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Lot Description

An Attic Red-Figured Pelike with Athena on a Chariot

Manner of the Leningrad Painter, Circa 470-450 B.C.

Height 14 1/2 inches.

Property from Liberi Fund - The Sleeping Beauties Collection

Note:
The obverse is decorated to show Athena donning an Attic helmet and a flowing chiton, holding the reigns of a four-horse chariot, seemingly on the verge of departure, as a warrior wearing a Corinthian helmet looks on and bids her farewell with a raised right hand. Beneath the left handle, a seated youth is depicted holding a scepter, while the reverse illustrates a procession featuring another youth and three bearded men wielding staffs or scepters, striding towards an Ionic column. The first bearded man covers his mouth with his right hand while the second bearded man holds his right hand to his forehead, imbuing the continuous scene with an air of solemnity and perhaps even distress.

Renowned British classical archaeologist and art historian Sir John Davidson Beazley, known for his classification of Attic vases by artistic style, attributed the present pelike to the Manner of the Leningrad Painter, a Mannerist painter active in Athens in the second quarter of the fifth century B.C. (J.D. Beazley, Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters, Oxford, 1963, p. 573).

Provenance:
Brimo Collection, France.
Domenicis Collection, France, 19th Century.
Delorme & Collin du Bocage Sale Catalog, Paris, 24 February 2010, Lot 104.

Exhibited:
International Fine Art & Antique Dealers Show, New York, 19-25 October 2012.

Literature:
Gerhard, E., Auserlesene griechische Vasenbilder, Berlin, 1840-1858, vol. 3 (1847), p. 121, pl. 210.
Beazley, J.D., Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters, Oxford, 1963, p. 573, no. 10.
Beazley Archive Pottery Database, number 206595.

Condition Report

Repaired from multiple fragments, with fill and overpainting in the breaks; some fill very minor in areas, some fill and over painting in the painted areas recognizable, with some areas of overpainting now crackling and flaking, as can be seen along the horses’ legs; a large section of the reverse entirely restored as a lacuna, with no decoration – approximately comprising a bit more than half of the lower third of the decorated panel. Some chips and a TL hole on the base.

An original graffito (DI) on the underside; as well as an old collection label in French reading “hair in the Phidian style”.

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