AN ATTIC RED-FIGURE HYDRIA, attributed to the Niobid Painter, 455-450 B.C.

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AN ATTIC RED-FIGURE HYDRIA, attributed to the Niobid Painter, 455-450 B.C.

Depicting a music recital; a seated woman plays a barbiton flanked by two women, the central player seated frontally wearing a chiton and himation, the barbiton rests on her left hip as she turns towards the woman standing on her right. On the two-tiered podium, the top of which is decorated with dots, sits an open chest from which the standing woman has unfurled a scroll. The standing woman with feet facing frontally, wears a peplos with belted overfold and hair tied up in a sakkos. Behind is an open decorated temple door with supporting column, beyond which an unidentified object is hanging on the wall. On the other side stands a woman wearing a peplos with striped border, a stephane in her hair, and holding a lyre in her right hand and a casket in her left. In the field above the player is a lyre, and a meander band interrupted by crosses within squares seals the scene below, with a band of palmettes below the neck

Condition: intact; unevenly fired; slight depression below the feet of the central figure and a small blob of clay from another pot has been fired with this pot and still adheres to the area of the platform; small area of restoration on the lower costume of the figure on the left

11 3/8in. (28.8cm.) high; 11¼in. (28.6cm.) wide across handles

Lot Essay

BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Bérard, La Cité des Images, 86, fig. 124.

The three figures might represent Muses since the setting is in a temple.

An alternative attribution to the Painter of Berlin Hydria has been suggested

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