Vase Catalog Number: Harvard 4.1908

Decoration:

Nike half runs, half flies to the left toward a low altar. Her left leg is raised, as though just coming in for a landing. Her wings are spread out to left and right, and she turns her head to the right. The wings have dotted coverts and red stripes through the primary feathers. Nike wears bracelets of added red and a diaphanous chiton with a deep overfold; the lower chiton is flecked with dots and bisected by a group of parallel folds drawn with relief lines. Over her shoulders she wears a short overmantle (diploïs, with weights on the corners and curiously stylized folds. Her long hair is tied in a queue with a small cloth bag at the tip. On her head is a stephane, from beneath which cascade ringlets drawn with dilute glaze. Like her wings, her arms are extended to either side, with an oinochoe in the left hand and a phiale in the right. She is about to pour a libation at the altar, which sits on a low block. The altar has Ionic volutes and a burn pan with horn-like projections, on which the fire, drawn with added red, is blazing fiercely.

The baseline consists of alternating black dentils framed by paired stripes. A band of egg-pattern is below the neck. The fillet is framed by reserved incisions. The side of the foot is reserved except for a broad, streaky black stripe near the base. Top of the mouth reserved; inside of mouth glazed. The rest of the vase, including the shoulder and handle, is a glossy black.

Parallels:

Nike was a favorite subject of the Berlin Painter, not only on oinochoai and small neck-amphorae, but also lekythoi; cf. the Nikai on the lekythoi Palermo V 669 and 670 (ARV2, 211, 188 and 195). For the shape and decorative scheme, as well as the treatment of Nike's legs and chiton, cf. a lekythos once in the Swiss art market (Para., 345, 201 bis). For an identical treatment of the overmantle, cf. a stamnos by a pupil of the Berlin Painter, the Providence Painter (Louvre G 370; ARV2, 639, 54). For another Nike by the painter, flying with a phiale and jug, cf. a neck-amphora formerly in the Bolla collection, Lugano (Para., 344, 52 bis). For a Nike approaching an altar, cf. Oxford 274 (ARV2, 203, 100), where the libation vessels are replaced by a kithara. This exact composition, with Nike approaching an altar with jug and phiale, was apparently not repeated by the Berlin Painter; cf. an neck-amphora in the manner of the Alkimachos Painter, Boston 95.20 (ARV2, 535, 4.

For the Berlin Painter, see J. D. Beazley, "The Master of the Berlin Amphora," JHS 31 (1911) 276-95; J. D. Beazley, "An Amphora by the Berlin Painter," AntK 4 (1961) 49-67; Beazley 1974; Kurtz 1983; and Robertson 1992, 66-83. For Nike, see A. Moustaka, A. Goulaki-Voutira, and U. Grote, in LIMC, VI, 850-904, pls. 557-606.

Collection History:

Lent by the Misses Upham.

Condition:

Neck broken and mended, with a mouth that does not belong. Otherwise in excellent condition.

Shape Description:

Lekythos: flat shoulder with sharp, slightly flaring edge; disk foot; vertical handle; fillet between foot and body.

Date Description:

Beazley called it "early" (ARV2, 211, 189), but it is clearly not earlier than 490, and the Berlin Painter started painting before 500; note also the similar treatment of the overmantle by a younger artist, the Providence Painter (see below).

Sources Used:

CVA, Fogg-Gallatin; Kurtz 1983.

Other Bibliography:

CVA, Fogg-Gallatin, 34, pl. 17, 43; Kurtz 1983, pls. 31.69 and 59b.

(Michael Padgett)