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Lot Essay
On the body of this splendid hydria, in red-figure, is a large pair of eyes framing a tall bronze tripod cauldron with lion’s paw feet and black palmettes that descend below the supports of its ring handles. The eyes have rings of added red and white in their oculi. Below each eye is a sprig of ivy with leaves in added red. The panel is framed on either side with bands of black ivy. In the predella are two pairs of confronting lions and boars in black-figure. On the shoulder, also in black-figure, is a departure scene in which a man mounts a chariot pulled by a team of four horses to the right towards a seated old man with a staff. To the left sits a similar figure in conversation with a gesticulating bearded man. Above is a band of alternating red and black tongues.
This vase is a unique masterpiece attributed to two separate painters, the Antimenes Painter for the black-figure and Psiax for the red-figure, as well as to the Potter of the Hypsis Hydria. Athenian vases decorated in both the older black-figure technique as well as the newer red-figure are known today as ‘bilingual.’ Nearly all bilingual vases are either amphorae or cups (see B. Cohen, The Colors of Clay, Special Techniques in Athenian Vases, pp. 22-23). There is only one other bilingual hydria known, now in the Antikensammlungen, Munich, which is not associated with either of the painters or the potter of the example presented here (see Beazley Archive Pottery Database no. 200054), making this the only example in private hands.
The Antimenes Painter, who takes his name from a kalos inscription on a hydria in Leiden, was one of the most talented and prolific vase-painters of the last quarter of the sixth century B.C. His work coincides with the first generation of red-figure, but he seems never to have used the new technique (see J. Boardman, Athenian Black Figure Vases, p. 109). The hydria presented here is the only bilingual vase associated with him. He painted mainly hydriae and neck-amphorae. Boar and lion pairs were a hallmark of the predelle of his hydriae, and departure scenes with a chariot and seated figures also occur with some frequency (see J. Burow, Der Antimenesmaler, pls. 11, 105, 120, 142 and 146 for related departure scenes and pls. 58, 72, 99, 106, 110, 118, 120 and 146 for boars and lions).
Psiax was an experimental and innovative bilingual painter, who signed two alabastra as painter (see J.D. Beazley, Attic Red-figure Vase-painters, p. 7, nos. 4 and 5). Beazley considered him a pupil of the Amasis Painter and the ‘brother’ of the Antimenes Painter. He painted all manner of vases, including hydriae and amphorae, as well as cups of various form, mastoids, and oinochoai. Among his innovations was the use of a coral-red ground (see his black-figured cup in St. Petersburg, the first known occurrence of coral-red gloss, on both the interior and exterior, pp. 54-55 in B. Cohen, op. cit.). The red-figure panel of this hydria can be assigned to him based on the similar treatment of a tripod on the body of a red-figured hydria attributed to Psiax in a private collection in Ticino which is positioned to the right of the wrestling Peleus and Atalante (see R. Blatter, “Peliou Athla,” in LIMC, vol. VII, no. 18, pl. 218). The eyes are also closely matched on a number of cups assigned to Psiax (see for example the cup in Cleveland, no. 60 W.G. Moon, Greek Vase Painting in Midwestern Collections).
Eyes occasionally appear on the shoulders of hydriae, including several from the workshop of the Antimenes Painter, but only rarely are they found in the framed panel on the front, sometimes in the form of ‘Eye-Sirens’, as seen on the black-figured hydria by the A.D. Painter in the British Museum (J.D. Beazley, Attic Black-figure Vase-painters, p. 335, no. 8).
The distinctive form of this hydria links it to a small group identified by Hansjörg Bloesch as the work of a potter whom he called The Potter of the Hypsis Hydria, named after the hydria in Munich signed by Hypsis as painter (H. Bloesch, “Stout and Slender in the Late Archaic Period,” in The Journal of Hellenic Studies, vol. 71, 1951, pp. 35-36).
It is remarkable that this masterpiece of Athenian vase painting somehow escaped the attention of scholars for more than 130 years, during which time it has been continuously held at Eastnor Castle, Herefordshire. According to Lady Henry Somerset, who edited a small booklet in 1889, Eastnor Castle, all the objects forming the interiors of the castle were collected by her father, John Somers Cocks, 2nd Baron (later 1st Earl) Somers, also known as The Lord Somers, who was a Member of Parliament between 1783 and 1806, and succeeded his father in 1806 in the House of Lords. He built Eastnor Castle between 1810 and 1824, following the project of then young architect Robert Smirke, who also designed the British Museum and Lowther Castle in Cumbria. In 1849 the 2nd Earl Somers, John, commissioned Augustus Pugin, the designer of the interiors of Westminster after the 1834 fire, to redecorate the Drawing Room in his signature Gothic Revival style.
In Lady Somerset's booklet the hydria is listed in the Gothic Drawing Room on 'a bookcase near the door' together with 'some Etruscan pottery very characteristic in its design'. She described it (p. 29) as “A three-handled Etruscan vase with a frieze of animals in black on a red ground.” When or where the hydria was acquired is not recorded, but somewhere in Etruria seems most likely. In the 18th century Attic vases had previously been thought to be Etruscan in origin, due to the large number of them found in Etruscan tombs (see for example J. Christie, A Disquisition upon Etruscan vases; displaying their probably connection with the shows at Eleusis…, 1806). By the time that Lady Somerset wrote her booklet, scholars had long deduced their Athenian origins, so her viewpoint regarding the hydria was not current.
This vase is a unique masterpiece attributed to two separate painters, the Antimenes Painter for the black-figure and Psiax for the red-figure, as well as to the Potter of the Hypsis Hydria. Athenian vases decorated in both the older black-figure technique as well as the newer red-figure are known today as ‘bilingual.’ Nearly all bilingual vases are either amphorae or cups (see B. Cohen, The Colors of Clay, Special Techniques in Athenian Vases, pp. 22-23). There is only one other bilingual hydria known, now in the Antikensammlungen, Munich, which is not associated with either of the painters or the potter of the example presented here (see Beazley Archive Pottery Database no. 200054), making this the only example in private hands.
The Antimenes Painter, who takes his name from a kalos inscription on a hydria in Leiden, was one of the most talented and prolific vase-painters of the last quarter of the sixth century B.C. His work coincides with the first generation of red-figure, but he seems never to have used the new technique (see J. Boardman, Athenian Black Figure Vases, p. 109). The hydria presented here is the only bilingual vase associated with him. He painted mainly hydriae and neck-amphorae. Boar and lion pairs were a hallmark of the predelle of his hydriae, and departure scenes with a chariot and seated figures also occur with some frequency (see J. Burow, Der Antimenesmaler, pls. 11, 105, 120, 142 and 146 for related departure scenes and pls. 58, 72, 99, 106, 110, 118, 120 and 146 for boars and lions).
Psiax was an experimental and innovative bilingual painter, who signed two alabastra as painter (see J.D. Beazley, Attic Red-figure Vase-painters, p. 7, nos. 4 and 5). Beazley considered him a pupil of the Amasis Painter and the ‘brother’ of the Antimenes Painter. He painted all manner of vases, including hydriae and amphorae, as well as cups of various form, mastoids, and oinochoai. Among his innovations was the use of a coral-red ground (see his black-figured cup in St. Petersburg, the first known occurrence of coral-red gloss, on both the interior and exterior, pp. 54-55 in B. Cohen, op. cit.). The red-figure panel of this hydria can be assigned to him based on the similar treatment of a tripod on the body of a red-figured hydria attributed to Psiax in a private collection in Ticino which is positioned to the right of the wrestling Peleus and Atalante (see R. Blatter, “Peliou Athla,” in LIMC, vol. VII, no. 18, pl. 218). The eyes are also closely matched on a number of cups assigned to Psiax (see for example the cup in Cleveland, no. 60 W.G. Moon, Greek Vase Painting in Midwestern Collections).
Eyes occasionally appear on the shoulders of hydriae, including several from the workshop of the Antimenes Painter, but only rarely are they found in the framed panel on the front, sometimes in the form of ‘Eye-Sirens’, as seen on the black-figured hydria by the A.D. Painter in the British Museum (J.D. Beazley, Attic Black-figure Vase-painters, p. 335, no. 8).
The distinctive form of this hydria links it to a small group identified by Hansjörg Bloesch as the work of a potter whom he called The Potter of the Hypsis Hydria, named after the hydria in Munich signed by Hypsis as painter (H. Bloesch, “Stout and Slender in the Late Archaic Period,” in The Journal of Hellenic Studies, vol. 71, 1951, pp. 35-36).
It is remarkable that this masterpiece of Athenian vase painting somehow escaped the attention of scholars for more than 130 years, during which time it has been continuously held at Eastnor Castle, Herefordshire. According to Lady Henry Somerset, who edited a small booklet in 1889, Eastnor Castle, all the objects forming the interiors of the castle were collected by her father, John Somers Cocks, 2nd Baron (later 1st Earl) Somers, also known as The Lord Somers, who was a Member of Parliament between 1783 and 1806, and succeeded his father in 1806 in the House of Lords. He built Eastnor Castle between 1810 and 1824, following the project of then young architect Robert Smirke, who also designed the British Museum and Lowther Castle in Cumbria. In 1849 the 2nd Earl Somers, John, commissioned Augustus Pugin, the designer of the interiors of Westminster after the 1834 fire, to redecorate the Drawing Room in his signature Gothic Revival style.
In Lady Somerset's booklet the hydria is listed in the Gothic Drawing Room on 'a bookcase near the door' together with 'some Etruscan pottery very characteristic in its design'. She described it (p. 29) as “A three-handled Etruscan vase with a frieze of animals in black on a red ground.” When or where the hydria was acquired is not recorded, but somewhere in Etruria seems most likely. In the 18th century Attic vases had previously been thought to be Etruscan in origin, due to the large number of them found in Etruscan tombs (see for example J. Christie, A Disquisition upon Etruscan vases; displaying their probably connection with the shows at Eleusis…, 1806). By the time that Lady Somerset wrote her booklet, scholars had long deduced their Athenian origins, so her viewpoint regarding the hydria was not current.