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Overview of body sherd. (©Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College)
Fragment of a Corinthian Transitional Vessel of Uncertain Shape
- Date
- Ca. 630-615 BC, Lydian
- Sardis or Museum Inv. No.
- P96.023
- Material
- Ceramic
- Object Type
- Pottery
- Pottery Shape
- Uncertain
- Pottery Ware
- Corinthian Transitional
- Pottery Attribution
- Site
- Sardis
- Sector
- HoB
- Trench
- HoB
- B-Grid Coordinates
- W5 - W10 / S115 - S118 *99.15 - 98.9
- Findspot
- found in 1965
- Description
Small wall fragment. Chest and forelegs of a feline striding to right. A long, angled incision marks the musculature of the off foreleg. The two lines used for the paw follow the contour of the glaze nicely. On the near foreleg, which is only partially preserved, a long unbroken curve separates the shoulder and chest, reversing smoothly at the top of the leg. There are traces of added red on the chest. A dot-in-circle rosette is the only filler in the field. The incision is fine and sure. Glaze: chocolate brown to black and glossy but worn, especially on the chest of the feline. Clay: hard, fine, and smooth. Yellow-buff. Munsell no. 10 YR 7/4 (very pale brown).
D. A. Amyx (private correspondence, 29 January 1986) considers it "very close to the Sphinx Painter in his Transitional phase."
- Dimensions
- P.H. 0.034; P.W. 0.041
- Comments
- Cf. Payne, NC pl. 12:8 and 9 (Leipzig no. 308); Amyx, CorVP 71, no. A-5. Both of these comparisons were pointed out to me by D. A. Amyx. For the Sphinx Painter in general, see Amyx/Lawrence, “Sphinx Painter” 387--90 with lit., an article that clarifies the distinctions between works by the Painter of Vatican 73 and those of the Sphinx Painter.
- See Also
- Bibliography
- Author
- JS