Gnathia Flask of the Zurich Painter 2692

Culture: Greek/Gnathia

Period: around 300 B.C.

Material: Terracotta

Dimensions: 26.2 cm high

Price: 4 000 Euro

Ref: 2481

Provenance: German private collection Sigrid Fiebig, Bad Herrenalb, Germany, acquired on 6 August 2012. With original invoice and certificate. Prior in an Austrian private collection.

Condition: Reassembled without any missing parts. One small chip on the ring foot.

Description: Large, black varnished terracotta flask with white and yellow paint. On the shoulder the finely drawn head of a woman en face, which is typical for the Zurich painter 2692. The vessel stands on a stepped profiled ring foot. Above the bulbous, grooved corpus, with a smooth encircling band in the middle. Rosettes and calyxes are painted in white on the band. On the shoulder a portrait of a woman with a necklace and her hair parted in the centre. Left and right thereof elegantly curved tendrils running all the way around to the back. The neck tapering towards the top and decorated with grapes and tongues. The small spout is surrounded by a heavily protruding rim to avoid leaking of precious liquids which the flask once held. The outside of the rim with engraved egg-and-dart motive.