MAGNA GRAECIA
Two set-piece frescos dominate.
In one, the god Apollo is seen trying to seduce the priestess Cassandra. Her rejection of him, according to legend, resulted in her prophecies being ignored.
The tragic consequence is told in the second painting, in which Prince Paris meets the beautiful Helen – a union Cassandra knows will doom them all in the resulting Trojan War.
MAGNA GRAECIA /ribbed NESTORIS, a GREEK CEREMONIAL VESSEL, with a use analogous to that of the AMPHORA, from APULIA in SOUTHERN ITALY, of the Gnathia technique. 300 BC GETTY Museum Collection. No. 78.AE.320.
Beginning in the 5th century BC, pottery flourished in Southern Italy. APULIA, a region characterized by its incredible artistic richness and dynamism, became an important center of production. During the fourth century, Apulian potters created pottery in a new style known as GNATHIA ware, named after the eastern Apulian town of Egnazia, where the first examples of this technique were first discovered in the 19th century, which appeared around 370/360 BC.
Gnathia vessels were traded throughout the Eastern Mediterranean and quickly gained influence throughout the region. Although they may have originated there, they were soon manufactured in many centers in southern Italy and SICILY. The technique was based on the application of additional color, mainly white, yellow and red, to enliven the surface of a black-glazed vessel. The black varnish is often decorated with painted floral motifs in red, white or yellow. Later, after 330 BC the white color dominated more.
Decorative subjects that once included love affairs, scenes from women’s lives, theatrical scenes and Dionysian motifs are now limited to tendrils of vine, ivy or laurel fruits, theatrical masks and, small human heads hares, doves and swans. While the lower half of the vessels was now often decorated with ridges.
The production and quality of Greek colonist potters working in Southern Italy increased greatly after the Peloponnesian War, when Attica’s exports fell sharply, and it was probably concentrated around Taranto, with workshops in Egnatia, Canossa and Sicily. The Greek craftsmanship of the settlers of Lower Italy in the 4th century BC. created a fusion of the Ionic (Attic) styles and the corresponding Doric (western Greek colonies), combining them with a remarkable native Italian aesthetic. The five dominant regional schools of pottery in Southern Italy were: Apulia, Sicily, Lucania or Laucania, Campania and Poseidonia (Paestum).
In the photo, the vase, which I mentioned at the beginning, with the characteristic shape produced in Southern Italy, called nestoris. From Apulia, of the Gnathia technique, 300 BC. With dimensions: 50.9 × 26.3 cm (including handles). The type of this nestorid is A, (according to the evolution of the shape of the body and the handles, there are 3 types). Neckless with flared lip and two horizontal and two upright high handles. The upright grips are decorated with tablets, here decorated by eight-pointed stars, surrounded by a dotted circle in additional white. On the shoulder there is a decoration of ivy tendrils with leaves and fruits rendered with white dots. The larger part of the lower part, about 3/4, is decorated with vertical ridges.
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Akragas. Anfora attica a figure nere del Pittore Taleides: Teseo uccide il Minotauro; intorno si trovano due coppie, con uomini nudi e armati di lancia e donne interamente vestite. Scoperto ad Agrigento e infine pervenuto al MET Museum di New York, il vaso presenta la firma di Taleides e la scritta “Klitarchos kalos” (Klitarchos bello). 540-530 a.C.
MAGNA GRAECIA 320-280. before our era of PUGLIA
Golden fibula Gold, length: 8,8 cm,
Boston Museum of Fine Arts
By: Олег Марголін: A RARE GREEK GOLD TWELFTH STATER OF TARENTUM**OR TARANTO = ΤΑΡΑΣ (GENETIVUS FORM: ΤΑΡΑΝΤΟΣ)
(CALABRIA). FROM THE TIMES OF ALEXANDER THE MOLOSSIAN 333 BC. AV TWELFTH STATER – HEMILITRA (6.5mm, 0.43 g, 7h). RADIATE HEAD OF HELIOS FACING SLIGHTLY RIGHT/ THUNDERBOLT; TARAN ABOVE,AΠOΛ BELOW . Fischer-Bossert G3b (V3/R3) = Vlasto 14 (this coin); HN Italy 906; SNG ANS 977; SNG BN 1775-6; SNG
**THE ORIGIN OF THE CITY OF TARANTO DATES FROM THE 8th CENTURY BC, WHEN IT WAS FOUNDED, AS a GREEK COLONY, KNOWN AS TARAS . TARAS GRADUALLY INCREASED ITS INFLUENCE, BECOMING A COMMERCIAL POWER AND A CITY-STATE OF MAGNA GRAECIA AND RULING OVER MANY OF THE GREEK COLONIES FOUNDED BY SPARTA IN THE 8th CENTURY BCE, AS PART OF THE EVEN OF THE OTHER GREEK
COLONIES, AS THE CORINTHIAN ONES (SYRACUSE, ETC….)
Copenhagen 833; SNG Lloyd 188; Jameson 145; McClean 596 (all from the same dies). Good VF, underlying luster, slight die wear on reverse. VERY RARE.
