ATTRIBUTED TO THE KLEOPHRADES PAINTER, CIRCA 500 B.C.

Details

AN ATTIC BLACK-FIGURED NECK-AMPHORA
ATTRIBUTED TO THE KLEOPHRADES PAINTER, CIRCA 500 B.C.
16 ¼ in. (41.2 cm.)

Provenance

Auction 11, Münzen und Medaillen, Basel, 23-24 January 1953, lot 328.
David Moore Robinson (1880-1958), archaeologist, Baltimore and Oxford, Mississippi, acquired 1956 or prior.
George E. Mylonas (1898-1988), archaeologist, St. Louis, acquired 1963 or prior.
Acquired by the current owner, 1979 or prior.

Literature

D.M. Robinson, "Unpublished Greek Vases in the Robinson Collection," American Journal of Archeology 60, no. 1, 1956, pp. 15-16, pls. 12-13, fig. 53.
K. Schauenburg, "Die Totengöttin in der Unteritalischen Vasenmalerei," Jahrbuch des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts 73, 1959, p. 50.
J.D. Beazley, Attic Black-figure Vase-painters, Oxford, 1956, p. 405, no. 19.
J.D. Beazley, Attic Red-figure Vase-painters, second edition, vol. 1, Oxford, 1963, p. 192.
P. Zancani-Montuoro, “Heraion alla Foce del Sele,” in Atti e Memorie della Società Magna Grecia, n.s. V, 1964, p. 65, no. 9.
J.D. Beazley, Paralipomena, Oxford, 1971, p. 176, no. 19.
F. Brommer, Vasenlisten zur griechischen Heldensage, third edition, Marburg, 1973, p. 550, no. 9.
W. Felten, Attische Unterweltsvorstellungen des VI. Und V. Jhs. V. Chr., Munich, 1975, fig. 9.
W.G. Moon, Greek Vase-Painting in Midwestern Collections, Chicago, 1979, pp. 138-139, no. 78.
G.P. Schaus, "Two Notes on Lakonian Vases," American Journal of Archeology 87, no. 1, 1983, pl. 12, fig. 2.
T.H. Carpenter, Beazley Addenda, second edition, Oxford, 1989, p. 105, no. 405.19.
G. Siebert, “Hermes,” in LIMC, Zurich and Munich, 1990, no. 524.
D. Buitron, et al., The Odyssey and Ancient Art, An Epic in Word and Image, 1992, pp. 98-107.
E. Kunze-Goette, Der Kleophrades-Maler unter Malern schwarzfiguriger Amphoren, Eine Werkstattstudie, Mainz, 1992, pls. 10, 70.1.
J.H. Oakley, “Sisyphos I,” in LIMC, Zurich and Munich, 1994, no. 16.
Beazley Pottery Archive Database no. 303060.

Exhibited

The Art Institute of Chicago, Greek Vase-Painting in Midwestern Collections, 22 December 1979 - 24 February 1980.

Sale room notice

Please note additional provenance for this lot: Auction 11, Münzen und Medaillen, Basel, 23-24 January 1953, lot 328.

Lot Essay

Sisyphos, the King of Ephyra (an older name for Corinth) was described by Homer in the Odyssey as the most cunning of men (Book II, 593-600). For his trickery, he was punished by Hades, who condemned him to the Underworld where Sisyphos was compelled to roll a huge bolder up a hill in perpetuity, since the bolder would roll back down as soon as he neared the top. The scene was only rarely depicted on vases. For a list, which includes 10 other Attic neck-amphorae in addition to the present example, see J.H. Oakley, “Sisyphos I,” LIMC, pp. 783-784. Here the gates of the Underworld are indicated by the two Doric columns, with Hermes standing to the left, gesturing towards Sisyphos to the right. Cerberus, the hound of Hades, stands in between, with one head looking at the god, the other at Sisyphos.

The Kleophrades painter was named by Beazley from a potter’s signature on a red-figured cup painted in the Cabinet des Medailles, Paris. He was one of the best red-figure vase-painters of the late Archaic period, a contemporary with the Berlin Painter. In addition to red-figure, he also painted a large number of Panathenaic prize amphorae, which were always in black-figure. Early in his career he also painted a small number of neck-amphorae in the older technique, as here.

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