An Attic Bilingual Eye Cup (Type A), circa 520-510 B.C.
Auction Closed
February 25, 05:24 PM GMT
Estimate
20,000 - 30,000 EUR
Lot Details
Description
painted on each side of the exterior with a pair of large eyes under arching brows flanking a stylised nose, palmettes in the handle zones, and on the interior with a bearded satyr running to right and looking back, details in added red.
Diameter at rim 31.5 cm., 12⅜ in.
Elie Borowski (1919-2003), Jerusalem
Christie's, New York, Ancient Greek Vases formerly in the Private Collection of Dr. Elie Borowski, 12 June 2000, lot 71, illus.
Royal-Athena Galleries, New York, 2001
Sycomore Ancient Art, Geneva, 2012
Daniel Hourdé Collection, Paris, acquired from the above
Royal Athena Galleries, New York, Art of the Ancient World, vol. XII, January 2001, no. 192, illus.
"Bilingual" vases combine both the black- and red-figure techniques of Attic vase-painting. They form a relatively small group representing a transitional phase between the two techniques in late 6th century B.C. Athens.
The present cup fits within Class I (bilingual) of the "Standard Eye Cups" group, as defined by J. D. Beazley (Attic Red-figured Vase Painters, 2nd ed., Oxford, 1963, pp. 39-40). For another eye cup of the same class with slender diamond-shaped nose on each side, an "unusual motive" according to the author, see B. Cohen, Attic Bilingual Vases and their Painters, 1978, pp. 311 (B27) and 312, pl. 65,1-2.
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