Greek red-figure pelike, Athens, 5th century BC
Terracotta
Height: 23.8cm
9285
The decoration shows a bearded man leaning on a crooked walking stick, offering a gift to a youth who holds a strigil and trainer's staff, each figure is wearing a...
The decoration shows a bearded man leaning on a crooked walking stick, offering a gift to a youth who holds a strigil and trainer's staff, each figure is wearing a ribbon head band in added red. Between them in faint added red the word KALOS 'Beautiful'. The reverse shows two draped youths with headbands in added red, leaning on walking sticks and conversing. Both scenes are bordered on the top by a band of interlinked tongues, on the sides by zigzag dots inside plain columns, and on the bottom by a reserved band indicating the ground on which they stand. Some old retouching of the glaze, particularly affecting the lower legs and feet of the older male, a couple of small areas of craquelure.
The pelike, a type of storage vessel, is a form first used around the same time as the invention of the red-figure technique (c.520 BC), with production continuing into the 4th century BC. The term, unknown to the ancient Greeks, was used by early archaeologists to describe an amphora with continuing curves, rising from a low belly to a broad neck.
This example is one of many found at Vulci, an Etruscan coastal city with strong trading links to mainland Greece, which flourished between 600-300 BC. The extent of its citizens' wealth is reflected in the lavish grave-tombs found in four main sites on the city's borders. The accumulated excavations at Vulci have revealed one of Europe's largest concentrations of Attic vases. The confusion this caused in the academic world as to the origin of Attic vases can be reflected in a statement made by Napoleon's brother, Lucien Bonaparte, Prince de Canino: "...which is most probable, that the Etrurians, lords of the sea and of Italy and of the Islands, should have introduced one or two of their fine vases into Greece; or that the Greeks, who have never spoken a word of masterly paintings on earthen vases, should have brought to our Hypogea thousands of them ... or that Greek artists should have come to paint masterpieces in Etruria, which they never painted at home?" This statement reflects the misinterpretation of many findings from 19th century excavations, but it was the desire of contemporary archaeologists to formulate theories and to test the status quo which led scholarship to our current level of understanding. From 1828 onwards Lucien Bonaparte commissioned multiple excavations, keeping some of the best pieces and auctioning off the rest. After his death excavations continued, with the finds disseminated throughout Europe. The French auction label on the base of this vase indicates it most likely came from one such excavation.
The pelike, a type of storage vessel, is a form first used around the same time as the invention of the red-figure technique (c.520 BC), with production continuing into the 4th century BC. The term, unknown to the ancient Greeks, was used by early archaeologists to describe an amphora with continuing curves, rising from a low belly to a broad neck.
This example is one of many found at Vulci, an Etruscan coastal city with strong trading links to mainland Greece, which flourished between 600-300 BC. The extent of its citizens' wealth is reflected in the lavish grave-tombs found in four main sites on the city's borders. The accumulated excavations at Vulci have revealed one of Europe's largest concentrations of Attic vases. The confusion this caused in the academic world as to the origin of Attic vases can be reflected in a statement made by Napoleon's brother, Lucien Bonaparte, Prince de Canino: "...which is most probable, that the Etrurians, lords of the sea and of Italy and of the Islands, should have introduced one or two of their fine vases into Greece; or that the Greeks, who have never spoken a word of masterly paintings on earthen vases, should have brought to our Hypogea thousands of them ... or that Greek artists should have come to paint masterpieces in Etruria, which they never painted at home?" This statement reflects the misinterpretation of many findings from 19th century excavations, but it was the desire of contemporary archaeologists to formulate theories and to test the status quo which led scholarship to our current level of understanding. From 1828 onwards Lucien Bonaparte commissioned multiple excavations, keeping some of the best pieces and auctioning off the rest. After his death excavations continued, with the finds disseminated throughout Europe. The French auction label on the base of this vase indicates it most likely came from one such excavation.
Provenance
Label to base reads: 'Pelike avec couvercle. Vulci, 1857. Hauteur 0.28m'. The lid has subsequently been lost, though there is an image of the two togetherRaoul Faverjou and Hélène Brissou, France; imported to France 1919
Private collection, France; acquired from the above
