AN ATTIC RED-FIGURED KYLIX FRAGMENT WITH AN ATHLETE

Attributed to the Pistoxenos Painter

Circa 470 B.C.

Width 8.26 cm

Provenance

Early 20th century collection, based on a collection sticker on the reverse, reading ‘From Greek Vase c. 480 B.C. Vulci (tomb)’

Subsequently in the collection of Myra Karp (b. 1939), Seattle, Washington, acquired 1980s

An exquisite example of the artistic heights achieved by the most talented Greek painters of the Classical Period. A precious fragment from the centre of a wine cup, detailing a finely painted nude athlete, in the process of tying a kynodesmē around his penis before a competition. The clearly visible brushstrokes and raised details, all delicately and confidently applied, reveal the hand of the painter, Pistoxenos.

A young male athlete, shown in profile, with his companion’s raised arm preserved to his right. The athlete’s muscular body is rendered in thin, delicate lines of black-slip, his right arm is held across his body, and terminates in a slender hand, the thumb and forefinger of which pluck at a ribbon, detailed in red. The curls of the hair, also encircled by a thin band of red, are detailed in small dabs of paint.

SOLD