ATTRIBUTED TO THE PAINTER OF VATICAN 73, CIRCA 640-625 B.C.

Details

A CORINTHIAN BLACK-FIGURED BROAD-BOTTOMED OINOCHOE
ATTRIBUTED TO THE PAINTER OF VATICAN 73, CIRCA 640-625 B.C.
The body with a broad band of animals and monsters, centered in the front by a Siren facing right between seated sphinxes with their heads turned back flanked by lions, to the right a goat facing a frontal-faced panther, to the left a stag facing a frontal-faced panther, a bull facing a lion below the handle, rosettes in the field; a band of rays at the base, a triple band of dots above, alternating red, black and yellow tongues descending from the neck, with dot rosettes above and below and on the mouth, details in added white, red and yellow
10 1/8 in. (25.7 cm.) high

Provenance

Humfry Payne (1902-1936); thence by descent to his wife, the former Elizabeth Dilys Powell, later known as Mrs. Leonard Russell (1901-1995).
Antiquities, Sotheby's, London, 26 November 1968, lot 106.
Kunstwerke der Antike, Münzen und Medaillon, Basel, 13 December 1969, lot 31.
with Galerie G. Maspero, Paris, 1969.
H. Barlet, Chambéry, France, 1970.

Literature

D.A. Amyx, Corinthian Vase-Painting of the Archaic Period, 1988, p. 68, no. 17.
C.W. Neeft, "What is in a Name?, The Painter of Vatican 73 in the Getty," in Greek Vases in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Vol. 6, 2000, p. 31, no. 66.

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Lot Essay

Humfry Payne was considered one of the most outstanding archeologists of his generation. He was the Director of the British School of Archeology in Athens from 1929 until his tragic death in 1936 from a staph infection. He was the author of several important works including: Necrocorinthia: a Study of Corinthian Art in the Archaic Period, 1931; Archaic Marble Sculpture from the Acropolis, 1936; and Perachora: the Sanctuaries of Hera Akraia and Limenia, 1940. He married the eminent film critic Elizabeth Dilys Powell, C.B.E. in 1926, whom he met while at Oxford. Powell later married Leonard Russell in 1943.

The Painter of Vatican 73, who takes his name from an olpe in the Vatican Museums, is one of the finest Corinthian vase-painters. He was first identified by Payne. According to Amyx (op. cit., p. 66) his work displays a "fine, strongly disciplined style." Neeft informs (op. cit., p. 1), his figure drawing shows a subtle balance "between animals and filling ornaments, between silhouette and details, between black and added red."

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