AN ATTIC BLACK-FIGURED NECK AMPHORA WITH LID

ATTRIBUTED TO THE GROUP OF MUNICH 1501, CIRCA 530-520 B.C.

Details

AN ATTIC BLACK-FIGURED NECK AMPHORA WITH LID
ATTRIBUTED TO THE GROUP OF MUNICH 1501, CIRCA 530-520 B.C.
One side with Gigantomachy scene depicting Athena wearing an aegis and high crested helmet, carrying a spear in her right hand, grasping the Corinthian helmet of a falling giant in her left hand, the giant wearing a tunic, sword and scabbard and holding a shield with bucranium as the blazon, another giant running to the left, wearing high crested Corinthian helmet and carrying a shield with dot device and spear; other side with Poseidon carrying his trident and preparing to drop the island Nisyros onto Polybotes; the god wearing a short chiton and a baldric, Polybotes armed with a crested Corinthian helmet, a shield and a spear, a baldric over his shoulder; double palmette chain on the neck, tongues on the shoulder, a frieze of conjoined lotus buds below, rays above the foot, with lotus buds and scrolling palmette tendrils under each handle, details incised and in added white and red; the lid with concentric circles and band of ivy leaves around the rim
19 5/8 in. (50 cm.) high including lid

Provenance

with Kurt Deppert, Frankfurt, Germany, 1970s.
Private collection, Switzerland, acquired from Dr Elie Borowski, Basel, Switzerland, 1985.

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Lot Essay

During the Gigantomachy, the god Poseidon defeated Polybotes by ripping apart the island of Kos with his bare hands or trident, and hurling it at him. This fragment ended up forming the island of Nisyros. On the use of this specific myth in vase painting cf. E. Simon, 'Poseidon', Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae, VII, 1994, pp. 464-465, nos 175-180.

For the Group of Munich 1501, cf. J. D. Beazley, Attic Black-Figure Vase-Painters, Oxford, 1956, p. 341, and J. D. Beazley, Paralipomena, Oxford, 1971, pp. 153-154. For a close parallel, cf. E. Kunze-Götte, Der Kleophrades-Maler unter Malern schwarzfiguriger Amphoren, Mainz, 1992, pl. 30, attributed to the same group. The Gigantomachy subject is rare on neck-amphorae and the vase above is a particularly fine example.

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