A GREEK BRONZE KALPIS

CLASSICAL PERIOD, CIRCA MID 5TH CENTURY B.C.

Details

A GREEK BRONZE KALPIS
CLASSICAL PERIOD, CIRCA MID 5TH CENTURY B.C.
The piriform body with broad shoulders and a waisted cylindrical neck flaring to the rim, the flat mouth with beading above ovolo on the overhanging rim, the separately-cast foot with a band of beading above tongues, with two horizontal upturned handles and a fluted vertical handle with a circular plate of radiating tongues attached at the neck, terminating below in a figure of a winged siren, her wing tips modeled in the round, standing on an inverted palmette, pierced tendrils on either side
17 ½ in. (44.5 cm.) high

Provenance

Dr. David Dvir, New York, 1990.
with Joseph G. Gerena Fine Arts, New York, 1998.

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Lot Essay

For a similar example in the Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, see no. 108 in D. G. Mitten and S. F. Doeringer, Master Bronzes from the Classical World. Doeringer explains that "those of this shape are also called kalpides, although it is not certain whether the ancients applied the term kalpis to this specific group. Costly bronze hydriai were perhaps given to brides and were probably used only for special occasions or religious rites."

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