A frieze of slanted opposing palmettes connected by volutes below the mouth. Maeanders in alternating directions, interspersed by squares with a cross or a black central field below the pictorial zone. On the underside of the foot a black field in two concentric circles. Side A: The rescue of Theano and Antenor. The elderly couple is preceded by a girl with a plemochoe walking to right but looking back. Her long hair is loose and she wears a chiton and himation. Her girdle is adorned by three red tassels. Behind her, Antenor stands facing his wife. He leads her with his right hand whilst his left hand rests on a long staff. Theano stands in a stooped posture and, overwhelmed by pain, she presses her forehead against her propped up arm. She wears a scarf over her belted peplos. Behind her, a young woman wearing a chiton and himation and a stephane on her head, holds a ribbon painted in added red in her hands. On the far left, a bearded man with a knotted staff clasps his forehead in a gesture of lamentation. Above, in the interstice between the two women, the inscription K A V E V. Antenor’s hair and beard is structured by raised curls. Side B: Poseidon and Aithra. Aithra grasps her chiton and hastens to right, looking back at her pursuer. She holds a kalathos in her raised left hand. Her long hair is tied together at the bottom and a red ribbon is tied around her head. She wears a chiton, through which her right leg is discernible (relief lines), and a diagonal cloak. Poseidon is clothed in a chiton and himation. He holds a trident in his left hand and a fish in his right hand. His hair is adorned by a double red ribbon that is tied in a bow at the back. A graffito on the underside of the foot. Reassembled from fragments with minor restorations and fillings. Surface chipped in various places. Unique mythological representation by one of the most important masters of early red-figure vase painting. Depictions in which Theano, a Trojan priestess of Athena, can be identified unequivocally are exceptionally rare in ancient art.
PROVENANCE
Formerly Coll. Baron Gaspare Giudice, Palazzo Giudice, Agrigento (son of Giuseppe Giudice (b. 1837-d. 1920), Agrigento who started collecting in 1870). With Münzen und Medaillen AG, Basel, March 1959 (see Widmer negative no 1509); acquired in 1957 from L'Antonina auction, 7-17.01.1957, lot 425, Rome. Thereafter priv. coll. Switzerland, thence by descent in the family. Publ.: J. D. Beazley, Two vases in harrow in The Journal of Hellenic studies, vol. 36 (Cambridge 1916), p. 128 (without ill.); J. D. Beazley, Attische Vasenmaler des rotfigurigen Stils (Tübingen 1925) 72.31; J. D. Beazley, Der Kleophrades-Maler (Berlin 1933) 25, 35; J. D. Beazley, ARV (Oxford 1942) 124.41; J. D. Beazley, ARV1 (Oxford 1963) 186.48; J. D. Beazley, The Kleophrades Painter (1974) 17, no. 41; J. Boardman, "The Kleophrades Painter at Troy". in: Antike Kunst 19 (1976), no 15, p.7, pl. 2, 3-4; LIMC I (1981) 420, no. 1, pl. 326, AITHRA I 1; 813, no. 3, pl. 657, ANTENOR I 3; L. Burn - R. Glynn, Beazley Addenda (Oxford 1982) 94, 186.48; T. H. Carpenter (dir.), Beazley Addenda, 2nd edition (Oxford 1989) 188; S. Frank, Attische Kelchkratere. Eine Untersuchung zum Zusammenspiel von Gefässform und Bemalung (Frankfurt 1990) pl. 9 A-B; K. Kressirer, Das Greisenalter in der griechischen Antike. Untersuchung der Vasenbilder und Schriftquellen der archaischen und klassischen Zeit (Hamburg 2016) 873, 881, nos. 1077, 1260, BAPD 201700. Arachne, Database of the DAI, nos. 6334716; 6334772; 6334786 (images by the DAI, Section Rome, neg.-nos. 57.1419; 57.1420; 57.1421). Beazley database no 201700.
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