Details

LOT 0067

Greek Red-Figure Patera with Chimera

APULIAN, 4TH CENTURY B.C.

8 in. (342 grams, 20.5 cm wide).

With curved rim, carinated profile and low foot; rim with reserved wave pattern, tondo with reserved ring enclosing a chimera in profile advancing on an egg-and-dart baseline; repaired and partly restored.

Provenance

Ex private North American collection.
Acquired in the United States, 2010.

Accompanied by an academic report by Dr Raffaele D'Amato.
Accompanied by a thermoluminescence analysis report no.N126a12 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.13028-246781.

Literature

Cf. a red-figure Apulian plate with the same iconography, in Musée du Louvre, c.350-340 B.C., inventory no. Cp1358, K362, in Morin, J., Le dessin des animaux en Grèce d'après les vases peints: essais sur les procédés des dessinateurs industriels dans l'antiquité, Paris, 1911, p. 247, 248, n° 11, no. 12; Schauenburg, K., ‘Neue Darstellungen aus der Bellerophonsage’, in Archäologischer Anzeiger, 1958, p. 25, fig. 26; Veron, G. (ed.), Félins. Petit dictionnaire illustré, cat. exp. (Paris, Grande Galerie de l'évolution, 2023), Paris, Muséum national d'histoire naturelle, 2023, p.55; Jacquemin, A., ‘Chimaira’ in Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae, III, 1986, p. 252, pl. 202, no. 60; see also Wisseman, S.U., Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, Mainz, 1989, p.41, pl.52,3, for type.

Footnotes

The legend of Bellerophon and the chimaera was a subject highly appreciated by the Greek ceramists. Red-figure Apulian plates depicting the chimaera were realised in South Italian workshops dating back to around 350-340 BC. The most famous example and possible prototype is the one held at the Musée du Louvre in Paris, created using the red-figure technique.