CIRCA LATE 7TH-EARLY 6TH CENTURY B.C.

Details

AN ITALO-CORINTHIAN BLACK-FIGURED OLPE
CIRCA LATE 7TH-EARLY 6TH CENTURY B.C.
With two bands of animals and monsters, the upper register with a stag confronting a panther, the lower with confronting male bearded sirens framed by a bull and a panther, rosettes in the field, divided by black and red bands, with rays above the foot and rosettes on the rotellae
8 ½ in. (21.6 cm.) high

Provenance

with Marlborough Galleria d'Arte, Rome.
Mr. Paul M. Hirschland, New York, acquired from the above, 1968.
Gifted from the above to the present owner, New York, 1980.

Lot Essay

This olpe is notable for the presence of confronting male bearded sirens. In mythology, sirens are typically thought to be female, as was the case in Homer's Odyssey. On Greek and Etruscan vases however, sirens of both sexes, indicated by the presence or absence of a beard, were depicted until the 5th century B.C. (see J.M. Padgett, The Centaur's Smile: The Human Animal in Early Greek Art, p. 75).

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