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Lot Essay
Depicted on this splendid lekythos is Nike – the goddess of victory – flying to the right and holding a tripod in her outstretched hands. The goddess is depicted wearing a long pleated chiton with a himation, a necklace with a cross-shaped pendant, and a fillet in her hair, its ties fluttering behind. The tripod is ornamented with a strip of ivy atop the rings, palmettes at the rings’ base, and lion-claw feet.
This lekythos was first attributed to the Berlin Painter by H. Cahn in 1983, a view shared by Hornbostel, Steinhart and Hildebrandt (op. cit.). Subsequent scholarship, including the catalogue raisonné of the Berlin Painter’s work by Padgett and Guy (op. cit.) placed this vase in the “Manner” of that great artist. The subject of the present vase was similarly treated by the Berlin Painter himself on a calyx krater, now in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, fig. 18 in Padgett, ed., op. cit. As J. Niels observes (op. cit., p. 12) the numerous Nikai bearing prizes on vases by the Berlin Painter attest to his fascination with the Panathenaic festival, where the goddess would have been associated with the victors of the various competitions.
The scene is framed above and below by a special type of stopt meander band in which the meanders alternatively face right and left, and are divided by saltire squares attached alternatively to the upper and lower borders. Beazley referred to it as ULFA, meaning "upper, lower, facing alternately.” This type of meander band was employed by the Berlin Painter and his followers. Palmettes and tendrils adorn the shoulders, framed above by a band of tongues.
This lekythos was first attributed to the Berlin Painter by H. Cahn in 1983, a view shared by Hornbostel, Steinhart and Hildebrandt (op. cit.). Subsequent scholarship, including the catalogue raisonné of the Berlin Painter’s work by Padgett and Guy (op. cit.) placed this vase in the “Manner” of that great artist. The subject of the present vase was similarly treated by the Berlin Painter himself on a calyx krater, now in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, fig. 18 in Padgett, ed., op. cit. As J. Niels observes (op. cit., p. 12) the numerous Nikai bearing prizes on vases by the Berlin Painter attest to his fascination with the Panathenaic festival, where the goddess would have been associated with the victors of the various competitions.
The scene is framed above and below by a special type of stopt meander band in which the meanders alternatively face right and left, and are divided by saltire squares attached alternatively to the upper and lower borders. Beazley referred to it as ULFA, meaning "upper, lower, facing alternately.” This type of meander band was employed by the Berlin Painter and his followers. Palmettes and tendrils adorn the shoulders, framed above by a band of tongues.