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Lot Essay
Depicted on the obverse is the opening scene of the Choephoroi (Libation Bearers), the second play of Aeschylus’ trilogy, the Oresteia. Agamemnon, King of Argos, had been forced to sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia to appease Artemis, whom he had offended by boasting that he was the better hunter. Artemis delayed the departure of the fleet to Troy by adversely affecting the winds until the sacrifice was complete. Upon his return from Troy, Agamemnon was murdered by his wife Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus. Many years later, Agamemnon’s son Orestes, together with his cousin Pylades, are ordered by Apollo to avenge the killing of his father. When they arrive on Argos, Orestes meets his sister Elektra at the tomb of their father, and explains to her his plans for exacting revenge.
Elektra is seated on an altar before the tomb, enveloped in a chiton and himation, resting her veiled head on her right hand. To the right stands Orestes, nude but for boots, a chlamys and a petasos over his shoulders. He is armed with a sword and two spears. To the left stands Pylades, similarly clad and armed, excluding the boots. The tomb takes the form of a beribboned slender column or stele surmounted by a fluted two-handled dish filled with offerings.
The Brooklyn-Budapest Painter takes his name from a column-krater in Brooklyn representing the earlier phase of his career and a nestoris in Budapest typical of his more mature style. A.D. Trendall and A. Cambitoglou considered him “one of the most important of the second generation of Early Lucanian vase-painters” (p. 107 in The Red-figured Vases of Apulia, vol. I). He painted mostly Dionysiac and other genre subjects but occasionally ventured into some mythological scenes, or as here, scenes from the theater. One of his close followers, the Choephoroi Painter, treated the subject of the encounter of Orestes and Elektra in similar fashion on several of his vases (see pls. III.I.4 &5 in Trendall and T.B.L. Webster, Illustrations of Greek Drama). The reverse of the bell-krater presented here is unusual for the artist in that rather than the standard three draped youths, the central and right figure are bearded old men of considerable character.
Elektra is seated on an altar before the tomb, enveloped in a chiton and himation, resting her veiled head on her right hand. To the right stands Orestes, nude but for boots, a chlamys and a petasos over his shoulders. He is armed with a sword and two spears. To the left stands Pylades, similarly clad and armed, excluding the boots. The tomb takes the form of a beribboned slender column or stele surmounted by a fluted two-handled dish filled with offerings.
The Brooklyn-Budapest Painter takes his name from a column-krater in Brooklyn representing the earlier phase of his career and a nestoris in Budapest typical of his more mature style. A.D. Trendall and A. Cambitoglou considered him “one of the most important of the second generation of Early Lucanian vase-painters” (p. 107 in The Red-figured Vases of Apulia, vol. I). He painted mostly Dionysiac and other genre subjects but occasionally ventured into some mythological scenes, or as here, scenes from the theater. One of his close followers, the Choephoroi Painter, treated the subject of the encounter of Orestes and Elektra in similar fashion on several of his vases (see pls. III.I.4 &5 in Trendall and T.B.L. Webster, Illustrations of Greek Drama). The reverse of the bell-krater presented here is unusual for the artist in that rather than the standard three draped youths, the central and right figure are bearded old men of considerable character.