Apulian Pottery - Red-Figure Ware: Barrel Loutrophoros

Inv. No.: G1.19
Provenance: Apulia
Date: c. 325 BC
Height: 1111mm
 
On loan from Graham Geddes.

A very large loutrophoros with a barrel-shaped body that is slightly concave in profile with rounded mouldings at the top and bottom. When there are no handles (as in this example) the name "barrel amphora" is sometimes used for this shape. The neck is narrow with a moulded ring about half-way along its length. It leads to a curved shoulder below and a flares into a flat mouth with an overhanging rim above. The rim has a straight edge (although the mouth as a whole has warped slightly in firing). The lower part of the body curves around to meet the stemmed foot. The stem is slightly concave in profile; it has a moulded ring at the top. The base is a thick disc with an inverted echinus profile. The vase is covered with highly ornate decoration: red-figure scenes and geometric and floral patterns with added white, yellow, red-brown and red wash. The main scenes have a funerary theme: on each side is a naiskos surrounded by mourners with offerings. The vase is in good condition.

Function:
Loutrophoroi were used as containers for water used for ritual purposes, in particular for wedding and funeral ceremonies. This vase was probably used for a funeral, perhaps for that of a young woman who died before marriage.

Manufacture:
The various sections were thrown separately on the potters’ wheel and joined together with slip as they began to harden.

Decoration:

1. The inside and top of the rim are reserved while the top edge is painted black. There is a reverse wave pattern, black upright, on the reserved outside edge of the rim. The underside of the rim is reserved. Black rays are painted on the outside surface of the flaring mouth.
2. On the upper moulding on the body there is a band of laurel with yellow/white berries enclosing four rosettes, one at the front, one at the back and one at each side. The rosettes have red petals with yellow/white edges, yellow dots and a yellow centre.
3. On the lower moulding there is a band of red rosettes on a black band with a reserved line above and below. Between the rosettes, at top and bottom, are yellow/white three dot patterns. The rosettes have yellow dots on the petals and a white/yellow centre.
4. The foot is black except for the reserved stem which is decorated with vertical black lines below the moulded ridge. On the top and bottom edges of the disc base there are reserved bands.
5. Side A: the neck has the following sequence of patterns from top to bottom: a black dotted ovolo band with added white/yellow between black lines, a large red palmette and rosettes with added white/yellow plus red side volutes, a black line, black on the moulded ridge, a black line, a black dotted ovolo band with added white/yellow between black lines, black rays on white, a black dotted ovolo band with added white/yellow between black lines.
6. On the shoulder is a frontal head (of Orpheus?) wearing a Phrygian hat. The head is tilted slightly to the left. It is white with details in yellow/brown and rises from a flower calyx. On either side are volutes and tendrils in red with added white and yellow.
7. The main scene on the body consists of a large ionic naiskos with palmette acroteria and a frontal head framed by scrolls in the pedimental space. The main architectural details are painted white with brown and yellow used for internal details (including receding ceiling beams). Inside the naiskos there are three figures painted in white with details in yellow and brown. In the centre is a draped woman wearing a crown, perhaps a bride, who is seated on a thronos with a back; her feet rest on a footstool. She glances to the right at a standing draped woman who looks left, her right hand resting on the back of the thronos and her left elbow leaning on a large (marble?) lekythos. There is a mirror at the top to the right of the second woman and a brown/yellow pilos (?) to the left. A cista rests on the ground to the left of this figure. On the left side of the naiskos is a frontal woman wearing a yellow peplos with a red-brown trim who looks right and holds a fan in her left hand. A red cloak is draped around her back and over her left arm. There is a ball at the top to the left of this figure and another to the right. The naiskos is surrounded by figures with offerings. All are red-figure depictions with frontal or three-quarter bodies and profile heads; details are painted in black or white/yellow. At the top left is a seated draped woman looking right, holding a fan in her right hand and an open box containing a white alabastron in her left hand. There is a red fillet with yellow/white details in the field in front of her. Below on the left is a standing naked man who looks right, holding a long-handled patera in his right hand and a cista with fruit and a garland in his left. He leans on a knotted white stick swathed in drapery. At the top right is a seated draped woman who looks left with her body facing right. She holds a tambourine in her left hand and a cista in her right. There is a patera in the field to the left and a fillet to the right. Below her is a woman wearing a peplos who steps to the right, a kalathos with a ball at the top in her right hand and a situla in her left. There is an alabastron in the field to the left and a plant and two phialai below. There are four seated, draped female figures below the naiskos. The body of the one on the far left faces left, but she looks right, holding a long-handled patera in her right hand. The others all look to the left although their bodies face right. The figure just to the left of centre holds a phiale with fruit in her right hand and a tambourine in her left. The woman to the right of centre has a bunch of grapes in her right hand and a cista in her left while the woman on the far right holds a phiale with fruit in her left hand and a cista in her right. White is used for jewellery and a dotted white line indicates the ground. The following objects are placed along the ground line (from left to right): an alabastron, plants, a hydria, a fillet hanging in the field, a phiale, a circle, a phiale, a plant and another phiale. A patera hangs in the field between the two central figures.
8. Side B: the sequence of patterns on the neck on Side B is similar to that on Side A except that no added white/yellow is used, the palmette is black on a red ground and the black rays on a white ground are replaced by a band of black vertical stripes on red between horizontal black lines.
9. On the shoulder there is a large red palmette with framing red volutes.
10. There is a smaller ionic naiskos with palmette acroteria on this side; inside is a seated draped female figure with a three-quarter body and a profile head, both facing left. She holds a cista in her right hand with a fillet below and a garland in her left hand. The stool she sits on has ionic volutes. Figure and stool are white with yellow/brown details. There is a ball at the top right and two three dot ornaments framing a yellow/white circle at bottom right. Below the naiskos is a woman wearing a peplos who steps to the right, looking in that direction. She holds a phiale with fruit (including a bunch of grapes) in her left hand and a cista in her right one. A cloak is draped over her left arm. There is a fillet hanging from two supports in the field to the left of her head and a phiale lies on the ground beneath the cista.

Painter:
Attributed to the White Saccos Painter. The White Saccos Painter was a follower of the most important late Apulian vase painter, the Baltimore Painter.

Bibliography:
Trendall, A. D., "An Apulian Loutrophoros Representing the Tantalidae", Greek Vases in The J. Paul Getty Museum. Occasional Papers on Antiquities, 3, Malibu, The J. Paul Getty Museum, 1985, Volume 2, 129-144 (shape: 129-133).

Trendall, A. D., Red Figure Vases of South Italy and Sicily: a Handbook, London, Thames and Hudson, 1989, 97-100.

Trendall, A. D. and A. Cambitoglou, First Supplement to the Red-Figured Vases of Apulia, University of London, Institute of Classical Studies (Bulletin Supplement No. 42), 1983, 181-188.

Trendall, A. D. and A. Cambitoglou, The Red-Figured Vases of Apulia, Oxford, Clarendon, 1982, II, 957-978.

Comparanda:
Boulter, C. G. and K. T. Luckner, Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, USA 20, Toledo 2 (1984), Plates 98-99, 100-101 and Plates 102-105 (two vases by the Baltimore Painter, each with a head [Orpheus?] wearing a Phrygian hat on the shoulder).

Jentoft-Nilsen, M. R. (and A. D. Trendall), Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, USA 26, J. Paul Getty Museum 3 (1990), Plates 160-161 (hydria by the White Saccos Painter; the bridal scene on the shoulder is like the group in the naiskos on Side A of G1.19).

Jentoft-Nilsen, M. R. (and A. D. Trendall), Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, USA 27, J. Paul Getty Museum 4 (1991), Plates 183-185 (loutrophoros by the Painter of Louvre MNB 1148; note the marble lekythos on Side B).

Mayence, F. and V. Verhoogen, Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, Belgique 2, Bruxelles 2 (1937), IV D b, Plate 5, 6 a and b (similar shape with handles).

Trendall, A. D., Red Figure Vases of South Italy and Sicily: a Handbook, London, Thames and Hudson, 1989, Fig. 255 (loutrophoros without handles by the White Saccos Painter), Fig. 257 (volute krater by the White Saccos Painter with a similar head on the neck).