Artworks

Moulded as the head of a Nubian, the hair carefully dressed in tight ringlets and arranged in layers. The surface is black glazed apart from the lips and hair, the base ring and a frieze of red-figure decoration round the neck consisting of a band of myrtle spray with a rosette at the centre and a row of tongues above. Added white is used for the eyes and earrings. The mouth of the vase is trefoil and the handle, which runs from the back of the lip, terminates in a delicate spiral where it joins the base of the neck.

Intact and in superb condition. Supplied with a thermo-luminescence certificate.

The Greeks thought all black people to be from Nubia (Ethiopia), and were aware of their existence from at least the 8th century BC. The Iliad, written at this time, recounts the heroic deeds of King Memnon, son of the goddess Eos, and ruler of Ethiopia. The representation of Nubians increased during the Hellenistic period, not just in mythological representations, but also as individual subject matters in themselves.

Provenance

Helmut Gernsheim collection, London and Lugano; acquired in 1964 from the Arcade Gallery, London
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, USA; acquired from Charles Ede in 2015, Object Number: 2015.1

Literature

A magnificent example. Compare L. Bugner, The Image of the Black in Western Art (Switzerland, 1976), fig.216, for an example in Ruvo, the head of which appears to come from the same mould, though this was decorated in added colour rather than red-figure.