CIRCA 590-580 B.C.

Details

A CORINTHIAN BLACK-FIGURED ALABASTRON
CIRCA 590-580 B.C.
With Typhon facing right, wearing a diadem and short-sleeved chiton, with long hair and a beard, his sickle-shaped wings upraised, a snaky tail emerging from his waist, curving forward then back and tapering to a hooked point, below the handle a large dolphin swimming downwards to the left, a rosette around the rim and on the base
9 ½ in. (24 cm.) high

Provenance

with Seiyo Bijutsu Gallery, Osaka.
Private collection, Japan, acquired from the above in the 1970s.
Accompanied by an Ichikawa Kiyoshi (1898-1987) presentation box.

Special notice

These lots have been imported from outside the EU for sale using a Temporary Import regime. Import VAT is payable (at 5%) on the Hammer price. VAT is also payable (at 20%) on the buyer’s Premium on a VAT inclusive basis. When a buyer of such a lot has registered an EU address but wishes to export the lot or complete the import into another EU country, he must advise Christie's immediately after the auction.

Sale room notice

Please note, the dating for this lot should read CIRCA 590-580 B.C.

Brought to you by

Georgiana Aitken

gaitken@christies.com +44 (0)20 7752 3002

Lot Essay

According to Hesiod (Theogony 820-822), the monster Typhon was the offspring of Earth and Tartaros, born after the defeat of the Titans. Zeus attacked him with his thunderbolts and cast him into Tartaros, where he came to be associated with volcanic forces. Hesiod describes him as having a hundred heads growing from his shoulders. In the Archaic Period, he is shown with a single bearded head and a winged torso tapering to the coil of a snake, as here. For other Corinthian alabastra depicting Typhon see O. Touchefeu-Meynier, 'Typhon', Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae, vol. VIII, Zurich and Dusseldorf, 1997, p. 148, nos 1-10.

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