Description:
A kylix showing on the tondo the image of an athlete, depicted nude; he is carrying a chlamys or cloak, which is draped over his left arm, and has a wreath in his right hand.
The exterior of the kylix is decorated on each side with two figures that are commonly called “draped” or “mantled” youths. They are wearing a himation or mantle, and the figure on the left is holding, or possibly presenting, a wreath. A floral decoration occupies the space below and around the handles, consisting of palmettes with enlarged scrolling tendrils.
The kylix was decorated in a special technique called superposed red: figures are painted in a red slip which is applied over the black painted vase. Then interior details of the illustration are incised through the red using a sharp instrument, so that the black of the surface beneath shines through.
This was the Etruscan version of an early polychrome technique developed in Greece by Attic potters, who decorated their vases with figures painted in superposed white, red or brown on a black-glazed surface. The technique developed from its earliest version of figures in added colour of plain white with incision used sparingly for inner anatomical details, to a later type that has parts of the composition incised alone and other parts depicted using a larger assortment of added colours with more detailed interior incision work (see Grossman 1991, p. 13 and note 3 on p. 25 with further literature). The technique was initiated about 530 B.C., the period when the transition from black-figure to red-figure vase painting took place. The invention of the technique has been attributed to the workshop of Nikosthenes in Athens (Grossman 1991, p. 13; Brijder 2008, p. 39), and it should be noted that most of the production of this workshop found its way to Etruria (Tsingarida 2008, p. 190).
The technique used in Attica was given the modern name “Six's technique” by J.D. Beazley in recognition of the contribution made by the Dutch scholar Jan Six van Hillegom (1857-1926), who was the first to study and write about it. He tried to determine whether certain vases belonged to the black-figure or red-figure technique, and came to the conclusion that they formed a distinct group which, in its earliest examples, resembled a type of black-figure, but then soon became an imitation of the new red-figure technique.
In Etruria the technique seems to have been developed at Vulci about 480 B.C. It has been suggested that the potter who developed it there was Arnthe Praxias, who was either a colonial Greek, or the Etruscan son of a Greek immigrant (see De Puma 2013, p. 148).
Literature:
Herman A.G. Brijder, “Six’s Technique and Etruscan Bucchero” in Kenneth Lapatin (ed.), Papers on Special Techniques in Athenian Vases. Proceedings of a Symposium Held in Connection with the Exhibition The Colors of Clay: Special Techniques in Athenian Vases at the Getty Villa, June 15-17, 2006 (Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum, 2008), p. 35-46;
Richard Daniel De Puma, Etruscan Art in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2013), p. 148;
Janet Burnett Grossman, “Six’s Technique at the Getty” in Greek Vases in the J. Paul Getty Museum, volume 5 (Occasional Papers on Antiquities, 7) (Malibu, California, J. Paul Getty Museum, 1991), p. 13-26;
J. Michael Padgett (ed.), Vase-Painting in Italy: Red-figure and Related Works in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, 1993), p. 237-238;
J. Six, “Vases Polychromes sur Fond Noir de la Période Archaique”, Gazette archéologique 13 (1888), p. 193-210 and 281-294;
Athena Tsingarida, “Color for a Market? Special Techniques and Distribution Patterns in Late Archaic and Early Classical Greece” in Kenneth Lapatin (ed.), Papers on Special Techniques in Athenian Vases. Proceedings of a Symposium Held in Connection with the Exhibition The Colors of Clay: Special Techniques in Athenian Vases at the Getty Villa, June 15-17, 2006 (Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum, 2008), p. 187-206.
Dating:
Circa mid-4th century B.C.
Size:
Diameter 24 cm, excluding the handles.
Provenance:
Private collection, acquired at auction from Christie’s London, sale of 25 October 2012, lot 236; before that Swiss private collection, acquired in 1976 from Heidi Vollmoeller, Zürich, Switzerland.
Condition:
The bowl and the handles are intact. The foot has been repaired from several fragments with over-painting along the break lines. Overall very minor surface wear, some fading to the painted decoration. A minor chip to the surface in the lower section of the drapery. Some pitting and scratches that do not detract.
Price:
€ 7,500
Stock number:
C1209