LOT 0060

Large Greek Attic Black Figure Kylix with Chariot Scene

5TH CENTURY B.C.

10 1/8 in. (566 grams, 25.5 cm wide).

A terracotta kylix with broad flat foot, short stem, broad bowl with carination at the shoulder, glared mouth and two square strap handles; frieze of black-painted decoration including two scenes of a chariot yoked to two centaurs, one with sgraffito markings, between palmettes; restored.

Cambridgeshire collection, 1990s-2000s.
Ex property of a Sussex gentleman.

Accompanied by an academic report by Raffaele D’Amato.
This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate number no.11579-198944.

Cf. the British Museum, museum number 1864.1007.294, for similar, in Walters, H.B., Forsdyke, E.J., Smith, C.H., Catalogue of Vases in the British Museum, London, 1893-1895, cat.B441; see another similar example of Attic black-figure deep-bowled kylix in the Monash University Museum, inv. No.10.26180; see also similar examples in style in Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, accession number 1972.118.144; for the type of object see J. Paul Getty Museum, accession number 85.AE.25; British Museum, London, accession numbers 1852,0707.14, 1864,1007.1526, 1864,1007.1528, 1864,1007.1534, 1906,1215.1, 1906,1215.4, 1952,0204.17; examples with long neck in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, accession numbers 06.1021.157, 98.8.16 and Archaeological Museum, Bologna, G597.

These Attic kylikes were usually presented with a stemmed base, a deep bowl and twin, upturned loop handles, all upon a concave base. The exterior walls were decorated with black-figure technique on red background, here in a style remarkably similar to that of the Haimon Painter, especially in the rendering of facial features, and feet. The imagery on the exterior of these kylikes, used in the symposia, varied a lot. Just as the cup could be a mask (in the so-called typology of the Attic black-figure eye cups) to transform the drinker, to give a “complex painted character”. Daily life scenes, or fantasies like the chariot here pulled by centaurs, were among the various subjects.