AN ATTIC RED-FIGURED TALL-BOY LEKYTHOS

ATTRIBUTED TO THE PAINTER OF BOLOGNA 228, CIRCA 470-460 B.C.

Details

AN ATTIC RED-FIGURED TALL-BOY LEKYTHOS
ATTRIBUTED TO THE PAINTER OF BOLOGNA 228, CIRCA 470-460 B.C.
Depicting Artemis, the goddess standing facing right, her wavy hair bound in a radiate fillet with added red, tresses falling onto her shoulders, wearing a pleated ankle-length peplos and carrying a quiver with conical cover on her back, holding a bow and two arrows in her left hand, the string of the bow in added red, a burning torch in her right, the flame in added red, a 'KALE' inscription in added red between the bow and torch, groundline of stopt meander and crossed squares, the neck with a band of tongues, a band of ovolo above
10 7/8 in. (27.8 cm.) high

Provenance

C. W. Hirschmann collection, Küsnacht.
Greek Vases from the Hirschmann collection; Sotheby's, London, 9 December 1993, lot 41.
with Herbert A. Cahn, Basel.
Prof. H.-H. Heissmeyer collection, Schwäbisch Hall, acquired from the above in 1995 (inv. no. 21).
Beazley Archive no. 7236.

Literature

A. Lezzi-Hafter, 'Artemis with Torch', in H. Bloesch (ed.), Greek Vases from the Hirschmann Collection, Zurich, 1982, p. 78, no. 38.
R. Fleischer, 'Artemis', in Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae II, Zurich and Munich, 1984, no. 409, p. 655.
R. Tolle-Kastenbein, 'Fruhklassische Peplosfiguren Typen und Repliken', in Antike Plastik, vol. XX, Berlin, 1986, p. 31, abb. 30.
Vasen, 2008, no. 6 and Vases, 2015, p. 23, no. 8.

Exhibited

Zurich, Archäologische Sammlung der Universität Zürich, Griechische Vasen der Sammlung Hirschmann, 12 November 1987-6 March 1988.

Brought to you by

Georgiana Aitken

gaitken@christies.com +44 (0)20 7752 3002

Lot Essay

Artemis is depicted here in an unusually static pose, affording her a sculptural quality that is in contrast with the more frequently found dynamic representations of her in mid-flight, accompanied by her doe, taking aim with her bow or plucking an arrow from her quiver. A strikingly similar portrayal of the goddess clad in ankle-length peplos, holding a bow in her raised left arm and torch in her lowered right, is found on a votive relief dating to circa 430-420 B.C., in the Antikensammlung, Staatliche Museen, Berlin, inv. no. SK 682. Their likeness to the peplophoroi statues of the so-called Severe style has led Tolle-Kastenbein to suggest that the relief and the present lot may be after a bronze statue of Artemis, dating to circa 460 B.C., found at Kisamos (now in the Heraklion Archaeological Museum), and also known to us through a Roman marble copy in the Palazzo Altemps, Rome, inv. no. 8577. She argues that the arms of the peplophoros are angled such that she would have held the torch in her lowered right hand and the bow in her raised right, which has been reversed in the flat representations.

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