Advanced Search 
View: Side A
DEACESSIONED September 21, 2006
Vase for bath water (loutrophoros) depicting Pelops and Hippodameia in a chariot
Greek, South Italian
Early Hellenistic Period
320–310 B.C.
Place of Manufacture: Italy, Apulia
Medium/Technique
Ceramic, Red Figure
Dimensions
Height: 80 cm (31 1/2 in.); width: 33.2 cm (13 1/16 in.)
Credit Line
Mary S. and Edward J. Holmes Fund
Accession Number1988.431
CollectionsEurope, Ancient Greece and Rome
ClassificationsVessels
Catalogue Raisonné
Vase-Painting in Italy (MFA), no. 069.
DescriptionSide A (upper register): The abduction of Hippodameia is shown. Pelops and Hippodameia stand in a quadriga, (a four-horse chariot), shown in three-quarter view. The chariot, with a red box and yellow wheels, is drawn to the right by four galloping white horses, all rearing in unison. A white hound with its coat streaked with dilute glaze prances in similar fashion at the right. Hippodameia wears a chiton, himation, bracelet, earrings, necklace, and one of the white sakkoi that give the artist his name; all her jewelry is white too. Pelops wears an embroidered chiton over a red tunic with long sleeves. His Phrygian cap is yellow, and his belt and crossed bandoleers have white beads. With his right hand he holds both the princess and his long scepter, decorated with white dots and a yellow finial (the latter damaged, but probably an eagle). There are various filling ornaments in the field: stars above, flowers below, a phiale at the upper right, and a ball of wool at the upper left.
Side A (lower register): a woman and a nude youth with a cloak over his left arm stand on either side of a white grave monument with a fluted shaft, broad plinth, and a small pediment. The woman holds a tympanum in her lowered right hand and a casket with white figures and ornament in her raised left hand. She wears a chiton, himation, shoes, kekryphalos, earrings, bracelets, and a necklace. A long garland of rosettes and white berries trails from her left hand. The man holds a similar garland in his raised right hand and a branch with a pendant fillet in the crook of his left arm. He wears a wreath and a yellow fillet in his hair. A fillet and a ball of wool hang in the field.
Side B: A nude youth and a draped woman with a fillet in her lowered left hand stand on either side of a tapering grave stele with a black fillet tied around the shaft. Eggs and other offerings sit on top of the stele. The woman wears a kekryphalos, shoes, chiton, earrings, necklace, and bracelets. The youth wears a wreath and has a cloak and branch in his left arm and a fan with a pendant garland of rosettes in his right hand. The plinth of the stele, decorated with a white key-pattern, is so broad that the figures seem to stand upon it, but the dotted groundline below the woman shows otherwise. In the field above are a ball of wool and an ivy leaf. Added white is used for details of the rosettes, fan, ball, leaves, eggs, berries, jewelry, wreath, and stele.
A female head with a yellow-shadowed Phrygian cap, perhaps Artemis Bendis, springs from the complex foliage (scrolling tendrils and acanthus) on the shoulder of side A. Her face is white, with features in dilute glaze. She looks down to her left, her face nearly frontal. On the shoulder of side B is a complex of palmettes and tendrils. Above the chariot scene on side A, on the broad torus molding, is a frieze of rosettes, and between the two main panels is a band of marine fauna with extensive use of added white and yellow and shading with dilute glaze: two fish, three shells (horn shell, Venus clam, and scallop), and an octopus. Below, on the bulbous cul of the lower body, are rosettes on side A and a wave-pattern on side B.
The decoration of the neck is complex and differs on A and B. On A is an upper zone of yellow and white diamonds with scalloped edges, then two bands of yellow dots separated by a molded fillet; a band of rosettes; and a lower zone of white rays. The motif of scalloped diamonds goes back to the Iliupersis Painter; see RVAp, I, pl. 64, 5. On B, the rays are black, the rosettes are replaced by chevrons, the molding is framed by black bands, and the upper zone contains a black palmette. There are laurel wreaths down the outer sides of either handle. The obverse edges of the handles have white stripes; the reverse edges have black dots. A band of egg-pattern circles the molding of the rim.
Condition:
Repaired from fragments. Considerable repainting, especially on the handles, shoulder, and main figure scene with Pelops abducting Hippodameia in a chariot pulled by four prancing white horses. Much of the horses and the head of an Amazon on the shoulder is modern.
For Pelops and Hippodameia, see L. Lacroiz, BCH 100 (1976), pp. 327-341; and M. Pipili, LIMC, V, 1, pp. 434-440; V, 2, pls. 309-314. For the head and floral ornament on the shoulder, see comments on catalogue no. 21. A pair of similar loutrophoroi, one with the Rape of Chrysippos, son of Pelops, has been attributed by Trendall to the White Sakkos Painter (Sotheby's, New York, December 2, 1988, no. 107; RVAp, Suppl. II, p. 352, nos. 29/D4 and D6). The Baltimore Painter, colleague and teacher of the White Sakkos Painter, also depicted the abduction of Hippodameia, but as in most Apulian representations of the subject he included the pursuing Oinomaos; once Swiss market (RVAp, Suppl. I, p. 151, no. 27/21a).
"The immediate successor and true heir of the Baltimore Painter is the White Sakkos Painter" (Trendall, Handbook, p. 99). The influence is indeed obvious, but the White Sakkos Painter has a distinctive style all his own; note especially the moon-faced women with double chins and wisps of hair emerging from their white sakkoi at the temples. A prolific painter of both large and small vases, with a following of minor artists in his Canosan workshop, the White Sakkos Painter was one of the last major Apulian vase-painters of the Ornate style. As his name implies, he favored added color and a rich tapestry of ornament. The prancing, white chariot horses are particularly striking; compare those on the neck of the artist's volute-krater in Matera (A. Bottini, BdArch 5-6 [1990], p. 233, fig. 4), and on the neck of a volute-krater in the Getty Museum (Malibu 77. AE.14: RVAp, Suppl. I, p. 182. no. 29/C; CVA 3, pls. 136, 1 and 138, 1). The horses, too, are a legacy of the Baltimore Painter (e.g. Fiesole, Constantini collection 153 [RVAp, II, p. 871, no. 27/55, pl. 332]).
The band of fish on this vase recalls the band dividing the upper and lower registers on the painter's handleless loutrophoros in the Tampa Museum of Art (inv. 87.37: Trendall, Handbook, fig.255; RVAp, Suppl. II, p. 353, no. 29/D8, pl. 92, 3-4). The fish on the Tampa vase are by the Sansone Painter, who either collaborated with the White Sakkos Painter or was perhaps the same man. It is not clear that the fish on the Boston loutrophoros are by the Sansone Painter, and there is otherwise no reason to believe they are not by the same artist who decorated the rest of the vase.
(text from Vase-Painting in Italy, catalogue entry no. 69)
Side A (lower register): a woman and a nude youth with a cloak over his left arm stand on either side of a white grave monument with a fluted shaft, broad plinth, and a small pediment. The woman holds a tympanum in her lowered right hand and a casket with white figures and ornament in her raised left hand. She wears a chiton, himation, shoes, kekryphalos, earrings, bracelets, and a necklace. A long garland of rosettes and white berries trails from her left hand. The man holds a similar garland in his raised right hand and a branch with a pendant fillet in the crook of his left arm. He wears a wreath and a yellow fillet in his hair. A fillet and a ball of wool hang in the field.
Side B: A nude youth and a draped woman with a fillet in her lowered left hand stand on either side of a tapering grave stele with a black fillet tied around the shaft. Eggs and other offerings sit on top of the stele. The woman wears a kekryphalos, shoes, chiton, earrings, necklace, and bracelets. The youth wears a wreath and has a cloak and branch in his left arm and a fan with a pendant garland of rosettes in his right hand. The plinth of the stele, decorated with a white key-pattern, is so broad that the figures seem to stand upon it, but the dotted groundline below the woman shows otherwise. In the field above are a ball of wool and an ivy leaf. Added white is used for details of the rosettes, fan, ball, leaves, eggs, berries, jewelry, wreath, and stele.
A female head with a yellow-shadowed Phrygian cap, perhaps Artemis Bendis, springs from the complex foliage (scrolling tendrils and acanthus) on the shoulder of side A. Her face is white, with features in dilute glaze. She looks down to her left, her face nearly frontal. On the shoulder of side B is a complex of palmettes and tendrils. Above the chariot scene on side A, on the broad torus molding, is a frieze of rosettes, and between the two main panels is a band of marine fauna with extensive use of added white and yellow and shading with dilute glaze: two fish, three shells (horn shell, Venus clam, and scallop), and an octopus. Below, on the bulbous cul of the lower body, are rosettes on side A and a wave-pattern on side B.
The decoration of the neck is complex and differs on A and B. On A is an upper zone of yellow and white diamonds with scalloped edges, then two bands of yellow dots separated by a molded fillet; a band of rosettes; and a lower zone of white rays. The motif of scalloped diamonds goes back to the Iliupersis Painter; see RVAp, I, pl. 64, 5. On B, the rays are black, the rosettes are replaced by chevrons, the molding is framed by black bands, and the upper zone contains a black palmette. There are laurel wreaths down the outer sides of either handle. The obverse edges of the handles have white stripes; the reverse edges have black dots. A band of egg-pattern circles the molding of the rim.
Condition:
Repaired from fragments. Considerable repainting, especially on the handles, shoulder, and main figure scene with Pelops abducting Hippodameia in a chariot pulled by four prancing white horses. Much of the horses and the head of an Amazon on the shoulder is modern.
For Pelops and Hippodameia, see L. Lacroiz, BCH 100 (1976), pp. 327-341; and M. Pipili, LIMC, V, 1, pp. 434-440; V, 2, pls. 309-314. For the head and floral ornament on the shoulder, see comments on catalogue no. 21. A pair of similar loutrophoroi, one with the Rape of Chrysippos, son of Pelops, has been attributed by Trendall to the White Sakkos Painter (Sotheby's, New York, December 2, 1988, no. 107; RVAp, Suppl. II, p. 352, nos. 29/D4 and D6). The Baltimore Painter, colleague and teacher of the White Sakkos Painter, also depicted the abduction of Hippodameia, but as in most Apulian representations of the subject he included the pursuing Oinomaos; once Swiss market (RVAp, Suppl. I, p. 151, no. 27/21a).
"The immediate successor and true heir of the Baltimore Painter is the White Sakkos Painter" (Trendall, Handbook, p. 99). The influence is indeed obvious, but the White Sakkos Painter has a distinctive style all his own; note especially the moon-faced women with double chins and wisps of hair emerging from their white sakkoi at the temples. A prolific painter of both large and small vases, with a following of minor artists in his Canosan workshop, the White Sakkos Painter was one of the last major Apulian vase-painters of the Ornate style. As his name implies, he favored added color and a rich tapestry of ornament. The prancing, white chariot horses are particularly striking; compare those on the neck of the artist's volute-krater in Matera (A. Bottini, BdArch 5-6 [1990], p. 233, fig. 4), and on the neck of a volute-krater in the Getty Museum (Malibu 77. AE.14: RVAp, Suppl. I, p. 182. no. 29/C; CVA 3, pls. 136, 1 and 138, 1). The horses, too, are a legacy of the Baltimore Painter (e.g. Fiesole, Constantini collection 153 [RVAp, II, p. 871, no. 27/55, pl. 332]).
The band of fish on this vase recalls the band dividing the upper and lower registers on the painter's handleless loutrophoros in the Tampa Museum of Art (inv. 87.37: Trendall, Handbook, fig.255; RVAp, Suppl. II, p. 353, no. 29/D8, pl. 92, 3-4). The fish on the Tampa vase are by the Sansone Painter, who either collaborated with the White Sakkos Painter or was perhaps the same man. It is not clear that the fish on the Boston loutrophoros are by the Sansone Painter, and there is otherwise no reason to believe they are not by the same artist who decorated the rest of the vase.
(text from Vase-Painting in Italy, catalogue entry no. 69)
ProvenanceDecember 10, 1984, anonymous sale, Sotheby's, London, lot 366. By 1985, Royal-Athena Galleries, New York [see note 1]; 1988, sold by Royal-Athena Galleries to the MFA; [see note 2]; September 21, 2006, deaccessioned by the MFA for transfer to the Republic of Italy.
NOTES:
[1] Royal-Athena Galleries, Art of the Ancient World IV, no. 104b. [2] MFA accession date: October 26, 1988.
For further information, please see: http://www.mfa.org/collections/provenance/antiquities-and-cultural-property/italian-ministry-of-culture-agreement
NOTES:
[1] Royal-Athena Galleries, Art of the Ancient World IV, no. 104b. [2] MFA accession date: October 26, 1988.
For further information, please see: http://www.mfa.org/collections/provenance/antiquities-and-cultural-property/italian-ministry-of-culture-agreement