Magna Graecia, Southern Italy, Apulia, Virginia Exhibition Painter, ca. 330 to 300 BCE. A masterful Apulian red-figure amphora attributed to A.D. Trendall’s Virginia Exhibition Painter, the vase of a grand scale, presenting an elegant, sinuous form with intriguing iconography (see extended description below) and extensive decoration, all finely delineated in red-figure technique with additional fugitive white, yellow, and beige pigments. An exceptional and important work displaying superb artistry and technique. Size: 14.75" in diameter x 39" H (37.5 cm x 99.1 cm)

Virtually no ancient Greek paintings have survived the tests of time. This makes the painted compositions found on ceramic vessels like this example invaluable sources of information about ancient Greek visual art. Refined vases like this amphora were not merely utilitarian pottery, but rather works of art in their own right, highly prized throughout the classical world. Red figure pieces in particular allowed for the development of more naturalistic imagery than black figure examples. This innovative technique involved creating figures by outlining them in the natural red of the vase, making it possible for the painter to then enrich the figural forms with black lines to suggest volume, perspectival depth, and movement, bringing those silhouettes and their environs to life. Beyond this, fugitive pigments made it possible for the artist to create additional layers of interest and detail.

Side A of this amphora features a pair of warriors sheltered by an ionic naiskos, one on horseback wielding a spear, his horse's right front leg lifted to mirror his own attack gesture targeted at his opponent who counters with his weapon and shield. Above this dramatic depiction of the pair of rivals, on the shoulder of the vase, is a female bust emerging from a blossom, a signature of the Virginia Exhibition Painter as well as the elite White Sakkos Painter. The Virginia Exhibition Painter also included floral elements beneath the warriors as well as a pair of plume-like elements beside the rider's torso, perhaps elements of his helmet and/or armor. This compares to another Apulian artist's (the Ganymede Painter's) penchant for adding iconography beyond the figures under the naiskos. On the obverse is a pair of draped standing youths facing one another, perhaps mourners of whomever did not survive the rivalry depicted on Side A, one leaning upon a staff or walking stick, with a distinct maker's mark between their heads.

In addition to the figural imagery are the extensive decorative elements which are quite characteristic of the Virginia Exhibition Painter's known oeuvre. Note the ivy leaf motif beneath the rim created via fugitive white and creamy beige pigments, the black fan palmettes and white vertical rays on the neck painted just above the female bust who emerges from a blooming, foliated blossom with elaborate spiraled tendrils on the shoulder, this underscored by a tongue pattern, all in red-figure with fugitive white and yellow. Adorning the central naiskos scene are ivy leaf vines flanking the ionic columns as well as registers of dotted, scrolled, linear, and wave motifs below the scenes and continuing around the circumference of the vessel. Finally, beneath the elegant twin handles are large, double, red-figure palmettes.

A remarkable vase of the so-called Ornate Style by the Virginia Exhibition Painter of a grand scale, decorated in an elaborate manner with intriguing scenes and figures as well as a great deal of subsidiary ornament in added colors. For a comparable example at Royal Athena Galleries listed at $125,000, follow this link: http://www.masterart.com/Greek-the-Virginia-Exhibition-Painter-330-300-Apulian-large-red-figured-amphora-the-Virginia-Exhibition-Painter-PortalDefault.aspx?tabid=53&dealerID=361&objectID=502940

Trendall named this artist the Virginia Exhibition Painter, because five of his vases which came from the same tomb were first featured in an exhibition of South Italic vases at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in 1982, and a few were published in the accompanying catalogue - M. E. Mayo and K. Hamma, "The Art of South Italy: Vases from Magna Graecia" (Richmond 1982). Cf. especially the naiskos scene on p. 179. No. 73, and the woman on the shoulder of no. 76 (p. 185), the latter also a neck-amphora.

Provenance: Ex-Royal Athena Gallery, NYC, NY.

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#118744

Handles reattached. Surface wear with expected scratches, pigment losses, and mineral deposits commensurate with age. Small chip on right column of naiskos. Painting still quite vivid and impressive. TL tested confirming age. Report will accompany.