Large Apulian Fish Plate of the Hippocamp Painter

Culture: Greek/Apulian

Period: Late 4th century B.C.

Material: Terracotta

Dimensions: 23.3 cm in diameter; 7.8 cm high

Price: 14 000 Euro

Ref: 2633

Provenance: From a south German private collection, acquired between 1970 and 2010.

Condition: A small, retouched chip on the rim and minor wear on the foot, otherwise intact.

Description: Fish plate with red-figure painting with details in white and yellow on a high, profiled foot ring attributed to the Hippocamp Painter. He worked during the last quarter of the 4th century B.C. in Canosa. Three large sea breams of almost identical outline are painted on the plate surface. Each one has a long, white striped dorsal fin, two also white striped pectoral fins in the front and in the back, as well as three white and two black gill stripes. The belly is painted in white. The black eyes are each framed by a white circle. One of the fish has black horizontal stripes on the body, another one vertical stripes with dotted rows and the third one two, thick, downwards tapering black stripes. The indentation in the centre of the plate, the rim and the foot with red lustre. The middle indentation is framed by a fine wavy band, inside a rosette. On the hanging rim an encircling laurel wreath. Almost identical fish depictions are on the fish plates “Hippokamp-Maler G 19 and G 20”, published in “Meeresleben und Jenseitsfahrt. Die Fischteller der Sammlung Florence Gottet”, Zurich 1998, pages 90-96. See also the fish on the plate in The J. Paul Getty Museum with the object number 83.AE.392.