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DEACESSIONED September 21, 2006
Two-handled vessel (nestoris)
Greek, South Italian
Classical Period
about 420–410 B.C.
Place of Manufacture: Italy, Lucania
Medium/Technique
Ceramic, Red Figure
Dimensions
Height with handles: 28.5 cm (11 1/4 in.); diameter of body: 19.4 cm (7 5/8 in.)
Credit Line
Frederick Brown Fund
Accession Number1971.49
CollectionsEurope, Ancient Greece and Rome
ClassificationsVessels
Catalogue Raisonné
Vase-Painting in Italy (MFA), no. 004.
DescriptionA: An Oscan warrior is seated on a rock at left with a pair of spears held upright in his left hand and a shield resting against his left knee. He is wearing a striped tunic, a himation, and a tall, pointed cap of spotted skin, with long flaps by the ears. With his right hand, the warrior reaches for his sword, which is proffered by a woman wearing a chiton, himation, and sphendone. The shield has a star device. Growing at the far right is a spindly tree.
B: A maenad wearing a belted chiton and sphendone runs to the left, her cloak in the raised right hand and a thyrsos in the lowered left. She looks back toward an entreating, ithyphallic satyr, who prances after her, his arms outstretched and his right leg raised.
There are laurel wreaths around the inner and outer rim. On the outer face of each vertical handle are four superimposed rows of chevrons above a single band of egg-pattern. The pictures have lateral frames of narrow reserved lines and upper frames of tongues. A single groundline of linked maeanders to right circles the lower body.
For red-figure nestorides, see K. Schauenburg, Jdl 89 (1974), pp. 137-186; and G. Schneider-Herrmann, "Red-figured Lucanian and Apulian Nestorides and their Ancestors" (Amsterdam, 1980), pp. 31-33 (text fig. 1, 1), 46, 49,59, 69, figs. 43, 43 a-b. For the rapid evolution of the shape, compare two later nestorides by the Amykos Painter: Richmond 81.71 (Trendall, LCS, Suppl. III, p. 15, no. 188a. pl. 2, 2-4 and Geddes Collection, Melbourne (LCS, Suppl. III, p. 390, no. 188b).
(text from Vase-Painting In Italy, catalogue entry no. 4)
B: A maenad wearing a belted chiton and sphendone runs to the left, her cloak in the raised right hand and a thyrsos in the lowered left. She looks back toward an entreating, ithyphallic satyr, who prances after her, his arms outstretched and his right leg raised.
There are laurel wreaths around the inner and outer rim. On the outer face of each vertical handle are four superimposed rows of chevrons above a single band of egg-pattern. The pictures have lateral frames of narrow reserved lines and upper frames of tongues. A single groundline of linked maeanders to right circles the lower body.
For red-figure nestorides, see K. Schauenburg, Jdl 89 (1974), pp. 137-186; and G. Schneider-Herrmann, "Red-figured Lucanian and Apulian Nestorides and their Ancestors" (Amsterdam, 1980), pp. 31-33 (text fig. 1, 1), 46, 49,59, 69, figs. 43, 43 a-b. For the rapid evolution of the shape, compare two later nestorides by the Amykos Painter: Richmond 81.71 (Trendall, LCS, Suppl. III, p. 15, no. 188a. pl. 2, 2-4 and Geddes Collection, Melbourne (LCS, Suppl. III, p. 390, no. 188b).
(text from Vase-Painting In Italy, catalogue entry no. 4)
Provenance1971, sold by Leo Mildenberg, Bank Leu AG, Zurich, to the MFA [see note]; September 21, 2006, deaccessioned by the MFA for transfer to the Republic of Italy.
NOTE: MFA accession date: February 10, 1971. The invoice provided by Leu, dated January 21, 1979, states that the vase was acquired from the R. Peirere collection, Madrid, in 1962.
For further information, please see: http://www.mfa.org/collections/provenance/antiquities-and-cultural-property/italian-ministry-of-culture-agreement
NOTE: MFA accession date: February 10, 1971. The invoice provided by Leu, dated January 21, 1979, states that the vase was acquired from the R. Peirere collection, Madrid, in 1962.
For further information, please see: http://www.mfa.org/collections/provenance/antiquities-and-cultural-property/italian-ministry-of-culture-agreement