CIRCA 460 B.C.

Details

AN ATTIC RED-FIGURED KYLIX
CIRCA 460 B.C.
The tondo with a woman standing in profile to the left beside a larnax, a ball of wool in her extended right hand, wearing a finely pleated wide-sleeved ankle-length chiton wrapped in a himation, her left arm akimbo beneath the thick drapery, her hair bound in a sakkos, traces of an inscription in the field, encircled within a border of meander with cross squares; the exterior with hetaira courting scenes on both sides, one side with a beardless youth draped in a himation, leaning on his staff, standing before two hetairai, his left arm raised in financial negotiation, the two women facing him, each draped in a himation over a chiton, sakkoi in their hair, the central figure proffering a kalathos, a mirror hanging between them, a fillet behind the youth, an inscription in the field; the other side with a beardless youth between two hetairai, draped in a himation and leaning on a staff, his right arm raised in negotiation with the hetaira before him, her head turned to face him, her arms wrapped in her himation, the hetaira behind him with a flower in her raised right hand, her sakkos decorated with stars, a mirror hanging to one side, a kalos inscription in the field; ivy leafs on either side of the handles, palmettes with tendrils below the handles
8 7/8 in. (22.5 cm.) diameter excluding handles

Provenance

with Maxburg Galerie Antiken, Munich, 1970.
Swiss Private Collection.

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Lot Essay

Much has been written about scenes on Attic pottery involving a hetaira and a customer. According to Reeder, Pandora, Women in Classical Greece, p. 182, "during the first quarter of the fifth century a popular subject in vase-painting was the financial negotiation between a prospective client and a hetaira. ... the popularity of negotiating scenes on vases destined for use by men at their symposia testifies to the titillating currents underlying both these representations and the bargaining process itself (op. cit., p. 183)." The flower, held by one of the women on the exterior, was often exchanged as part of the courting ritual. The hanging mirror on either side locates the scenes within female quarters, i.e., in the realm of the hetairai, and the presence of the kalathos alludes to a woman's domestic nature; so, too, the ball of wool and larnax on the tondo.

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