Lot Essay
Athenian vases molded in the form of a head were classified by J.D. Beazley in his 1929 article “Charinos” in The Journal of Hellenic Studies (vol. 49, pt. 1). The shapes were chiefly kantharoi, oinochoai and aryballoi, sometimes janiform, and typically in the form of a female head, an African (male or female), a satyr, Dionysos, or Herakles.
The oinochoe presented here is in the form of the head of Dionysos, and belongs to Beazley’s Class G: The London Class, named for a kantharos in the British Museum with janiform female heads, the red-figured bowl of which is attributed to the Brygos Painter (see pl. 33C(A) in M. Wegner, Brygosmaler). Here, the god is depicted with a spade-shaped beard in added white with wavy lines in black, a smooth roll of the hair in added red, surmounted by a stephane in added white with black geometric ornament. The style is close to an example from Corinth, now in the Musée Antoine-Vivenel, Compiègne, pl. 18,9 in M. Flot, Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum: Musée de Compiègne. Of that example, Beazley (op. cit. p. 49) suggests that it was made from the same mold used for making female heads, the figure transformed into Dionysos by the addition of the beard.
The oinochoe presented here is in the form of the head of Dionysos, and belongs to Beazley’s Class G: The London Class, named for a kantharos in the British Museum with janiform female heads, the red-figured bowl of which is attributed to the Brygos Painter (see pl. 33C(A) in M. Wegner, Brygosmaler). Here, the god is depicted with a spade-shaped beard in added white with wavy lines in black, a smooth roll of the hair in added red, surmounted by a stephane in added white with black geometric ornament. The style is close to an example from Corinth, now in the Musée Antoine-Vivenel, Compiègne, pl. 18,9 in M. Flot, Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum: Musée de Compiègne. Of that example, Beazley (op. cit. p. 49) suggests that it was made from the same mold used for making female heads, the figure transformed into Dionysos by the addition of the beard.