Published Red-figured Attic Pelike with the Depiction of Penelope

Culture: Greek/Attic

Period: around 450 B.C.

Material: Terracotta

Dimensions: 15.7 cm high

Price: 28 000 Euro

Ref: 2420

Provenance: American private collection Arthur Stone Dewing (1880-1971), Boston, USA. By decent to his daughter Mary Morain (died 1999) and his son-in-law Lloyd (died 2010). Auctioned with Christie’s New York on 9 June 2011, lot 91. Exhibited in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts from 1961 to 2002. On loan also in the Fogg Museum Cambridge from 11 March to 15 April 1971, as well as in 2002.

Condition: Except for some minor wear intact.

Description: Masterly worked out pelike in the red-figured style. The front depicts a woman with a servant. The lady sits on a stool, she wears a chiton and a himation with a black hem. She has her hair pulled back with a broad filet. The right leg is crossed over her left one, and she rests her lowered head on the right arm. She seems to be lost in her thoughts. The depiction corresponds to that of Penelope’s, wife of Odysseus, from the 5th century B.C. Similar representations show a marble sculpture from Persepolis and the Attic Skyphos from Chiusi, which gave the Penelope Painter its name. The servant faces her mistress. She wears a long, pleated chiton and a sakkos over her hair. Her arms are stretched out and handing a filet to the lady. A wreath floating above the scene. The back depicts a young man with a filet and a staff. On the neck between the handles egg-dart motive. Published in: J. Oleson und D. Buitron “Coins and Vases of Arthur Stone Dewing”, Cambridge 1971, number 22. The painting style referring to the Sabouroff painter or one of his successors – the Munich painter 2363 or the Trophy painter.