LOT 0121

Greek Terracotta White-Ground Painted Lekythos Attributed to the Athena Painter

CIRCA 510-500 B.C.

10 3/8 in. (459 grams, 26.4 cm).

Cylindrical with stepped foot, five palmettes above the shoulder, dynamic frieze of two men visiting two hetairai, each of the figures dressed in long pleated garments, at the centre of the scene, a hetaira on the right reaching towards the bearded male and gently touching his chin with her open hand, a tall draped table behind her with an amphora underneath and a standing bird on the top. [No Reserve]

H.A.C. (Herbert A. Cahn), 19 October 1979.
Private collection, Bern, Switzerland.

Accompanied by an original thermoluminescence analysis report no.N125q45 by Oxford Authentication.
This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by a search certificate number no.12644-236376.

Cf. Haspels, C.H.E., Attic black-figured lekythoi, Paris 1936, pp. 41–165, 254–262.

The Athena Painter is known as the painter who designed several Greek black-figure pottery works using the 5th-century BC white-ground technique. He specialised in lekythoi and refers to Athena as the main subject in his works. Together with the Theseus Painter, they continued the tradition of painting large lekythoi. His black figures are of high quality, and in addition to lekythoi, he decorated other potteries such as oenochoai. Some archaeologists say that he may have been the same person as the Bowdoin Painter of red-figure pottery, although they may have just worked in the same workshop.