Terracotta psykter (vase for cooling wine) | Oltos | All | Greek and Roman Art | Collection Database | Works of Art

Description

Around the body, hoplites(foot soldiers) mounted on dolphins

This procession of identically dressed foot soldiers seems to advance with military precision. A number of other dolphin-riding hoplites appear on vases of this period. All are accompanied by a flute player, suggesting that this scene illustrates a dramatic chorus, probably from a contemporary play. The six dolphins would have seemed to leap and dive as the psykter, filled with wine, bobbed in ice water inside a large krater. Oltos was an early red-figure painter who specialized in decorating cups and other shapes used in symposia (drinking parties).

ProvenanceBy 1961, on the art market, Geneva, Switzerland (Beazley 1961, p. 63); by 1965, collection of Norbert Schimmel; acquired October 26, 1989, gift of the Norbert Schimmel Trust.

Selected BibliographyBeazley, J. D. 1961. "An Amphora by the Berlin Painter." Antike Kunst 4: 63.

Beazley, J. D. 1963. Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters. 2nd ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, pp. 1622-23.

Greifenhagen, A. 1965. "Delphinreiter auf einem Psykter des Oltos." Pantheon 23: 1-7, figs. 1-7.

Greifenhagen, A. 1974. In Ancient Art: The Norbert Schimmel Collection, edited by O. W. Muscarella. Mainz: P. von Zabern, no. 57.

Settgast, J., et al., eds. 1978. Von Troja bis Amarna: The Norbert Schimmel Collection, New York. Mainz: P. von Zabern, no. 76.

Milleker, E. J. 1992. In "Ancient Art: Gifts from the Norbert Schimmel Collection." MMA Bulletin, n.s., 49, no. 4: 46.

Valavanis, P., and D. Kourkoumelis. 1996. Drinking Vessels. Athens: Hatzimichalis Estate, pp. 72-73.

Ambrosini, L. 1999-2000. "Ceramica falisca a figure rosse: The Satyr and Dolphin Group (Pittore di Würzburg 820) e lo schema iconografico del Dolphin Rider." Archeologia classica 51: 261, 263, fig. 24.

Steinhart, M. 2004. Die Kunst der Nachahmung: Darstellungen mimetischer Vorfuhrüngen in der griechischen Bildkunst archaischer und klassischer Zeit. Mainz: P. von Zabern, pl. 8, 2.

Picón, C. A., et al. 2007. Art of the Classical World in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 427, no. 106, ill. p. 100.

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Greek and Roman Art: All