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Friday, July 13, 2012

An Attic red-figured Kylix

Speranza

0410
An Attic red-figured Kylix attributed to the Colmar painter, circa 490 B.C. Photo: Christie's Images Ltd. 2009.
The tondo with an ephebe tying a fillet around the head of a younger boy, perhaps representing the euandria, the ephebe with a crown of laurel in his hair, wearing a chlamys across his back and over his arms, leaning on a staff, soft shoes on his feet, the younger boy depicted nude, leaning forward, with fillets tied on his left arm and left thigh, holding wreaths in his hands, a voluted altar to the left with an ovolo molding, a sprig of laurel above, ho [p]ais [ka]los in the field, enclosed within a band of meander; the exterior with two pursuit scenes, one side with Boreas, the North Wind, pursuing Oreithyia, daughter of King Erechtheus of Athens, the god bearded, a fillet in his hair, his wings outspread, grabbing the right shoulder and elbow of Oreithyia, who moves right but looks back toward her pursuer, her long hair tied in a long ribbon headband, wearing a long chiton and a black himation, with two female attendants fleeing to the right and left, both wearing a chiton and himation, the figure to the left holding a black egg in her left hand, ho pais kalos and ho pais above; the other side with Zeus pursuing the nymph Aegina, the god bearded, a fillet in his hair, nude but for a chlamys over his shoulders, holding a palmette-topped scepter in his right hand, his left arm extended behind the nymph, Aegina moving right but looking back toward her pursuer, her long hair tied in a ribbon headband, wearing a long chiton and a black himation, an attribute in her right hand, with two female attendants fleeing to the right and left, both wearing a chiton and himation, their hair tied in a fillet, that to the left holding a pomegranate in her left hand, that to the right holding an egg in her right hand, ho pais kalos in the field, vine tendrils in the field, one behind Zeus, one to the left of the left-fleeing attendant, an ivy leaf below each handle, some details in added red and dilute glaze - 11 11/16 in. (29.6 cm.) diameter excluding handles.
Provenance: The Thétis Foundation; Sotheby's, London, 23 May 1991, lot 72.
Swiss Private Collection.
with Antiquarium, New York, 2005.
Literature: J.-L. Zimmermann, Collection de La Fondation Thétis, Geneva, 1987, p. 58, no. 107.
E. Kephalidou, Nikitis, Eikonographiki meleti tou archaiou ellinikou athlitismou, Thessaloniki, 1996, pl. 23.G47 (I).
I.G. Rizzo, Inquieti "commerci" tra uomini e dei, Rome, 2002, pl. 3.3 (A).
Beazley Archive Database no. 41586.
Exhibited: Geneva, Musée d'art et d'histoire, Collection de la Fondation Thétis, 1987.
Notes: According to Beazley (Attic Red-figure Vase-painters, p. 352), the Colmar Painter was a late Archaic cup-painter whose "developed style was formed under the influence of Onesimos (in both stages of that artist's career) and the Antiphon Painter. He probably sat side by side with them in the workshop of Euphronios."

The tondo of this very fine cup, a late work by the artist, probably shows a youth crowning a victor of the euandria, which was a tribal contest, limited to Athenian citizens, that was part of the Panathenaic Games. The euandria was a manly beauty contest in which the criteria were size and strength (see p. 94-96 in Kyle, "The Panathenaic Games: Sacred and Civic Athletics," in Neils, Goddess and Polis, The Panathenaic Festival in Ancient Athens).

According to Boardman (p. 224 in Athenian Red Figure Vases, the Archaic Period) Athenian artists were obsessed with pursuit scenes, including Zeus, Poseidon, or Theseus with various women, and Eos with young men. Following the destruction of the Persian fleet in a ferocious storm off the coast from Mount Athos in 492 B.C. and again at Artemisium in 480, the Athenians honored Boreas, the North Wind, with a temple. It is possible that this provoked new interest in the subject on vases, where he is shown in pursuit of Oreithyia, the daughter of the Athenian king Erechtheus.

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