An Apulian red-figure janiform kantharos
Attributed to the Iliupersis Group, circa 375-350 B.C.
The body moulded in the form of a satyr head on one side, wearing an ivy wreath with a central rosette, with large animal ears, pronounced brows and snub nose, his thick beard finely incised, the other side moulded in the form of a maenad head, with large almond-shaped eyes, her wavy hair centrally-parted beneath a diadem decorated with wave pattern, the neck with complimentary scenes, the satyr side decorated with another satyr, depicted nude but for a fillet, seated on an overturned amphora and holding a kantharos and thyrsus, scrolling vines and a tambourine hanging in the field, the other side with a peplos-clad maenad advancing to the left, her hair bound in a sakkos, bearing a wreath and large phiale, a scrolling vine and fillet hanging in the field, bands of ovolo beneath the rim, details in added red, white and yellow, 21cm high注脚Provenance:
Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, New York, 18 June 1991, lot 161.
with Merrin Gallery, New York.
Private collection, USA, acquired from the above in June 1991.

The earliest plastic head vases were made in the workshop of the Iliupersis Painter. The Iliupersis Painter is considered to have 'produced some of the most important Apulian vases of the second quarter of the fourth century', establishing the development of the 'Ornate' style and having a 'profound influence upon all subsequent painters' (A.D. Trendall, The Red-Figured Vases of Apulia I, Oxford, 1978, p. 185).