ATTRIBUTED TO THE BERLIN PAINTER, CIRCA 490-480 B.C.

Details

AN ATTIC RED-FIGURED NECK-AMPHORA
ATTRIBUTED TO THE BERLIN PAINTER, CIRCA 490-480 B.C.
Elegantly potted with a torus and disk foot, an echinus mouth with an offset flaring rim, and twisted handles; depicting a combat between two warriors, a single figure isolated on each side, one side with a youthful warrior advancing to the right, wearing greaves and a short pleated chiton below a corselet, the hem billowing behind from his forward movement, the corselet with a belt of dotted circles, a sword suspended by a baldric in added red over his right shoulder, his crested Chalcidian helmet with the cheek-guards raised, his long hair emerging from beneath the helmet, his youthful sideburns in dilute glaze, his circular shield over his left arm, wielding a spear in his upraised right hand, a band of running key as the groundline; the other side with an older bearded warrior reeling backwards, his head turned back, bleeding wounds on his right breast and right thigh in added red, wearing a short belted chiton and a crested Corinthian helmet high on his head, a sword hanging from a baldric over his right shoulder, a circular shield on his left arm, the shield strap with opposing palmettes, a spear in his right hand, tip upward, the butt planted in the ground for support, pairs of stopt meander interspersed with saltire and cross squares as the groundline; numerous preliminary sketch lines visible, a pre-firing dent on either side to the right of the figure, that on the side with the youthful warrior showing the "ghost" of a meander and saltire-square band
22 9/16 in. (57.3 cm.) high

Provenance

Hirschmann Collection, Kusnacht, Switzerland.
Greek Vases from Hirschman Collection; Sotheby's, London, 9 December 1992, lot 45.
Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, New York, 1 June 1995, lot 77.

Literature

H. Bloesch, ed., Greek Vases from the Hirschmann Collection, Zurich, 1982, p. 58, 59 and 102, no. 29.
Beazley Archive no. 7245.

Exhibited

Zurich, Archäologische Sammlung der Universität, 12 November 1987 - 6 March 1988.

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Lot Essay

The Berlin Painter and his contemporary the Kleophrades Painter are considered the two greatest vase-painters of their generation. Both artists were pupils of the Pioneer School of the late 6th century B.C., led by Euthymides and Phintias. The Berlin Painter takes his name from one of his masterpieces, an amphora in Berlin. He is perhaps best known for featuring single figures on either side of the vase, even where the action continues, and with a notable reduction of subsidiary ornament (see Boardman, Athenian Red Figure Vases, The Archaic Period, p. 91-111).

For other large amphorae by the Berlin Painter with similar elegant potting and twisted handles, see nos. 6-9 in Kurtz, The Berlin Painter. Although there are no identifying attributes or inscriptions on the present vase, it has been suggested that the youthful warrior could be Achilles, while the collapsing one is Hector (see Isler-Kerényi in Bloesch, op. cit.).

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