A Black-figure Proto-A Cup by the Workshop of Lydos
Attic, ca. 540 B.C.
Clay
Height: 13.3 cm
Diameter: 21.2 cm (without handles)
Diameter: 8.7 cm (foot)
Price on Request
Net for Export
A rare Proto-A cup, with a deep hemispherical bowl set on a high, slender foot, comparable to those of the Little-Master cups. The handle zone is decorated on either side with a procession of hoplites advancing to the left, their spears held forward with the points raised. All the warriors wear Corinthian helmets, save one (the fifth warrior from the left, on side B). Their large round shields completely conceal the body from the neck to mid-thigh. Their shins are protected by greaves. Ghosts of shield devices (episemata), once in added white, remains visible, including a tripod and a cross. A mock inscription occupies the field between the fourth and fifth warriors on side A. Beneath each handle appears a water bird facing right. The lower part of the bowl is ornamented with a lotus chain and a band. The interior has a reserved tondo, with a central circle enclosing a dot. Reassembled from fragments; toned plaster along the break lines. A triangular lacuna in the area of the fifth warrior on side B, restored. Attributed to a close collaborator of Lydos ("In the manner of Lydos" by B. Kreuzer and P. Heesen).
PROVENANCE
Formerly priv. coll. Prof. Martin Heinrich Burckhardt (b. 1973 - d. 1997), Basel; acquired in 1980 at KAM from Münzen und Medaillen AG, Basel (see KAM fair list, 14.-22.06.1980, lot 80). With Cahn Auktionen AG, Basel, Auction 2, 21 September 2007, lot 341. Thereafter in a private collection in Switzerland. Three undated photographs of the cup appear in the Beazley Archive's photographic collection (BAPD 9029758).
NOTE
Comparable decorative scheme, albeit with the hoplites running rather than walking, appears on a fragment of a Siana cup, in Göttingen, Georg August Universität, inv. no. K340, attributed to the Camel Painter (Tiverios) / to Lydos (Beazley), BAPD 350353; and on another Siana cup, in Taranto, Museo Archeologico, inv. no. 20273, attributed to Lydos (Beazley), BAPD 310215. On proto-A cups with a high foot, and other early forms of type A cups, see especially Bloesch, FAS, p. 1–4, and F. Villard, REA 48, 1946, p. 173–176. The water bird motif beneath the handles was used by Lydos, and also by painters of proto-A cups, notably on the example in Amsterdam, Allard Pierson Museum, inv. no. 400, by the Painter of New York 06.1021.159 (Beazley), BAPD 302574; it also bears mock inscriptions.