skyphos; Greece, 4th century BC. Black pottery with red

Skyphos; Greece, 4th century BC.
Black pottery with red figures.
Provenance: Collection of Molly Alexander (née Rendell) and her husband Richard Alexander, ancituariuos in Brighton in the 1960s.
Richard worked after World War II as an archaeological expert for Spink and Son in London.
In his private collection until 1970's and in inheritance to his nephew.
Measurements: 13,3 cm x 5,5 cm.
Skyphos from the Greek pottery workshops, dated to the 4th century BC. The piece is almost entirely decorated. The body is decorated using the red-figure technique, with a female face on the front, flanked by large palmettes. This type of decoration, based on the profile of a woman's face, is known as 'beuty lady', a type of ornamentation that was very common in the decoration of Greek ceramics. As for the typology of the piece, the skyphos is a deep wine cup, with two handles and a low, wide base, or without a base. The handles may be small and horizontal, projecting from the rim (in Corinthian and Athenian forms), or they may be loop-shaped, placed on the rim or protruding from the base.
The piece is decorated with the red-figure ware technique, which was one of the most important figurative styles in Greek ceramics. It was developed in Athens around 530 BC, and was used until the 3rd century BC. It replaced the previous predominant style of black-figure ware within a few decades. The technical basis was the same in both cases, but in the red figures the colouring is inverted, with the figures highlighted against a dark background, as if illuminated by a theatrical light, following a more natural scheme. Painters working with black figures were forced to keep the motifs well separated from each other and to limit the complexity of the illustration. The red-figure technique, on the other hand, allowed greater freedom. Each figure was silhouetted against a black background, allowing painters to portray anatomical details with greater accuracy and variety. Over time these decorations became more complex, incorporating numerous details in both black and white, which enhanced the narrative and decorative sense of the depictions. It is the shape that gives us the typology to which this ancient Greek pottery belongs. The skyphos is a deep wine cup with two handles and a low, wide base, or without a base. The handles may be small and horizontal, projecting from the rim (in Corinthian and Athenian forms), or they may be loop-shaped, placed on the rim or projecting from the base.