A CORINTHIAN BLACK-FIGURED ALABASTRON

CIRCA 620-590 B.C.

Details

A CORINTHIAN BLACK-FIGURED ALABASTRON
CIRCA 620-590 B.C.
With Typhon facing right, wearing a small cap and a short-sleeved chiton, with long hair and a beard, his sickle-shaped wings upraised, a snaky tail emanating from his slender waist, curving forward then back and tapering to a hooked point, a large swan facing right below the handle; with incised rosettes in the field, tongues on the neck, a large petalled rosette on the base and mouth, dots along the rim
6 9/16 in. (16.6 cm.) high

Provenance

London Art Market, 1992.

Lot Essay

According to Hesiod (Theogony 820-822), the monster Typhon was the offspring of Earth and Tartaros, born after the defeat of the Titans. Zeus attacked him with his thunderbolts and cast him into Tartaros, where he came to be associated with volcanic forces.

Hesiod describes him as having a hundred heads growing from his shoulders. In the Archaic Period, he is shown with a single bearded head and a winged torso tapering to the coil of a snake, as here. For other Corinthian alabastra depicting Typhon see nos. 1-10 in Touchefeu-Meynier, "Typhon" in LIMC.

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