AN ATTIC RED-FIGURED COLUMN-KRATER

ATTRIBUTED TO THE BOREAS-FLORENCE GROUP, CIRCA 450 B.C.

Details

AN ATTIC RED-FIGURED COLUMN-KRATER
ATTRIBUTED TO THE BOREAS-FLORENCE GROUP, CIRCA 450 B.C.
The obverse with Herakles seated within a four-columned Doric shrine, the hero wearing a short chiton and the skin of the Nemean lion, the forepaws knotted across his chest, holding his club in his right hand, a winged Nike standing before him holding an enormous overflowing cornucopia; the reverse with two draped youths within an architectural setting; the scenes framed by double rows of dots on either side, tongues above, a band of laurel on the neck of the obverse, black silhouette boars and lions on the rim
14¾ in. (37.4 cm.) high

Provenance

Dr. Schmid, Switzerland, 1960s-1970s.

Lot Essay

Scenes of Herakles within a four-columned Doric shrine are known from several other Attic vases, none earlier than about 400 B.C. The same subject is also found on a number of marble reliefs from the late 5th to the early 4th centuries B.C., not only from Attica but also from Andros, Ithome and Thebes. A relief in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston has an inscription on the top step of the shrine identifying the hero as Herakles Alexikakos (Averter of Evil), which was also his title at his shrine at Melite in Athens. It has been suggested that the vases may depict this Athenian shrine. For the vases see nos. 1368-1374, and for the reliefs nos. 1375-1380 in Boardman, "Herakles" in LIMC, vol. III. The MFA relief is no. 1378. The present vase may be the earliest know depiction of this shrine.

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