Lot 10A
Magna Graecia, Southern Italy, Apulia, ca. 350 to 300 BCE. A beautiful terracotta amphora intricately decorated with red-figure imagery of 2 draped ephebes in conversation on one side, and a female with a nude male youth on the other. As this vessel would have been used to carry wine, the scenes appropriately depict subjects associated with wine consumption - the philosophical dialogue of a symposium and the erotica linked to Dionysian ritual. The elegant vessel is further adorned by composite palmettes beneath each arching handles, a row of rays encircling the sloping neck with a band of laurel leaf motif above, and a stripe of undulating striations below each scene. Size: 7.5" Diameter x 17.3" H (19 cm x 43.9 cm)
Perhaps the most exciting innovation in Greek vase painting was the red-figure technique, invented in Athens around 525 BCE and beloved by other artists of Magna Graecia. The red-figure technique allowed for much greater flexibility as opposed to the black-figure technique, for now the artist could use a soft, pliable brush rather than a rigid metal graver to delineate interior details, play with the thickness of the lines, as well as build up or dilute glazes to create chromatic effects. The painter would create figures by outlining them in the natural red of the vase, and then enrich these figural forms with black lines to suggest volume, at times perspectival depth, and movement, bringing those silhouettes and their environs to life. Beyond this, fugitive pigments made it possible for the artist to create additional layers of interest and detail as we see in this example.
Provenance: private Rancho Mirage, California, USA collection, by inheritance in 2020; ex-Dr. TDR Berreth, California, USA, acquired before 1982
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#179128
- Condition: Professionally repaired and restored with areas of repainting and break lines visible, as well as chipping and abrasions to surface. Liberal remaining pigments and good remains of decorative program.
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