Red Figure Knob-Handled Patera

APULIAN RED-FIGURE KNOB-HANDLED PATERA
Shape and Ornament: Flat mouth with raised outer edge, grooved foot. Each fluted handle has a knob in the center and one knob on either side. Rosettes on all six knobs. Top side of rim reserved. Exterior foot encircled by a wave pattern. All reserved areas covered with red wash. SUBJECT: The primary decoration is on the interior. A woman carrying a box in her right hand and a tympanum in her left runs left. She wears a peplos, kekryphalos, and jewelry. A floral composed of half-palmettes and volutes rises from the ground line on the left. Below the ground line, a band of egg-and-dot. In the exergue is a phiale. The central scene is bordered by concentric bands of waves, a reserved line, and a laurel wreath. On the exterior: A, Woman seated on a rock holds a mirror in her right hand and a phiale and fillet in her left. She wears a peplos, kekryphalos with stephane, necklace, double bracelets, and belt. A tympanum and fillet hang on the wall. B, An Eros flying left, who bears a phiale draped with a fillet in his right hand and a branch in his left. Palmettes flanked by floral motifs and rosettes between the two figures, below each handle. Relief contour throughout, except for dilute glaze on: lower border of woman's peplos and her tasseled sash in the tondo, wing of Eros on B. Rough circular sketch lines visible around tondo figure. Accessory colors: White: Interior, on the woman's stephane, jewelry, shoes, box, tympanum, phiale, and laurel wreath. Exterior, on Eros' wing and the dots above the phiale. Yellow: knob rosettes, woman's shoes, phiale, tympanum, and background dots. Exterior, on woman's jewelry, belt, shoes, rock, mirror, phiale, fillets, and tympanum; Eros' jewelry, wings, phiale, fillet, branch; details of palmettes and florals. -- Wisseman, Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, Plates 51, 1-2 and 52, 1.

Bohen, B. et al, From Alexander to Augustus. University of Illinois: Champaign, 1983.


Trendall, A. D. and Alexander Cambitoglou, The Red-Figured Vases of Apulia. Vol. II. Clarendon Press: Oxford, 1982. Page 849, no. 473a.

Wisseman, Sarah U. Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum. Philipp von Zabern: Mainz, 1989. Page 40, Plates 51,1-2;52,1.

Also see student paper by Harris, Gauthier, and Eshleman, 2012P.0072.