ATTRIBUTED TO THE PAINTER OF LOUVRE F6, CIRCA 560-550 B.C.

William Randolph Hearst was a voracious collector of Greek vases. According to D. von Bothmer, "the vases at San Simeon numbered more than four hundred and formed the biggest private collection of ancient pottery assembled in this century. For its peers in scope and quality one has to go back to the nineteenth century and compare the Hearst collection with those that bear the name of Thomas Hope, Samuel Rogers, or Count Pourtalès-Gorgier. Yet the achievements of Hearst as a collector are the more remarkable as one recalls how his vases were acquired. They were bought at auction in New York and London and on the continent or through the noted antiquarians Joseph Brummer, Jacob Hirsch, and Spink & Sons. The two factors that had given earlier collectors their critical advantage, namely low prices and free export from Greece and Italy, no longer existed." (see p. 167 in D. von Bothmer, "Greek Vases from the Hearst Collection," Bulletin, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, vol. XV, no. 7, 1957). Some of the vases are still on display at San Simeon, many others were acquired by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and still others were sold at auction at Parke-Bernet in 1963, including the present example.