Attic Greek Black-Figure Kyathos with Dionysos and Satyr

The thinly potted kyathos, a cup-shaped ladle with one long looped handle, is decorated with a figural group of Dionysos and a satyr. The god of wine reclines on a sofa beneath a branched vine that dangles large bunches of grapes. He offers a large-handled drinking cup, a kantharos, to a naked satyr with a long equine tail approaching him in a dancing gesture. Two apotropaic eyes flank the scene, with a panther behind each eye forming a heraldic design at the handle. Besides the incision lines, the vase painter employed additional white and purple to mark the details: grapes, animal fur, the satyr’s tail, himation stripes and patterns, and beards.

Art market, prior to 1964;

Ex- Captain E. G. Spencer-Churchill, M. C. (1876 – 1964) collection, Northwick Park, Gloucestershire, England;

Christie’s London, 22 June 1965, lot 319, pl. 19;

Christie’s London, 28 April 1993, lot 6;

The Gilbert collection, Cambridge, Massachusetts, acquired in New York, 31 May 1995.

BEAZLEY J.D., Attic Black-Figure Vase-Painters, Oxford, 1956, p. 611, no. 14.;

Christie’s London, 22 June 1965, lot 319, pl. 19;

BEAZLEY J.D., Paralipomena: Additions to “Attic Black-Figure Vase-Painters” and to “Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters”, Second edition, Oxford, 1971, p. 305.;

Christie’s London, 28 April 1993, lot 6;

The Gilbert Collection: by Phoenix Ancient Art, New York, 2019, no. 97

La Biennale, Grand Palais, Paris, 11-17 September 2019;

PAD London, Berkeley Square, London, 30 September 6 – October 2019