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Lot Essay
The dynamic scene on the obverse depicts an armed Lapith battling a centaur. Note the use of added red to the centaur's body indicating blood from the spear wound. On the reverse a Lapith youth prepares to throw a rock. The battle of the Lapiths and Centaurs was a popular subject in the Greek world. As J.M. Padgett explains (The Centaur's Smile, The Human Animal in Early Greek Art, p. 17), the theme of centauromachy "came to symbolize the defeat of barbarism, in particular, the Persians."
This amphora has a colorful modern ownership history. Originally part of the collection of the Philadelphia-born railroad magnate Dillwyn Parrish, this vase was sold to the dealer Ernest Brummer at the 1928 sale of Parrish's estate. The Brummer gallery's records, now held at The Metropolitan Museum of Art (op. cit.), indicate that this vase was purchased on behalf of William Randolph Hearst. A handwritten note on Brummer's card for this object notes it had "not been taken over or paid for" by Hearst and thus became part of the gallerist's personal collection. The Beazley Archive preserves the scholar's hand-drawn study of the youth on the reverse.
This amphora has a colorful modern ownership history. Originally part of the collection of the Philadelphia-born railroad magnate Dillwyn Parrish, this vase was sold to the dealer Ernest Brummer at the 1928 sale of Parrish's estate. The Brummer gallery's records, now held at The Metropolitan Museum of Art (op. cit.), indicate that this vase was purchased on behalf of William Randolph Hearst. A handwritten note on Brummer's card for this object notes it had "not been taken over or paid for" by Hearst and thus became part of the gallerist's personal collection. The Beazley Archive preserves the scholar's hand-drawn study of the youth on the reverse.