CIRCA LATE 4TH CENTURY B.C.

Details

AN ETRUSCAN POTTERY FIGURAL LEKYTHOS
CIRCA LATE 4TH CENTURY B.C.
Molded in the form of the head of a youthful Ammon, with underslung ram horns in his wavy center-parted hair, his hair, the vessel mouth and handle black glazed, his face reserved, a black band along the base
6¾ in. (17.1 cm.) high

Provenance

Collected in the late 1950s-1960s.
S. Manatos, Esq.; Sotheby's, London, 8 December 1994, lot 201.

Literature

A.J. Paul, Exhibition catalogue, A View into Antiquity: Pottery from the Collection of William Suddaby and David Meier, Tampa, 2001, no. 38.

Exhibited

Tampa Museum of Art, A View into Antiquity: Pottery from the Collection of William Suddaby and David Meier, 14 October 2001-13 January 2002.

Lot Essay

Ammon was originally an Egyptian god whose worship was centered at Thebes. He appears in Greek literature due to his temple at the oasis at Siwa, where there was an oracle that came to rival those at Delphi and Dodona. In Greek art he is usually portrayed as Zeus, with the addition of ram's horns. By the 4th century B.C. he is often shown beardless, as here. The Siwa oracle became famous following a visit by Alexander the Great, where the young Macedonian was proclaimed the son of Zeus. Numismatic portraits of Alexander depict the youthful conqueror wearing the horns of Ammon in a manner strikingly similar to this vase. See nos. 161-185 in Leclant and Clerc, "Ammon," in LIMC.

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