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Lot Essay
When Oineus, King of Calydon, forgot to honour Diana at a sacrifice she was so angered that she sent a wild boar to ravage the land. The virgin huntress, Atalanta, joined Meleager and a band of his companions to hunt for the beast. She was the first to hit the boar and draw blood and when Meleager finally killed it with his spear he awarded the boar's head and pelt to Atalanta.
The meticulously carved ivory beaker offered here beautifully depicts the moment that Meleager presents the boar's head to Atalanta. Depicted alongside the two protagonists are Meleager's companions who are skillfully rendered in varying depths of relief and in complex profile, and three-quarter, poses. Perhaps the most unusual element of the narrative is the inclusion of Neptune who is depicted seated on a rocky outcrop to the left of Meleager and seemingly stopping him giving the boar's head to Atalanta. As a personification of water he may well be an allusion to Meleager's impending death by fire.
Judging by the existence of at least two other beakers with the identical scene - one in the Reiner Winkler collection and the other in the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich (Theuerkauff, loc. cit. and Berliner, loc. cit., respectively) - it is likely that the source of the scene was a contemporary engraving. Although Theuerkauff cautiously catalogues the Winkler beaker to the late 17th or possibly even 19th century, Berliner more confidently dates the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum version to the mid 17th century. As the present lot compares most closely - in terms of style and details - to the latter it is likely that the two were created contemporarily.
The meticulously carved ivory beaker offered here beautifully depicts the moment that Meleager presents the boar's head to Atalanta. Depicted alongside the two protagonists are Meleager's companions who are skillfully rendered in varying depths of relief and in complex profile, and three-quarter, poses. Perhaps the most unusual element of the narrative is the inclusion of Neptune who is depicted seated on a rocky outcrop to the left of Meleager and seemingly stopping him giving the boar's head to Atalanta. As a personification of water he may well be an allusion to Meleager's impending death by fire.
Judging by the existence of at least two other beakers with the identical scene - one in the Reiner Winkler collection and the other in the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich (Theuerkauff, loc. cit. and Berliner, loc. cit., respectively) - it is likely that the source of the scene was a contemporary engraving. Although Theuerkauff cautiously catalogues the Winkler beaker to the late 17th or possibly even 19th century, Berliner more confidently dates the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum version to the mid 17th century. As the present lot compares most closely - in terms of style and details - to the latter it is likely that the two were created contemporarily.