Download Catalog
Download
Pricelist
We Guarantee:
Authenticity
Friendly Service
Prompt Shipping
Highest Integrity
100% Satisfaction
Contact:
fragments@aol.com
South Italian Red-Figure Skyphos
Circa 4th Century BC
Description: Elegant red-figure skyphos painted in classical themes popular to the South Italian region. The large, deep-bowled vessel has two horizontal round handles and ring base. Potted from smooth micaceous orange-brown clay.
Side A depicts a woman running and looking behind her, wearing a long pleated chiton with overfold at the waist and shoes on her feet. Her costume is adorned with a pearl necklace, earrings and now faded bracelets in applied white. Her hair is upswept in typical 4th Century BC style for a "lady of fashion". In her left, lowered by her side, she holds a wreath. In her right hand with arm bent is a thyrsus, also applied in white, now just visible above the right shoulder. On either side of her head is a window, one round and one square, each bordered in white.
Side B depicts a draped youth with dotted collar and 'sleeve' drape,
typical of left-facing youths, where the himation is draped over the bent left
arm. The youth's right hand is concealed within the fabric. He wears a white
wreath around his head and shoes on his feet. To wither side
of his head is a round window and an applied white shape,
perhaps a grape cluster.
Typical to Paestan vases, the two scenes are framed by large bordered
palmettes.
The scenes are framed above by wave-pattern and below by an encircling
ground-line. 
Height: 6.1 in. (15.7 cm)
Rim Diameter: 6 in. (15.1 cm)
Condition: Minor repair. Overall nicely preserved.
Provenance: Formerly in a private Washington, DC collection.
Background: Paestan vase-painters were heavily influenced by neighboring Campania. The most notable feature of vases from Paestum are the large bordered palmettes between scenes. However, other common conventions are the draped youths on the reverse, the dot-stripe patterns on garments, the fleshy thick limbs of the figures and that the figures are almost always holding some object. Where Campanian vases were potted from a red-toned clay, those of Paestum were made from a more orange-brown clay.
Price: $ 2,900
Copyright ©2009 by Fragments of Time - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED