A large early Apulian red-figure hydria. Attributed to the Painter of the Berlin Dancing Girl, circa 410-400 B.C.

12 octobre 2008

A large early Apulian red-figure hydria. Attributed to the Painter of the Berlin Dancing Girl, circa 410-400 B.C.

A large early Apulian red-figure hydria. Attributed to the Painter of the Berlin Dancing Girl, circa 410-400 B.C.

Depicting frontally, three large standing figures, a naked male in the centre, his head turned to the right, with short curly hair and slightly parted lips, holding a kithara in his left hand, with his cloak draped over his left arm and held in his right hand by his side, flanked by two inward facing female figures draped in black-edged peploi, the left-hand figure with her hair dressed in long loose curls, with her left hand raised to her face, the right-hand figure with her curly hair dressed in a chignon and holding her drapery out with her right hand, a low couch positioned between her and the male figure, each side with a further standing draped female figure beneath the handles, the left-hand female wearing a patterned saccos, her left hand raised towards her face, the right-hand female with her curly hair dressed in a chignon and her right hand raised to her face, the scene possibly depicting Apollo and four Muses, with a band of meander and saltire squares along the baseline, the neck decorated with a frontal band of alternating lotus buds and palmettes, the down-turned rim, side and rear handles decorated with encircling bands of ovolo, 21in (53.5cm) high - Estimate: £80,000 - 120,000

Provenance: Acquired at Sotheby's London, May 21st, 1984.

Exhibited: On loan to the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, April 2005 - April 2008.
On loan to the Museum of Mediterranean Antiquities, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia, March 1995 - April 2005.

Published: Sotheby's London, Antiquities, May 21st, 1984, lot 384.

Literature: For other hydriai by the Painter of the Berlin Dancing Girl, cf. A.D. Trendall & A. Cambitoglou, The Red-figured Vases of Apulia, vol. I, (Oxford 1978), pp. 4-9, pl. 2-3, specifically pl. 3.1O, the Oxford 1974 hydria, and pl. 3.4 (a,b,c), the Taranto 134 905 hydria.

The Painter of the Berlin Dancing Girl was the great pioneer of Apulian vase-painting, his work reflecting the Attic painting that influenced him, particularly that of the Polygnotan Group. His output was comparatively limited and this vase with its monumental solemn figures, draped in rather straight vertical folds, is characteristic of his more developed, later work. Dating to the last decade of the 5th century B.C., its massive 'almost statuesque' figures recall contemporary sculptural friezes such as those of the Parthenon and the Temple of Athena Nike on the Athenian Acropolis.