Advanced Search 
Plate with boar walking
Greek, East Greek
Orientalizing Period
about 640–630 B.C.
Place of Manufacture: East Greece, East Dorian, Greece, Kos?
Medium/Technique
Ceramic
Dimensions
30.5 cm (diameter)
Credit Line
Henry Lillie Pierce Fund
Accession Number99.509
CollectionsAncient Greece and Rome
ClassificationsVessels
The wild boar, an adversary of mythological heroes, was a frequent emblem on shields and armor. He was also the largest and most dangerous animal that Greek hunters encountered regularly in real life. Here he appears in isolation, as an embodiment of masculinity and power. His massive dark body is planted on a ground line underscored by a zigzag band, above a zone energized by radiating lobes. His head, drawn in outline, terminates in a snout, with a long sharp tusk jutting up from the lower jaw.
The plate exemplifies the Orientalizing style, whose heraldic animals and space-filling ornaments were derived from Near Eastern sources. The space around the boar is occupied by a riot of stylized vegetation: small clusters of dots resemble the rosettes in Corinthian pottery, but the other, larger designs display a variety of sizes and shapes. A group of similar plates is thought to have been made in Rhodes, a large Mediterranean island off the coast of modern Turkey. In contrast to the more standardized and technically proficient Orientalizing pottery made at Corinth, Rhodian ceramics often exhibit a boldness and energy typical of East Greek work.
The plate exemplifies the Orientalizing style, whose heraldic animals and space-filling ornaments were derived from Near Eastern sources. The space around the boar is occupied by a riot of stylized vegetation: small clusters of dots resemble the rosettes in Corinthian pottery, but the other, larger designs display a variety of sizes and shapes. A group of similar plates is thought to have been made in Rhodes, a large Mediterranean island off the coast of modern Turkey. In contrast to the more standardized and technically proficient Orientalizing pottery made at Corinth, Rhodian ceramics often exhibit a boldness and energy typical of East Greek work.
Catalogue Raisonné
Fairbanks, Vases (MFA), no. 293; Highlights: Classical Art (MFA), p. 151.
DescriptionA boar to right above a ground line, with varied filler surrounding (Wild Goat Style); radiating tongues in exergue. A zigzag band separates the upper and lower fields.
East Dorian "segment" plates, like this example, have flat bases and outcurving rims. Their large tondi are typically divided between an upper field, which contains an animal in a Wild Goat style (sometimes two animals or more rarely a mythical creature; even more rare are human figures) surrounded by filler motifs, and a lower field, which contains a pattern of radiating tongues (or less frequently, a palmette with outspringing volutes). Recent Neutron Activiation Analysis indicates that most plates of this type were made on Kos.
East Dorian "segment" plates, like this example, have flat bases and outcurving rims. Their large tondi are typically divided between an upper field, which contains an animal in a Wild Goat style (sometimes two animals or more rarely a mythical creature; even more rare are human figures) surrounded by filler motifs, and a lower field, which contains a pattern of radiating tongues (or less frequently, a palmette with outspringing volutes). Recent Neutron Activiation Analysis indicates that most plates of this type were made on Kos.
ProvenanceBy 1862: W. H. Forman Collection; inherited from him by Mrs. Burt and then, about 1889, by A. H. Browne; by 1899: with Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge, 13 Wellington Street, Strand, London W.C., England, auction of the Forman Collection, June 19-22, lot 270 (said to have been purchased at Salzmann and Biliotti Sale, Sotheby, May 10, 1862, lot 59); by 1899: with E. P. Warren; purchased by MFA from E. P. Warren, 1899, for $ 32,500.00 (this is the total price for MFA 99.338-99.542)