ATTRIBUTED TO THE CAGE PAINTER, CIRCA 485-480 B.C.

Details

AN ATTIC RED-FIGURED KYLIX
ATTRIBUTED TO THE CAGE PAINTER, CIRCA 485-480 B.C.
The tondo with a youth seated on a diphros, facing left, wearing laced shoes and a mantle around his waist, a fillet in added red in his short hair, his left arm lowered with his hand resting on the chair, his right arm raised, holding a knobbed walking-stick, a cross hanging behind him, a kalos inscription in the field, enclosed within a band of meander; one side of the exterior with a courting scene, a youth seated in the center holding up a hare by the ears in his right hand, wearing a mantle and a fillet in added red, his enveloped left hand holding a walking-stick, similarly clad youths on either side, that to the right leaning forward on his walking-stick, that to the left leaning against a column, an inscription in the field; the other side with a negotiating scene between a hetaira and a youth, the girl in the center facing left, seated on a diphros, wearing a chiton and himation, holding a mirror in her right hand, the youth before her wearing a mantle, leaning against his walking-stick, offering her a flower, the youth behind her similarly clad, leaning on his walking-stick, a lekythos hanging to the right, jumping weights to the left, an inscription in the field
9¼ in. (23.4 cm.) diameter excluding handles

Provenance

Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, New York, 10 December 1999, lot 296.
with Charles Ede, London, 2000.

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Lot Essay

The Cage Painter takes his name from a fragmentary cup in London showing a seated youth holding a bird in a cage. Beazley related him to the Antiphon Painter, who was a pupil of Onesimos. He attributed seven cups to the Cage Painter (see Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters, p. 348); Williams gives two of Beazley's attributions to the Adria Painter, and has added nine additional cups to the Cage Painter (see Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, British Museum, Fasc. 9 p. 29). For the enigmatic cross hanging behind the youth in the tondo, which may be a bird-clapper or a torch head, see Williams, op. cit., p. 30.

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