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Details
LOT 0094
Large Greek Red-Figure Skyphos with Owl
SOUTH ITALIAN, 5TH-4TH CENTURY B.C.
6 7/8 in. (239 grams, 17.5 cm).
With mammiform body, pedestal base and two loop handles; each side with a facing image of an owl between laurel fronds.
Provenance
Swiss private collection, assembled in the 1960s-1970s.
Private collection, acquired in 2013.
Accompanied by a thermoluminescence analysis report no.N126a14 from 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.12854-241751.
Literature
See Johnson, F. B., ‘An Owl Skyphos’, in Mylonas, G., Studies Presented to David Moore Robinson on His Seventieth Birthday, vol. 2, St. Louis, 1953, pp.96-105.
Footnotes
Bubo was the holy beloved magical owl of the goddess Athena, and it was a common subject on Greek painted ceramics. The owl-skyphos, originally produced in 5th century Athens, was extremely popular and was exported from Athens to other parts of the Greek world, including southern Italy and Etruria. Local imitations have been excavated at Corinth, and during the fourth century, or perhaps even slightly earlier, skyphoi similar to those from Athens were produced in Apulia and Etruria.
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