Details

LOT 0087

Greek Lucanian Red-Figure Bell-Krater

CIRCA 380-370 B.C.

11 3/8 in. (2.1 kg, 29 cm wide).

Decorated with a meander with saltire squares below the figural scenes, and a laurel below the rim; Side A: a nude gesticulating satyr with short curly hair and long beard, running to the right with his left leg raised and his arms outstretched, characteristic pointed ears and pug nose, towards a maenad moving right and looking back at him, her hair short and curly, her body draped in a chiton, with another maenad standing behind him, facing left, draped in a himation over a chiton; Side B: three youths in draped cloaks with hoods thrown back; professionally restored.

Provenance

Belgian private collection, 1950s.
with Christie's, New York, 4 June 2008, no.190.
Private central European collection.

Accompanied by a copy of the relevant Christie's catalogue pages.
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.12067-218141.

Literature

Cf. The Metropolitan Museum, New York, accession numbers 1984.323.2 and 16.140, for similar specimens, in Richter, G. M. A., ‘Recent Accessions of Greek Vases’ in Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 11(12), New York, 1916, pp.255-56, figs.6-7; Metropolitan Museum of Art, ‘One Hundred Fifteenth Annual report of the Trustees for the Fiscal Year July 1, 1984 through June 30, 1985’ in Annual Report of the Trustees of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1985, no.115, p.38; see also Robinson, E.G.D., Carpenter, T., Lynch, K.M., The Italic People of Ancient Apulia: New Evidence from Pottery for Workshops, Markets, and Customs, Cambridge, 2014, figs.5.2, 6.1.

Footnotes

The style allows us to attribute this vase to an unknown artist of Lucanian origin: it is in ancient Lucania (a region which is located between present-day Calabria and Basilicata, in Southern Italy and between the Tyrrhenian Sea and the Ionian Sea, with Metaponto as a well-known city) that the first Italic style of red-figure painting developed.