Greek
A large Greek black-glazed nestoris, South Italy, mid-4th century BC
Pottery
Height: 48.9 cm
Ovoid in form, with characteristic vertical handles rising from the shoulders to the rim and decorated with rotelles, with additional horizontal handles at the belly.
Ovoid in form, with characteristic vertical handles rising from the shoulders to the rim and decorated with rotelles, with additional horizontal handles at the belly.
Provenance
American private collection, New York, acquired circa 1995 - 1996
Christie's, New York, 6 December 2001, lot 483
American private collection, 2001 - 2019
Literature
A wine vessel of an unusual form and rare in black glaze. The workshops of the potters and painters of southern Italy produced vases for a Greek clientele established in coastal colonies such as Taranto and Metaponte, as well as for the indigenous population. While most shapes in South Italian vase-painting have their origins in Attic models, the nestoris is indigenous.The nestorides produced exclusively in Apulia and Lucania (regions in southern Italy) are divided into three categories, according to the evolution of the shape of the body and the handles. They are distinctive with two sets of handles: a pair of high arching handles as well as practical horizontal handles at the belly: A.D. Trendall, Red Figure Vases of South Italy and Sicily, London, 1989, pp. 10-11.
For further reading on nestorides see:
G. Schneider-Hermann, Red-figured Lucanian and Apulian Nestorides and their Ancestors, Amsterdam, 1980
S. Schierup, 'The Nestorides: Innovation and Ambivalence in the Early South Italian Red-Figure Production' in Tradition. Transmission of Culture in the Ancient World, Acta Hyperborea 14, 2015, pp. 387-426
A. D. Trendall, 'La Trozzella e i costume delle genti non Greche', MGr, VI, 1971
E. Herring, 'Emblems of Identity. An Examination of the Use of Matt-Painted Pottery in the Native Tombs of the Salento Peninsula in the 5th and 4th Centuries B.C.', in: N. Christie (ed.), Papers of the Fifth Conference of Italian Archaeology, Settlement and Economy, 1500 B.C.− A.D. 1500, Oxford, 1995, pp. 135-142
F. Colivicchi, 'Native Vase Shapes in South Italian Red-Figure Pottery'. In T. Carpenter, K. Lynch, & E. Robinson (Eds.), The Italic People of Ancient Apulia: New Evidence from Pottery for Workshops, Markets, and Customs, Cambridge, 2014, pp. 213-242.