Greek
An Attic red-figure neck amphora, attributed to the Painter of the Louvre Centauromachy, Classical, circa 475 - 450 BC
Pottery
Height: 33 cm
Depicting on one side a youth resting on a staff and wearing a himation with his right arm and shoulder bare. The reverse side shows a draped woman moving to...
Depicting on one side a youth resting on a staff and wearing a himation with his right arm and shoulder bare. The reverse side shows a draped woman moving to her left, probably a Maenad, wearing a chiton with a himation over the top, the folds of which are draped over her left arm. She is holding a flaming torch in one hand and a thyrsus in the other. Both figures are standing on a ground line with saltire squares and meander below, there is a band of tongues below the neck. Standing on a short, stepped foot and with elegantly twisted handles.
Provenance
Private collection, Europe, acquired in the 1980sSotheby's, London, 31 May 1990, lot 321
With Charles Ede Limited, London, catalogue 12, 1991, no. 18
Private collection, UK, acquired from the above
Literature
Such vessels were most likely used to store wine, olives, or oil. For an amphora with twisted handles and a similar scene of a draped youth compare Beazley Archive Pottery Database no. 29016; also a nolan with a similar scene see p. 670, nos. 11 and 12 in J.D. Beazley, Attic Red-Figure Vase-painters, Oxford, 1963.This amphora is attributed the Painter of the Louvre Centauromachy (Padgett) who is regarded as having worked in the same circle as the major classical vase-painter, Polygnotos. Similar draped figures and a Maenad carrying the thyrsus and torch can be seen on a krater in the Vatican, attributed by Beazley: Vatican City, Museo Gregoriano Etrusco Vaticano: AST89 (BAPD no. 215495).