87 - A GREEK BLACK-FIGURED TERRACOTTA ‘PAGENSTECHER’ LEKYTHOS WITH EROS AND APHRODITE, CIRCA 330 BC

A GREEK BLACK-FIGURED TERRACOTTA ‘PAGENSTECHER’ LEKYTHOS WITH EROS AND APHRODITE, CIRCA 330 BC Published & Exhibited: Charles Ede Ltd., Antiquities 179, 2008, no. 23. Scientific Analysis Report: A thermoluminescence analysis report issued by Laboratory Kotalla on 14 January 2007, based on sample number 06110107, sets the manufacturing date of both samples taken to be 2400 years +/-20% ago, consistent with the dating above. A copy of the report accompanies this lot. South Italy. Masterfully potted, the pear-shaped body supported on a splayed foot and rising to a slender, waisted neck with a narrow circular mouth, one shoulder set with a gently curved handle. The exterior finely painted in dark pigments with carefully incised details, depicting the youthful, winged Eros offering a phiale to his beloved Aphrodite, her legs draped in a finely pleated mantle leaving the torso exposed, while holding a cista aloft in her left hand, the scene embellished with foliate motifs around the handle. The composition framed by black decorative bands encircling the neck and foot and extending along the outer side of the handle. Provenance: Collection of Prof. Anton Hoess, assembled from the 1850s onwards, thence by descent to the research chemist Dr. Erwin Hoess (1909-1985), and subsequently to his son, Germany. Charles Ede Ltd., London, 2011. A private collection in the United Kingdom, acquired from the above. A copy of the invoice from Charles Ede Ltd., dated 15 June 2011, confirming the dating above, and stating a purchase price of GBP 4,000, or approx. EUR 7,200 (converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing), accompanies this lot. Charles Ede Ltd., founded in 1971 by Charles Richard Montague Ede (1921-2002), is recognized as one of the world’s leading dealers in ancient art, specializing in works from Egypt, Greece, and the Roman Empire, as well as early European art before c. 1000 AD. After early ventures in publishing and the arts, Ede turned his attention to antiquities, establishing the firm that now enjoys an international reputation and a prominent presence at major art fairs worldwide. Condition: Very good condition, with expected wear, firing irregularities, signs of prolonged burial, encrustations, and typical rubbing to pigments. Two holes drilled for sample-taking. Weight: 436.7 g Dimensions: Height 21.1 cm The class of terracotta vessels known as Pagenstecher ware takes its name from Rudolf Pagenstecher, a German classical archaeologist specializing in ancient ceramics, painting and Hellenistic funerary architecture. Pagenstecher studied and classified a distinctive group of fourth-century BC terracotta vessels, predominantly lekythoi, to which the present lot belongs. These wares were remarkable for their use of the black-figure technique at a time when red-figure predominated in South Italian pottery. This revival of black-figure decoration appears to have occurred at several centers in southern Italy. Most surviving lekythoi have been found in Campania and Sicily, with further examples recorded at Paestum and in Apulia. Refined in execution and generally small in scale, these vessels were typically decorated with a single figure, head or bird. The figure of Eros depicted in the present example, whose pose and modeling clearly reflects a sculptural prototype in bronze, is here rendered with fluid drawing and precise incision. Details originally heightened in added white, characteristic of the group, have largely worn away. Literature comparison: Compare a closely related Pagenstecher lekythos dated to the third quarter of the 4th century BC, 17.4 cm high, in the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, inventory number 99.2.A. Compare a closely related Pagenstecher lekythos decorated with a colossal female head, dated 340-325 BC, 15.5 cm high, in the British Museum, registration number 1772,0320.35. Compare a closely related larger Pagenstecher lekythos dated to the mid-4th century BC, 46 cm high, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, object number 06.1021.223.