25 ((‘eyes’ kylix with satyrs), 96.18.65 (‘eyes’ kylix); Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum 96.AE.96 (fish market); Brooklyn, Brooklyn Museum 33.399 (procession of men).

Footnotes

The present piece is a wide-bowled drinking cup known as a kylix - one of the most popular forms of pottery from the Achaean times (1600-1100 B.C.) through to the classical period (c.510-323 B.C.). It dates to an important moment in the development of Greek ceramics, just as the black-figure technique was being perfected by Athenian painters. Painted in black slip with details incised on top, kylikes usually had a frieze around the outside of the bowl as well as another scene on the tondo of the inside. The scene here represented can be linked with the well-known episode of Oedipus and the Sphinx.