THE PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN The following three lots were acquired by Charles Eyre (d. 1855) of Hallingbury Place, Great Hallingbury, Essex. He formed a collection of Greek vases during the first half of the 19th Century.
AN ATTIC RED-FIGURE PANEL AMPHORA (TYPE B) ATTRIBUTED TO THE PIG PAINTER

Details
AN ATTIC RED-FIGURE PANEL AMPHORA (TYPE B) ATTRIBUTED TO THE PIG PAINTER
CIRCA 480-470 B.C.
Side A: Apollo, Leto and Artemis. The youthful god stands in the centre holding lyre in left hand and plectrum in his right fist, he wears red ivy wreath in his hair and a long-sleeved chiton and himation, a hind stands to his side looking up at Leto who faces her children; she wears large diadem, similar long-sleeved chiton and himation and holds flower bud in her raised right hand; behind Apollo stands Artemis, similarly clad and with her hair bound in a sakkos, a quiver slung over her left shoulder, a wreath in her upraised right hand, the word "KALOS" written between the heads of Apollo and Leto
Side B: Scene from the palaestra: a youth clad in an himation stands between two bearded male figures, probably gymnastes (trainers), each of whom wears an himation draped over the left shoulder and leans on a staff, the one to the left holds out a money bag(?) to the youth in his extended left hand, the figure on the right turns back towards the youth holding a fruit or ball in upraised right hand, all three wear a wreath in their hair, a writing case hangs in the field above an oil bottle, sponge and strigil
The scenes on both sides are framed by reserved borders with black decoration. Above: interlinked downward-turned lotus buds with dots above; sides and below: alternating palmette frieze with dots. Red painted line around the black neck, reserved band with black rays around the foot, repaired
16½ in. (42 cm.) high

Lot Essay

PUBLISHED:
A. Greifenhagen, Alte Zeichnungen nach unbekannten griechiscehen Vasen, Munich, 1976, pp. 21, 27-28, nos. 10 and 14, Abb. 18 and 25 where D. von Bothmer concurs that the vase is by the Pig Painter.

The Pig Painter, so named after his pelike in Cambridge showing a man in company with a swineherd, was a leading painter in the Mannerist workshop in its early phase. He was a pupil and close follower of Myson, and eventually took over his position in the workshop. The Pig Painter and his workshop companion the Leningrad painter were also clearly influenced by their contemporary and superior, the Pan Painter. Beazley first used the term mannerist to denote a group of painters who, at a time of radical change in artistic expression with the emergence of a new Classical style, chose to adhere to the Archaic tradition. He later said that in using the word he had in the mind the Antwerp Mannerists of the early 16th Century and qualified the term with 'archaising' or 'sub-archaic', an archaism retaining old forms but refining, refreshing and galvanising them.

For the Pig Painter and his works see:
J. D. Beazley, Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters, 2nd Edition, Oxford, 1963, pp. 562-566, 1659, 1701; and Paralipomena: Additions to Attic Black-Figure Vase-Painters and to Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters, 2nd Edition, Oxford, 1971, pp. 389-390; L. Burn and R. Glynn, Beazley Addenda: Additional References to Attic Black-Figure Vase-Painters and Paralipomena, Oxford, 1982, p. 127; J. Boardman, Athenian Red Figure Vases: The Archaic Period, London, 1975, p. 180; L. Berge in W. Moon (ed.), Greek Vase-Painting in Midwestern Collections, Chicago, 1979, pp. 166-67, no. 95; J. R. Guy in Glimpses of Excellence; a selection of Greek Vases and Bronzes from the Elie Borowski Collection, Royal Ontario Museum, 1984, no. 14.; and M. Robertson, The Art of Vase-Painting in Classical Athens, Cambridge, 1992.

More from Fine Antiquities

View All
View All