Pelike Attributed to the Painter of Villa Giulia by Michael Padgett. Ancient Greece, 5th century BC. Pottery. Height 31 cm. Provenance: Private collection, Mr. L.R., France. Formed since the 1970s. Condition: Good condition. Restored from large original fragments. Without repainting, only the lines have been covered. It has a cooking failure in the lower area. Documents: Thermoluminescence test attached. Description: Pelike with an ovoid body, which opens to form a flared neck topped by a mouth with a thickened lip. It has two vertical handles in the shape of a cintra, located in the upper third of the tank, and a low circular foot with a narrow shaft and a wider base in the shape of a bull. The pelike or pélice is a variety of small amphora, with a wide base and globular body. Created in Athens at the end of the 6th century BC. and documented until IV BC, it was probably used for wine storage. The piece has been attributed by Michael Padgett to the Villa Giulia Painter, active in Athens between approximately 470 and 440 BC. Identified by Beazley in 1918 based on a piece preserved in the Villa Giulia Museum in Rome (fig. 1), he worked mainly in the red figure style, although he also made some vases decorated with the white background technique. The Painter of Villa Giulia represented serene and harmonious scenes, drawn with fine and balanced lines and starring figures of great dignity and sculptural appearance. He painted no battles, and very few scenes of athletes; He preferred the representation of youthful deities, delicate images of Dionysus' entourage and figures of muses in natural settings. He also occasionally depicted scenes of daily life (fig. 2). One of his most beautiful works is a bell krater on the front of which Hermes appears with Dionysus as a child, preserved in the British Museum (fig. 3). This pelike is decorated with the red figure technique, with reserved motifs in red varnish on a black background and details worked by incision, and presents a clear differentiation between the two faces. On the front, a symmetrical scene is built with two characters facing each other, a woman on the left and a young man on the right. He, dressed in a himation that surrounds his body and holds on his chest with his left hand, extends his right hand to offer the woman a phiale – a ritual plate for libations. She looks down at the offering, and shows her acceptance by extending her left hand, palm open and fingers spread. His right arm is extended parallel to the body, with a small circular plate in his hand. The attitude of the female figure is similar to those of the dancing figures of the Villa Giulia Painter's rhyton preserved in Athens (fig. 4). This presence of ritual vessels, in reference to votive libations, is recurrent in the Painter's production of Villa Giulia, in scenes often starring deities (fig. 5). The woman wears a long tunic, with fine parallel folds, and a cloak that covers her left shoulder and falls in front of her body, from the extended arm, in wider folds. This distinction between the tunic and mantle folds alludes to a difference in materials: a thinner fabric for the main garment and a thicker one for the outer garment. She wears her curly hair tied in a bun at the nape of her neck, and a ribbon or tape wraps her forehead in three turns. The man wears a cap-shaped headdress with a circular decoration on the forehead, from which the curly locks fall, covering the ears and the nape of the neck. Despite its simplicity, it is a dynamic scene: the man is represented in three quarters, except for the head in strict profile, orienting the body towards the woman. She, on the other hand, faces the viewer, although she turns her head towards the man. This complex yet balanced dynamism, characteristic of the Villa Giulia Painter's work, is similarly resolved on the obverse of a London pelike depicting Hera and Hebe (fig. 6). On the obverse, the same symmetrical compositional scheme is repeated with two figures, although in this case two young people are represented, one advancing an arm holding a waterskin and the other leaning on a long staff of knotty wood. Both wear a himation that wraps their body, and one of them wears a ribbon surrounding his forehead. Here the movement of bodies is less complex; Both figures appear in profile, one facing the other, with their torsos facing the viewer. Both scenes are framed, above and below, by borders of straight meanders in black on a red background. At the top of the handles, other narrower ornamental bands appear, in this case with an egg design. The rest of the surface of the glass is evenly covered by black varnish, with only the profile of the base of the foot and two fine lines that adorn the narrow neck that joins this base to the tank standing out in red. Red-figure pottery was one of the most important figurative styles of Greek pottery. It was developed in Athens around 520 BC, and was used until the 3rd century BC. It replaced the previously predominant style of black-figure pottery within a few decades. The technical basis was the same in both cases, but in the red figures the color is inverted, leaving the figures highlighted on a dark background, as if they were illuminated by a theatrical light, following a more natural scheme. Painters who worked with black figures were forced to keep the motifs well separated from each other and limit the complexity of the illustration. In contrast, the red-figure technique allowed for greater freedom. Each figure was silhouetted against a black background, allowing painters to portray anatomical details with greater accuracy and variety. The technique consisted of painting the motifs on the still wet piece, using a transparent varnish that, when fired, acquired an intense black tone. Therefore, the motifs were invisible before firing, due to which the painters had to work completely from memory, without being able to see their previous work. Once the piece was fired, the areas not covered by the varnish remained with the reddish tone of the clay, while the glazed, “painted” areas took on a dense and shiny black color. Bibliography: - BEAZLEY, J.D. Attic Red-Figured Vases in American Museums. Harvard University Press. 1918. - BEAZLEY, J.D. Attic Red-Figure Vase Painters. Vols. 1,2. Clarendon Press. 1963. - BOARDMAN, J. The History of Greek Vases: Potters, Painters, Pictures. Thames & Hudson. 2001. - Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum. Paris: Union Académique Internationale, www.cvaonline.org Parallels: Fig. 1.1 Chalice krater with dancers, Villa Giulia Painter. Athens, h. 460 BC Red figure ceramics. Museo Nazionale di Villa Giulia, Rome. Fig. 1.2 Chalice krater with dancers, Villa Giulia Painter. Athens, h. 460 BC Red figure ceramics. Museo Nazionale di Villa Giulia, Rome. Fig. 2 Hydria with domestic scene, Painter of Villa Giulia. Athens, h. 460-450 BC Red figure ceramics. Metropolitan Museum, New York, inv. 1972.11.9. Fig. 3 Bell krater with Hermes and Dionysus as a child accompanied by the nymphs, Painter of Villa Giulia. Athens, h. 470-450 BC British Museum, London, inv. 1865,0103.52. Fig. 4 Rhython with ram's head, Villa Giulia Painter. Athens, h. 460-450 BC Red figure ceramics. National Archaeological Museum of Athens, inv. 15880. Fig. 5 Bell krater with Apollo, Artemis and Leto offering libations, Villa Giulia Painter. Athens, h. 460-450 BC Red figure ceramics. Metropolitan Museum, New York, inv. 24.97.96. Fig. 6 Pelike with Zeus and Nike and Hera and Hebe, Painter of Villa Giulia. Athens, h. 460-450 BC Red figure ceramics. British Museum, London, inv. 1895,0831.1. Notes: - The piece includes authenticity certificate. - The piece includes Spanish Export License. - The seller guarantees that he acquired this piece according to all national and international laws related to the ownership of cultural property. Provenance statement seen by Catawiki. #MasterpiecesW39