Attic black-figure deep-bowled kylix
An Attic kylix (drinking-cup) with a stemmed base, a deep bowl and twin, upturned loop handles, all upon a concave base. The rim is thin and gently waving. The exterior walls are decorated with black-figure technique on red background: two draped young men in himatia facing each other stand at the side of a swan with open wings, associated with Aphrodite and Apollo. The interior of the bowl is black. Close to the handles, are stylized palmette and floral decorations. Black glazed bands on the body and handles as well as a concentric circle on the base further adorn the piece. The foot is short with a thick disc mostly black except for the lower section.
Stylistic remarks: compare with object numbers 127.007 and 127.030?, particularly the left wing of the swan with the beard of the man on 127.007. The style is remarkably similar to that of the Haimon Painter, especially in the rendering of facial features, and feet.
Date: 500–450 BCE
Parallels: exceptionally similar example in style New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art 1972.118.144; for the type of object Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum 85.AE.25; London, British Museum 1852,0707.14, 1864,1007.1526, 1864,1007.1528, 1864,1007.1534, 1906,1215.1, 1906,1215.4, 1952,0204.17; examples with long neck New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art 06.1021.157, 98.8.16 and Bologna, Archaeological Museum G 597.
References: Walters, H B., Forsdyke, E J., Smith, C. H., Vase / Catalogue of Vases in the British Museum, London: BMP, 1893-1925; Beazley, J.D., Attic Black-Figure Vase-Painters, Oxford, 1956; True, M., and Jiri F., Greek Vases: Molly and Walter Bareiss Collection, Malibu: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1983; Keck, J., Studien zur Rezeption fremder Einfluesse in der chalkidischen Keramik. Ein Betrag zur Lokalisierungsfrage, Archaeologische Studien 8, Frankfurt, 1988; Williams, D., Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, London: The British Museum 9, 1993; Catoni, M. L., Bere vino puro. Immagini del simposio. Milan: Feltrinelli, 2010; Neer, R. T., "Ancient Greek Vessels between Sea, Earth and Clouds", in Brittenham, C. (ed.), Vessels. The Object as Container, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019, pp. 6-49; on the Haimon Painter Penelope T., “Attic White-Ground Pyxis and Phiale, ca. 450 B.C.”, Boston Museum Bulletin, vol. 67, no. 348, pp. 86 and 90; F. F. J. “Four Vases by the Haimon Painter”, Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University, vol. 11, no. 1, Princeton University Art Museum, 1952, pp. 5–9.
Photo by Steve Morton