An Attic Black-figure Hydria attributed to the Rycroft Painter, circa 500 B.C.

VAT reduced rate

Estimate

60,000 - 90,000 GBP

Lot Details

Description

with spreading foot and high convex handle, the body painted with Peleus and Thetis in a quadriga, Peleus stepping up into the vehicle, veiled Thetis standing by his side, the couple joined by wreathed Apollo holding a kithara and two goddesses, one holding a torch with flame indicated by yellow wash, the shoulder painted with Herakles wrestling the Nemean Lion, his left arm crooked around the lion's neck, the lion's left hind paw pushing against Herakles' head, Iolaos seated at left and holding the hero's weapons, Hermes seated at right and holding the kerykeion, a quiver and dotted vines in the field, rays above the foot, dotted festooned lotus buds below the ground-line, ivy leaves flanking the main scene, tongues on the shoulder below the neck, a black-figure inverted voluted palmette at the base of the pouring handle, details in added red, white, and yellow, a dipinto underneath the foot.

Height 47.8 cm.

perhaps Ruspoli Collection

Tracagni Collection (Sotheby & Co., London, June 28th, 1965, no. 93, illus.)

Arthur and Marjorie Silver, Beverly Hills, California (Sotheby's, New York, December 8th, 2000, no. 78, illus.)

acquired by the present owner at the above sale

Published

John D. Beazley, Paralipomena, Oxford, 1971, p. 149, no. 28 bis

Warren G. Moon, "Some New and Little-Known Vases by the Rycroft and Priam Painters," Greek Vases in the J. Paul Getty Museum, vol. 2, Malibu, 1985, pp. 42- 46, fig. 2a-c

Minerva. International Review of Ancient Art and Archaeology, vol. 12.2, March/April 2001, p. 41, fig. 24

Beazley Archive Pottery Database, no. 351105 (https://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/record/DACA33EC-03EF-4A85-AB7E-59BEE8057436)

Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa, Florida, 1991-circa 1999/2000 (IL 9.91.1)

For the Rycroft Painter see J. Boardman, Athenian Black Figure Vases, 1974, figs. 226 and 227; the author notes the "dignity and presence" of his best work. W. Moon (op. cit.) refers to the present amphora as "one of the better vases of the Rycroft Painter's later work".

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