AN APULIAN RED-FIGURED AMPHORA
AN APULIAN RED-FIGURED AMPHORA

ATTRIBUTED TO THE BALTIMORE PAINTER, CIRCA 330-320 B.C.

Details
AN APULIAN RED-FIGURED AMPHORA
ATTRIBUTED TO THE BALTIMORE PAINTER, CIRCA 330-320 B.C.
37 in. (94 cm.) high
Provenance
Private Collection M.C., Geneva, acquired in the 1960s.
Acquired by the current owner in Switzerland, 2015.
Literature
A.D. Trendall and A. Cambitoglou, Second Supplement to the Red-Figured Vases of Apulia, London, 1992, p. 278, no. 40f.
K. Schauenburg, Studien zur unteritalischen Vasenmalerei, Band IV/V , Kiel, 2002, pp. 5-21, pls. 12a & b.

Lot Essay

The vase presented here may originally have formed a pair with the previous lot, as both share nearly the same elaborate ornament, have Nike driving a quadriga on the shoulders of the obverse, and both are of similar scale. The main scene on the upper register of the body depicts a Gigantomachy. At the center is a defeated serpent-limbed giant, perhaps Typhon, whose hands are being bound behind his back by Nike. To the left stand Zeus, Hera and an armed warrior, while to the right are Athena, Herakles and Hermes. Typhon, the son of Gaia and Tartarus, attempted to overthrow Zeus for supremacy of the cosmos. Following a cataclysmic battle between the gods and giants, Typhon was defeated by Zeus and his thunderbolts. For a volute-krater by the Baltimore Painter depicting this battle, with Typhon similarly shown serpent-limbed and with an animal skin tied over his shoulders, see pl. XXVI in A.D. Trendall and A. Cambitoglou, First Supplement to the Red-figured Vases of Apulia.

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