Apulian Pottery - Xenon Ware: Kantharos

Inv. No.: 87.215
Provenance: Apulia
Date: late 4th century BC
Height: 48mm
Diameter: 79 mm (with handles)
 
Cottier Angeli Gift.

This small cylindrical cup has a tall lip with a concave profile and a flaring mouth. The base is rounded and there is a slight carination where it joins the lip. It is set on a small disc foot with a beveled profile. The slightly rounded strap handles pass from below the rim to the carination. The vase is a dull black inside and outside except for a palmette pattern painted in reddish pink over the black between the handles on each side of the vase. This type of overpainted ware is known as Xenon ware; it is an Apulian version of the Attic Saint-Valentin Group of sessile kantharoi. One large piece plus smaller chips are missing from the rim revealing orange-red clay. There is some incrustation and wear.

Function:
A drinking cup.

Manufacture:
A wheel-thrown vase with hand-made handles.

Decoration:

1. Side A: the overpainted decoration placed between the handles consists of a reddish pink palmette framed by vertical reddish pink lines.
2. Side B: same pattern as Side A.

Bibliography:
Beazley, J. D., Etruscan Vase-Painting, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1947, 218-221 ("Xenon Group").

Green, J. R., "The Xenon Group", The Art of South Italy: Vases from Magna Graecia, eds. M. E. Mayo and K. Hamma, Richmond, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 1982, 291-292.

Robinson, E. G. D., "Between Greek and Native: The Xenon Group", Greek Colonists and Native Populations: Proceedings of the First Australian Congress of Classical Archaeology, ed. J-P. Descdres, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1990, 251-265.

Comparanda:
Hayes, J. W., Greek and Italian Black-Gloss Wares and Related Wares in the Royal Ontario Museum: A Catalogue, Toronto, Royal Ontario Museum, 1984, 195 and 196 (larger examples).

Metzger, I. R. et al, Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, Schweiz 5, Svizzera 5 (1979), Tafel 13, 4-5.

Pryce, F. N., Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, Great Britain 10, British Museum 7 (1932), IV E, Plate 4, 2 a and b.

Rocco, A., Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, Italia 24, Napoli 3 (undated), IV E, Tavola 45, 9 and 11.

Rossignani, M. P., Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, Italia 46, Parma 2 (1970), IV D, Tavola 9, 9 (very similar vase).

Rückert, B., Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, Deutschland 69, Tübingen 7 (1997), Tafel 30, 1-2.

Wisseman, S. U., Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, USA 24, Illinois 1 (1989), Plate 60, 2-3 (very similar shape).