CIRCA 540 B.C.

Details

AN ATTIC BLACK-FIGURED LIP-CUP
CIRCA 540 B.C.
8 5⁄8 in. (21.9 cm.) diameter

Provenance

Private Collection, Switzerland, acquired by 1975.
with N. Koutoulakis (1910-1996), Paris and Geneva.
Private Collection, New York, acquired from the above, 1987.
Property from a Manhattan Private Collection; Antiquities, Christie's, New York, 25 October 2017, lot 64.

Literature

J. Dörig, Art Antique: Collections Privées de Suisse Romande, Geneva, 1975, no. 160.
K. Vierneisel and B. Kaeser, Kunst der Schale, Kultur des Trinkens, Munich, 1990, pp. 86, 479, fig. 10.10.
P. Heesen, Athenian Little-Master Cups, Amsterdam, 2011, p. 109, n. 650.
Beazley Archive Pottery Database no. 777.

Exhibited

Geneva, Musée Rath and Coligny, Martin Bodmer Foundation, Art antique: Collections privées de Suisse romande, 1975.
Munich, Staatlichen Antikensammlungen, Kunst der Schale, Kultur des Trinkens, 1990.

Conditions of sale

Brought to you by

Hannah Fox Solomon Head of Department, Specialist

hsolomon@christies.com +1 212 636 2256

Lot Essay

The lip-cup was one of the favorite shapes of the Little Masters, who specialized in detailed miniature decoration. One variant features a human bust in the center of each side drawn in outline style rather than in the pure black figure technique. Most have a profile female head on each side, often with details in added red. The bearded male on one side of the cup presented here is unusual. For a related cup in Berlin painted by Sakonides see no. 42 in B. Cohen, ed., The Colors of Clay, Special Techniques in Athenian Vases.

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