Harrow Painter

Painter

Neck-Amphora with Dionysus 470 BC - 460 BC

Consigned by Private Dealer, USA, to Sotheby and Co, London, 1963.
NECK-AMPHORA
THROWING, PAINTING
Red-Figure (pottery)
TERRACOTTA
Dimensions 321 x 193 mm
63.001
A small red-figure neck-amphora with Dionysus, attributed to the Harrow Painter. One side features Dionysus holding a pronged stick and kantharos, the other a cloaked youth. The neck-amphora has a two-tiered lip, the upper tier having a cyma recta shape while the lower section has a rounded profile. The neck meets the shoulder of the vase at an angle which is emphasised by a ridge. The rounded body of the vase tapers gently to a foot which has two steps; the bottom step has a torus or slightly convex shape. The strap handles have a central ridge: they pass up the side of the neck and curve around and down to the shoulder of the vase. The shape is known as "Nolan" from the town of Nola in Italy where many vases of this shape have been found. The use of a single red figure to decorate each side of the vase is typical of this shape. The outside of the vase is shiny black except for the two figures, each placed on a red ground line, and the reserved areas: the top of the lip and the outside of the bottom step of the foot. The pot has fired red on part of the lower area of the body and on the top of the foot. Black extends down to about 4 cm below the lip on the inside of the mouth of the vase. The vase has been reconstructed from many pieces and is chipped around the rim. Amphorae were used as containers, especially for wine or oil. Dionysus seemingly offers a kantharos to the draped youth on the reverse side of the vase. The figure of Dionysus is shown in profile, looking right, holding a kantharos in his right hand. A bare forked stick can be seen, apparently being held in his left hand although this is not visible. He wears a garland on his head and has a pointed beard and long hair with three ringlets. He is dressed in a chiton and himation. The sketchy internal details of drapery and anatomy are added in both dilute and relief lines. The other figure is a draped youth shown in profile facing right, one of the Harrow Painter's stock figures. His hands are covered by his cloak forming two distinct bulges just below his chin and at waist level. Some smudges of purple are evident. J.D. Beazley included this vase in the oeuvre of the Harrow Painter, a red-figure vase painter he described as "one of the minor artists of the ripe archaic period." The Harrow Painter mainly decorated column kraters and neck-amphorae and worked from around 480 until the 460s BC. His figures and drapery patterns show the influence of the Berlin Painter, exhibited on this vase by the figure of Dionysus, who appears on may of the Harrow Painter's vases, with his strong profile stance and the bold flourish of the cloak's drapery. The Harrow Painter is a lesser artist with a freer and often more careless style, as seen in the youth on the opposite side who is composed of simple and sketchy line work. His use of stock figures, such as the draped youth, and the simplistic subject matter leads to a mass-produced feeling, most evident in his later works. Neck-amphorae with the type of ridged handles seen here come from late in the Harrow Painter's career. Some under sketching is evident on both figures.
Purchased from Sotheby and Co, London, 1963.