AN ATTIC BLACK-FIGURED NECK-AMPHORA

CIRCLE OF THE ANTIMENES PAINTER, CIRCA 520-510 B.C.

Details

AN ATTIC BLACK-FIGURED NECK-AMPHORA
CIRCLE OF THE ANTIMENES PAINTER, CIRCA 520-510 B.C.
One side with a thiasos, with a bearded Dionysos at the center facing right, clad in a himation over an ankle-length chiton with a patterned border, a wreath in his hair, a rhyton in his left hand, vines in his right, facing a nude bearded satyr playing the double flute, a dancing maenad behind him, wearing a patterned chiton, a fillet in her hair, with Hermes and a nude satyr to the left, the bearded messenger god in winged boots, a chlamys, and a broad-brimmed petasos, holding his kerykeion; the other side with five bearded satyrs vintaging, each in various stages of preparation for wine-making, including climbing the elaborately-braided vines, examining and picking grape clusters and placing them in a woven basket; bands of key and lotus bud chain encircling below, rays above the foot, alternating red and black tongues on the shoulders, palmette lotus chain on the neck, and a quatrefoil of palmettes, lotus buds and spiraling tendrils below the handles, details in added red and white
13 7/8 in. (35.3 cm.) high

Provenance

with Wladimir Rosenbaum, Galleria Casa Serodine, Ascona, late 1970s.
Private Collection, Germany, late 1970s; thence by descent.

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Lot Essay

Vintaging scenes emerged as a common subject on Middle Corinthian vases. The subject was likewise popular on Attic vase painting of the late 6th century and the first half of the 5th century B.C. Typically painters chose to depict nude satyrs, rather than humans, for picking and treading grapes, which further emphasized the supernatural and otherworldly nature of the transformation from grape to wine, the domain of Dionysus. For a similar scene on an Attic black-figured amphora by the Amasis Painter in Würzburg see no. 38 in Simon, "Silenoi," in LIMC; for an Attic black-figured amphora with Dionysus in the center of Satyrs climbing vines and picking grapes by Exekias, now at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, see no. 108 in Simon, op. cit.; for the interior of an Attic black-figured kylix by the Chiusi Painter see p. 389 in Beazley, Attic Black-Figure Vase-Painters.

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