Works of Art
Italiote Red-Figure Bell Krater attributed to the Tarporley Painter
Period: Apulia, around 380-370 B.C.
Culture: Classical, Greek World
Category:
Dimensions: H: 33.9 cm
Price: 56000$
Provenance:
Ex-"the Chapter of the Durham Cathedral" collection, UK; ex-W. Randolph Hearst collection, San Simeon, California (inv. n. 5604), USA; Parke-Bernet galleries, New York, “Works of Art, Furniture & Architectural Elements collected by the Late W. Randolph Hearst”, April 5th-6th, 1963, no 94.
Description
This large bell crater is supported by a thick, disc-shaped foot; the scene, painted according to the red-figure technique, occupies the whole central area of the body.
On the main side, a young rider leads his mount toward a Nike with spread wings, who hands him out a crown and a long ribbon. The rider is naked but holds a small shield in his left hand; Nike (Victoria in Latin, the personification of victory) is dressed in a long chiton girded around the waist and wears her hair coiled into a chignon; she is richly adorned with pendant earrings, with a beaded necklace and spiraled bracelets. On the other side, three young figures draped in long coats are discussing peacefully. The scenes are bordered, below, by a meander, and above, by a continuous branch of laurel leaves.
The Tarporley painter is the most important representative of the "Plain style", a trend followed by many Apulian painters who decorated their vases with great figures arranged in generally simple compositions / scenes, connected to the Dionysian or theatrical sphere, with athletes or warriors. The figures (from one to four on each image) do most often display an internalized and sometimes solemn allure.
The bell crater was a favorite shape to this painter, active in Apulia in the early 4th century A.D.
The attribution of our vase to the Tarpoley painter (the name of the artist comes from the English town where resided Mr. Marshall Brooks, who possessed a bell crater painted by this artist) was confirmed by A.D. Trendall and A. Cambitoglou.
Bibliography
Published in:
CAMBITOGLOU A. - TRENDALL A.D., Apulian Red-figure Vase-painters of the Plain Style, Boston, 1961, p. 34, n. 13
TRENDALL A.D., Early South Italian Vase-painting, Mainz on Rhine, 1974, p. 51, n. B114
TRENDALL A.D., Ceramica, pl. 18
TRENDALL A.D. - CAMBITOGLOU A., The Red-figured Vases of Apulia, vol. 1, Oxford, 1978, p. 49, n. 3 / 27.