Etruscan
An Etruscan 'Pontic' black-figure chalice, attributed to the Tityos Painter, circa 520 - 510 BC
Pottery
Height: 12.7 cm
The vessel is in the form of a wide bowl with sloping sides, set on a stemmed flaring foot bisected by two torus mouldings. The bowl is decorated in black-figure...
The vessel is in the form of a wide bowl with sloping sides, set on a stemmed flaring foot bisected by two torus mouldings. The bowl is decorated in black-figure with the details in added red and white, composed of an animal frieze with hares, panthers, lions, griffins and sirens. There are rays on the base of the bowl.
Provenance
With Charles Ede Limited, London, November 1973
Allen A. Davis, London, acquired from the above
Larry D. Reams, Los Angeles, acquired by February 1974
American private collection, Guerneville, California
Literature
'Pontic' ware is a type of early Etruscan black-figure pottery of the 6th century BC. The decoration was strongly influenced by EastGreek / Ionian vase painting with its detailed and colourful multiple friezes and is thought to have been produced in Etruscan workshops by craftsmen who travelled from Ionia. For further discussion and examples, see J. Boardman, Early Greek Vase Painting, New York, 1998, 114-117, 151, 217-223; J.D. Beazley, Etruscan Vase-Painting, Oxford, 1947; C.M. Stibbe, 'Pontic Vases at Oxford,' in MededRom 39, 1977.This chalice was attributed by Dr. C.M. Stibbe to the Tityos Painter who was named after an amphora in Paris showing Tityos between Leto and Apollo, the latter pursuing him in a chariot drawn by winged horses. As with this example, many of his vases bear animal friezes and make copious use of added colour. Besides the Paris Painter, who exerted a strong influence on him, the Tityos Painter is considered the most important representative of the Pontic Group of vase painters. For further discussion see L. Hannestad, The Followers of the Paris Painter, Copenhagen, 1976. For a similar Pontic chalice in the Munich Antikensammlungen (inv. no. SH944), see Beazley Archive Pottery Database no. 9034585.