NEAR THE RED LINE PAINTER, CIRCA 500 B.C.

Details

AN ATTIC BLACK-FIGURED NECK-AMPHORA
NEAR THE RED LINE PAINTER, CIRCA 500 B.C.
9 ¾ in. (24.7 cm.) high

Provenance

Antiquities, Sotheby’s, London, 10 July 1990, lot 457 (part).
with Royal Athena Galleries, New York, acquired from the above (One Thousand Years of Ancient Greek Vases from Greece, Etruria & Southern Italy, 1990, no. 32).
Acquired by the current owner from the above, 1990.

Literature

Beazley Archive Pottery Database nos. 238 and 20355.

Conditions of sale

Brought to you by

Hannah Solomon Head of Department, Specialist

hsolomon@christies.com +1 212 636 2256

Lot Essay

The obverse of this amphora depicts the Seventh Labor of Herakles, the capture of the Cretan bull. King Minos had vowed to Poseidon that he would sacrifice whatever the god sent to him. Poseidon sent a bull, but finding the animal too fine to kill, the King sacrificed another instead. In anger the god caused the bull to rampage the island and for Minos' wife Pasiphae to fall in love with it, the Minotaur being born from the union. Eurystheus sent Herakles to capture the bull, which he subdued with a rope. The hero brought the animal to Tiryns, and no longer mad, it was allowed to roam free.

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