AN ATTIC RED-FIGURED LEKYTHOS

ATTRIBUTED TO THE ACHILLES PAINTER, CIRCA 460-440 B.C.

Details

AN ATTIC RED-FIGURED LEKYTHOS
ATTRIBUTED TO THE ACHILLES PAINTER, CIRCA 460-440 B.C.
Depicting Nereus running to the right, bearded and clad in an ankle-length pleated chiton and himation, holding a dolphin in his outstretched left hand, a lanceolated staff in his right, a band of key below, a band of meander, checkered and crossed squares above, the shoulder with scrolling palmettes and band of ovolo
13 5/8 in. (35.1 cm.) high

Provenance

with Herbert A. Cahn, Basel.
Prof. H.-H. Heissmeyer collection, Schwäbisch Hall, acquired from the above in 1993 (inv. no. 22).
Beazley Archive no. 19762.

Literature

J. H. Oakley, The Achilles Painter, Mainz, 1997, pl. 76D.
I. Krauskopf, 'Poseidon', in Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae. Supplementum 1, Zurich and Munich, 2009, pl. 208.
Vasen, 2008, no. 8 and Vases, 2015, p. 27, no. 9.

Brought to you by

Georgiana Aitken

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

Lot Essay

Nereus, the old man of the sea, was the oldest son of Pontus (the Sea) and Gaia (the Earth), and the father of the sea nymphs known as the Nereids. On vases, Nereus is usually shown as a bystander to Peleus' pursuit of his daughter, Thetis, or in altercation with Herakles, who compelled him to tell of the location of the Hesperides. The present vase could place the god at either scene, though the style and execution of the figure is very close to another depiction of Nereus by the Achilles Painter on a dinos at Wurzburg (L 540), where the father, along with his other daughters, tries in vain to aid Thetis' escape from her admirer.

More from Antiquities

View All