ATTRIBUTED TO THE SWING PAINTER, CIRCA 550-530 B.C.

Details

AN ATTIC BLACK-FIGURED AMPHORA (TYPE B)
ATTRIBUTED TO THE SWING PAINTER, CIRCA 550-530 B.C.
The obverse with Dionysos standing in the center wearing a striped himation, holding grape vines in his left hand, a wreath in his hair, the god surrounded by four bearded satyrs, a lotus bud chain above; the reverse centered by two warriors walking to the right, each wearing a crested Corinthian helmet and greaves, and carrying a shield, the warrior to the left with a bucranion in white as the blazon, with a draped bearded man to the right, a draped red-haired youth to the left, and a nude youth to the far left and right, a lotus bud and palmette chain above; with rays above the foot, details in added red and white
15 3/8 in. (39.1 cm.) high

Provenance

with Royal-Athena Galleries, New York, 1985 (Art of the Ancient World, vol. IV, no. 40).
Phelps Collection, La Jolla, California.
with Royal-Athena Galleries, New York, 2005 (Art of the Ancient World, vol. XVI, no. 74).

Lot Essay

The Swing Painter takes his name from the belly amphora in the Museum of Fine Arts Boston which depicts a young maiden on a swing. As Boardman informs (p. 63 in Athenian Black Figure Vases), the Swing Painter "is not a good painter, nor a conscious comedian, although his placid figures with their big heads, fashionably tiny noses, and often clenched fists, bring a smile to our lips."

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