Greek
A Greek black-figure neck amphora, attributed to the Phineus Painter, Chalcidian, circa 550-530 BC
Pottery
Height: 23.6 cm
The body is decorated on one side with two sphinxes confronting each other in a heraldic manner, their heads facing outwards. The other side is decorated with a ram facing...
The body is decorated on one side with two sphinxes confronting each other in a heraldic manner, their heads facing outwards. The other side is decorated with a ram facing a roaring lion. In the field, flowers. The neck is decorated with a frieze of lotus buds, and underneath, a band of tongues with alternating colours. A wide black-glazed band at the bottom of the body, with black rays below emanating from the foot.
Provenance
Ferruccio Bolla (1911-84) Collection, Lugano, SwitzerlandMünzen und Medaillen, Basel, Auktion 70, 14 November 1986, p. 180 and pl. 30
Private collection of Mr. S., Geneva, Switzerland, acquired circa 1989, thence by descent
Literature
Named the Phineus Painter after a cup he decorated showing Phineus dining while the Boreads chase away the Harpies who have been plaguing him (Würzburg, Universität, Martin von Wagner Museum, acc. no. L164.) Most of the artist's work was devoted to representations of animals, as in this characterful example. There is a very similar lion on an amphora in the Penn Museum: acc. no. MS401; for closely-related (but facing) sphinxes, see the amphora no. 587, in the Antikensammlungen, Munich (BAPD no. 1004780) and no. 57/7 in Heidelberg, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität (BAPD no. 1004862).Chalcidian vases were produced in a Western Greek studio during the mid to late 6th century BC. According to J. Boardman (Early Greek Vase Painting, p. 217), the name Chalcidian 'is not a misnomer although it was first applied under the misconception that the pottery was made in the homeland Chalcis (Euboea) because the inscriptions on some of the vases were in Chalcidian script. . . .The Chalcidian colony at Rhegion (Reggio) at the toe of Italy seems a likely source.' For further discussion see J. Boardman, Early Greek Vase Painting, London, 1998, p. 219; M. Lozzo, Ceramica "Calcidese", Rome, 1994; A Rumpf, Chalkidische Vasen, Berlin & Leipzig, 1927, pp. 104-115.