ATTRIBUTED TO THE DECHTER PAINTER, CIRCA 360-340 B.C.

Details

AN APULIAN RED-FIGURED PELIKE
ATTRIBUTED TO THE DECHTER PAINTER, CIRCA 360-340 B.C.
9 3/8 in. (23.8 cm.) high

Provenance

Antiken, Auktion XX, Galerie am Neumarkt, Zurich, 19 November 1970, lot 56.
Antiquities, Sotheby's, London, 27 March 1972, lot 148.
with Charles Ede, London, 1973 (Greek Pottery from South Italy, no. 34).
Hanita E. (1915-2019) and Aaron (1918-2000) Dechter, Los Angeles, acquired from the above; thence by descent.

Literature

J. Frel and S. Holo, South Italian Vases, Malibu, 1974, no. 5.
A.D. Trendall, "Poseidon and Amymone on an Apulian Pelike," in U. Höckmann and A. Krug, eds., Festschrift für Frank Brommer, Mainz am Rhein, 1977, p. 281, no. iii, pl. 76, 1-2.
A.D. Trendall and A. Cambitoglou, The Red-Figure Vases of Apulia, vol. 1, Oxford, 1978, p. 271, no. 70, pl. 90, 1.
A.D. Trendall and A. Cambitoglou, First Supplement to the Red-Figured Vases of Apulia, London, 1983, p. 33.
M.E. Mayo, ed., The Art of South Italy: Vases from Magna Graecia, Richmond, 1982, p. 91, no. 21.
K. Hamma, ed., The Dechter Collection of Greek Vases, San Bernardino, 1989, p. 55, no. 28.

Exhibited

Malibu, The Getty Villa, South Italian Vases, 22 May-10 August 1974.
Richmond, The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts; Tulsa, The Philbrook Art Center; The Detroit Institute of Arts, The Art of South Italy: Vases from Magna Graecia, 12 May 1982-10 April 1983.
San Bernardino and Northridge, University Art Galleries, California State University, The Dechter Collection of Greek Vases, 5 May 1989-30 March 1990.

Brought to you by

Hannah Fox Solomon Head of Department, Specialist

hsolomon@christies.com +1 212 636 2256

Lot Essay

This pelike is the name-piece of the Dechter Painter, attributed by Trendall, which takes its name from the Los Angeles collectors Hanita and Aaron Dechter. Trendall (op. cit., 1978, p. 270) remarks that the Dechter Painter’s work is related to that of the Judgement Painter and the Bendis Painter and that he is “an artist of some importance.” The defining characteristic of the artist, especially observable on the central youth on the reverse, is the distinctive manner in which one leg appears visibly beneath the drapery. Two of his pelikes, including this example, feature similarly-clad seated woman on the obverse. In both instances she is shown frontally with staring eyes and wears a sleeved chiton with fine fold lines and a piece of drapery over her lap.

Trendall (op. cit, 1978, p. 271) assigned four pelikai to the Dechter Painter, forming two sets of matched pairs. The matching pelike to the present vase is in a Naples private collection (see no. 71 in Trendall, op. cit.). The two other pelikai depict Eros, Amymone and a seated Poseidon; one of these is now in The Metropolitan Museum of Art (see no. 89 in Simon, “Amymone,” LIMC, vol. 1).

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