An Attic Black-figured Neck Amphora, related to the Antimenes Painter, circa 520 B.C.

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Auction Closed

December 5, 03:41 PM GMT

Estimate

100,000 - 150,000 GBP

Lot Details

Description

with torus foot, ovoid body, echinus mouth, and triple handles, painted in front with Herakles wrestling Triton, the monster raising his right arm in acknowledgement of defeat, and Nereus standing at left and raising his hands in supplication, Herakles wearing the lionskin over a chitoniskos fastened with a belt at the waist, Nereus wearing a chiton and himation, and decorated in back with a frontal four-horse chariot, the charioteer wearing a long chiton and carrying a goad (kentron), the warrior wearing a high-crested helmet of Attic type and brandishing a spear, the crest overlapping with the tongues on the shoulder, a small Scythian archer standing at right, wearing a chitoniskos and high-peaked cap, and holding a bow and two spears, a quiver full of arrows hanging over his shoulder, rays, linked lotus buds, and meander above the foot, palmettes in the handle zones, tongues on the shoulder, double palmettes on the neck, the details in added red and white.

Height 37.5 cm.

Münzen und Medaillen, Kunstwerke der Antike, Basel, Auktion 18, November 29th, 1958, pp. 32-33 no. 97, pl. 18

acquired by the late Jean Zafiropulo at the above sale

by descent to the present owner

“Classical antiquities from private collections in Great Britain: a loan exhibition in aid of the Ashmole archive,” Sotheby’s, London, January 15th-31st, 1986

Triton was the son of Poseidon and Amphitrite, who was one of the daughters of Nereus. In the second half of the sixth century, artists introduced Triton as the fish-tailed monster with whom Herakles wrestled instead of Nereus. The change appears to be approximately contemporary with the Herakles and Triton pediment from Temple H on the Acropolis in Athens (Fabrizio Santi, I frontoni arcaici dell’ Acropoli di Atene. Supplementi e monografie della rivista Archeologia Classica 4 [Rome: Bretschneider, 2010] p. 181-183). This change has been explained in allegorical political terms. Sir John Boardman suggested it reflected the Athenian campaign by land and sea against Megara for control of the island of Salamis (“Herakles, Peisistratos and Sons,” Revue Archéologique, vol. 1972, pp. 57-72; and “Herakles Peisistratos and Eleusis,” Journal of Hellenic Studies, vol. 95, 1975, p. 1-12. Ruth Glynn (op. cit.) thought it might be related to the Athenian appropriation of Sigeion in the Troad. The composition of the group of Herakles and Triton, where Herakles straddles Triton, was championed by Exekias (Heide Mommsen, “Das Tritonabenteuer bei Exekias,” in Andrew J. Clark and Jasper Gaunt, eds., Essays in honor of Dietrich von Bothmer, Amsterdam, 2002, pp. 225-235, pls. 61-62; BAPD 8492). On Triton further, see Heide Mommsen, “Reflections on Triton” in Amalia Avramidou and Denise Demetriou, Approaching the ancient artifact: representation, narrative and function: Festschrift in honor of H. Alan Shapiro, Berlin, 2014, pp. 53-63.

Published

Frank Brommer, Vasenlisten zur griechischen Heldensagen, 2nd ed., Marburg/Lahn, 1960, p. 113, Herakles – Meerwesen 34,5

Maria Frederika Vos, Scythian archers in archaic Attic vase-painting, Groningen, 1963, p. 95 no. 34

John Davidson Beazley, Paralipomena: additions to Attic black-figure vase-painters and to Attic red-figure vase-painters, 2nd ed., 1971, p. 123, 12 bis (as related to the Antimenes Painter); the location is mistakenly recorded as “Paris, Nearchos”

Frank Brommer, Vasenlisten zur griechischen Heldensagen, 3rd ed., Marburg/Lahn: Elwert, 1973), p. 145, Herakles – Meerwesen no. 41

Gudrun Ahlberg-Cornell, Herakles and the sea-monster in Attic black-figure vase-painting, Göteborg, 1984, p. 9, Group VI, no. 8; p. 44, no. 8; p. 49; p. 127, VI 8 (drawing)

Carlos Picón, Classical antiquities from private collections in Great Britain: a loan exhibition in aid of the Ashmole Archive, London, 1986, p. 21, no. 13, pl. 3

Johannes Burow, Der Antimenesmaler , Mainz, 1989, p. 70, n. 498 (as circle of the Antimenes Painter)

François Lissarrague, L’autre guerrier. Archers, peltastes, cavaliers dans l’imagerie attique, Rome, 1990, p. 266, A 266

Beazley Archive Pottery Database (BAPD), no. 340497