Attributed to the Baltimore Painter Greek; Apulia, Italy
About this artwork
The circular dish with knobs alongside its handles is a characteristically Apulian vessel. A patera was typically used to pour libations, but this example is unusually large. Bands of varying width containing repetitive patterns and scrolling tendrils interrupted by female heads surround a central scene depicting Hermes, the god of travelers, leading the harvest goddess Demeter and her daughter Persephone from the underworld, where the girl had been held captive by Hades. Persephone was forced to return for part of every year, and during that time Demeter’s displeasure would cause the fertile earth to turn barren. Her story symbolized the life, death, and rebirth of both crops and people.
Date
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A.D. Trendall & Alexander Cambitoglou. First Supplement to the Red-Figured Vases of Apulia. Bulletin Suppplement, no. 42 (Univ. of London: Institute of Classical studies, 1983), p. 158 (67b), plate XXX-#3.
Art Institute of Chicago, Annual Report: 1983-84 (Art Institute of Chicago, 1984), p. 47.
Art Institute of Chicago, Supplement to the Annual Report: 1983-1984 (Art Institute of Chicago, 1984), p. 9 (ill.).
School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Mosaic: March/April 1985 (Art Institute of Chicago, 1985), p. 11 (ill.).
Art Institute of Chicago, Myth and Legend in Classical Art, Gallery 101A, February 28, 1987 - August 26, 1987.
Art Institute of Chicago, Ancient Art Galleries, Gallery 155, April 20, 1994 - February 6, 2012.
Art Institute of Chicago, Of Gods and Glamour: The Mary and Michael Jaharis Galleries of Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Art, Gallery 151, November 11, 2012 - November 28, 2022.
Intercontinental Antiquity Corporation of California, by 1983 (Trendall 1983); Lincoln W. Higgie, Chicago, IL, by 1984; sold to the Art Institute, 1984.
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