Large Apulian Olpe of the Ganymede Painter with a Lid by the Armidale Painter

Culture: Greek/Apulia

Period: 340-320 B.C.

Material: Terracotta

Dimensions: 29.1 cm high

Price: 6 000 Euro

Ref: 2672

Provenance: Belgian private collection of Anne and Christophe Vaes, acquired in 1984 from Deletaille Gallery, Brussels. Recorded in an insurance document dated March 1985. In the same family collection since then.

Condition: The body is professionally reassembled from large fragments. Handle intact.

Description: Magnificent polychrome-painted olpe from the workshop of the Ganymede Painter in Apulia. On the body, surrounded by luxuriant floral ornament, appears the head of a woman shown almost in a frontal view, emerging from a blossom calyx. She turns her head slightly to the right and gazes melancholically into the distance. Her face and neck glow in thickly applied white paint. Fine ochre lines define the contours of her head and accentuate the eyes, brows, nose, and mouth. Her dense hair, parted in the middle, is likewise highlighted with delicate ochre lines, while black semicircles emphasise the fullness of the coiffure. On both sides of the head, large spiral tendrils with blossoming calyces rise dynamically. Additional tendrils encircle the body up to the handle. In between is an abundance of petals, sepals, foliage and other floral designs. Beneath the handle, decorated with a Herakles knot, a large palmette appears, ending in volutes below. The image is framed by a black wave band, with an egg-and-dart pattern on the shoulder. Around the neck runs a bold, multicoloured meander ornament. The lid of the olpe may be attributed to the Armidale Painter, who likely worked in the same workshop as the Ganymede Painter. The painting shows two female heads in profile to the left, wearing richly ornamented sakkoi, separated by palmettes. The tall knob handle is decorated with a wave band, lines, and, at the top, concentric circles and tongues. Compare this type with the very similarly decorated olpe from the workshop of the Ganymed Painter with a lid by the Armidale Painter in the Indiana University Art Museum, with the inventory number 79.9.7, and the olpe in the Antiquities Collection in Kiel, with the inventory number B 572.