Lot Essay
Attributed to Epiktetos by D. von Bothmer; an alternative attribution to Psiax is proposed by J. Robert Guy.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Beazley, ARV2, Addenda I, 1623 9 bis; 1621 no. 105 bis, Geneva Market (Koutoulakis); Cohen, Attic Bilingual Vases and their Painters, 403-407, no. B85, pl. 92 1-2. Of the tondo she writes: "Hermes' winged boots are a wonder to behold. The fit is perfect. They are tightly laced in front and have large red tongues. Their wings seems to have been borrowed from a real bird: each is delicately contoured, and the feathers are incised separately. The virtue of Epiktetos as a miniaturist in the tradition of the Little Masters has long been extolled; his earliest black-figure tondo reveals how deserving he is of such praise."
Only two figures of Hermes are known to decorate the black-figure tondos of bilingual cups: this is one; the other is the earlier bilingual by Oltos, formerly at Castle Ashby (ARV2, 44 no. 77 and 55 no. 18; CVA, no. 54 and pl. 32; The Castle Ashby Vases, Christie's sale catalogue, 2 July 1980, lot 50; now Bloomington, Indiana University Art Museum 80.73). Cohen suggests that the Epiktetan version may well have been insipired by Oltos.
The potting of the foot (type AZ) suggests to Cohen that it was probably made in the Nikosthenic workshop
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Beazley, ARV2, Addenda I, 1623 9 bis; 1621 no. 105 bis, Geneva Market (Koutoulakis); Cohen, Attic Bilingual Vases and their Painters, 403-407, no. B85, pl. 92 1-2. Of the tondo she writes: "Hermes' winged boots are a wonder to behold. The fit is perfect. They are tightly laced in front and have large red tongues. Their wings seems to have been borrowed from a real bird: each is delicately contoured, and the feathers are incised separately. The virtue of Epiktetos as a miniaturist in the tradition of the Little Masters has long been extolled; his earliest black-figure tondo reveals how deserving he is of such praise."
Only two figures of Hermes are known to decorate the black-figure tondos of bilingual cups: this is one; the other is the earlier bilingual by Oltos, formerly at Castle Ashby (ARV2, 44 no. 77 and 55 no. 18; CVA, no. 54 and pl. 32; The Castle Ashby Vases, Christie's sale catalogue, 2 July 1980, lot 50; now Bloomington, Indiana University Art Museum 80.73). Cohen suggests that the Epiktetan version may well have been insipired by Oltos.
The potting of the foot (type AZ) suggests to Cohen that it was probably made in the Nikosthenic workshop