13.

Provenance

–1982, Edwin A. Lipps (Pacific Palisades, California); 1982, donated to the J. Paul Getty Museum; according to Museum documentation at the time of acquisition, the krater was “from Sothey [sic] Parke Bernet, 1956,” but it has yet to be identified in any relevant sale catalogue of that year.

Shape and Ornament

Rim slightly convex on top, with a vertical overhang and a flat handle plate that extends beyond the rim at each side and is supported by two columns; ovoid body; ogee foot. Top of rim decorated with a black dotted chain of lotus buds. Palmettes on the handle plates. Overhang of the rim on A and B decorated with a double row of black dots between black lines. On neck: A, black dotted chain of lotus buds between two black lines in a reserve panel; B, black. Figural decoration on the body set in panels framed by a double row of dots between black lines at the sides, a tongue pattern on the shoulder at the junction with the neck above, and a reserved band below. Outside of foot black except at bottom. Resting surface and underside of foot reserved. Interior black.

Subject

A. Oedipus and the Sphinx. Oedipus stands frontally, looking to the right at the Sphinx. He is bearded and dressed as a traveler in a cloak tied over his right shoulder, with a petasos (traveler’s hat) hanging from his neck. He holds a spear in his right hand. The Sphinx sits in profile facing left on top of a short Ionic column. She wears a sakkos (a type of headdress). To the left of Oedipus a young companion stands frontally; he, too, is dressed as a traveler and wears a himation and a petasos. He holds two spears in his right hand. At the right stands a youth facing to the left in profile. He is dressed in a himation and holds a staff or spear in his right hand, and wears a fillet around his head.

B. Three youths in conversation. The one on the left moves left while looking back. He is dressed in a himation and holds a stick in his right hand while gesturing with the other. The youth in the middle stands in profile to the right and gestures with his right hand to the youth facing him. Both wear a himation, and the youth in the middle holds a stick in his left hand. All three have fillets around their heads.

Attribution and Date

Attributed to the Painter of London E 489 by J. R. Guy. Circa 460–450 B.C.

Dimensions and Condition

Height 38.5 cm; diam. of rim 30.5 cm (outside); diam. of rim 23.7 cm (inside); width with handles 36.1 cm; diam. of body 29.8 cm; diam. of foot 16.3 cm. Capacity to rim is 10.85 liters. Mended from fragments. Plaster used to secure the fragments on the right side of B. Encrustation in places on A as well as the interior. The vase exhibits some iron staining and structural cracks.

Technical Features

Preliminary sketch. Relief contour on A. Accessory color. Red: line around the vase beneath the reserved band; fillets.

Bibliography

Abbreviation: BAPDBeazley Archive Pottery Database. http://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk 388; Abbreviation: Moret, OedipeJ.-M. Moret, Oedipe, la Sphinx et les Thebains: Essai de mythologie iconographique. Rome, 1984, p. 169, cat. no. 35, pl. 22; I. Krauskopf, in Abbreviation: LIMCLexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae. 1981–2009, vol. 7 (1994), pt. 1, p. 6, no. 50, s.v. “Oidipous”; T. Schreiber, Athenian Vase Construction: A Potter’s Analysis (Malibu, 1999), pl. X; T. Petit, Oedipe et le chérubin: Les sphinx levantins, cypriotes et grecs comme gardiens d’immortalité (Freiburg, 2011), p. 157, fig. 150.

Comparanda

The Painter of London E 489 is a painter of column-kraters connected with the Boreas Painter and the Florence Painter. For the painter, see Abbreviation: ARV²J. D. Beazley. Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters. 2nd ed. Oxford, 1963 546–49, 1658; Abbreviation: ParalipomenaJ. D. Beazley. Paralipomena: Additions to Attic Black-Figure Vase-Painters and to Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters. Oxford, 1971 385–86; Abbreviation: Beazley Addenda²Beazley Addenda: Additional References to ABV, ARV² & Paralipomena. 2nd ed. Compiled by T. H. Carpenter with T. Mannack and M. Mendonça. Oxford, 1989 256; Abbreviation: Agora 30M. B. Moore. Attic Red-Figured and White-Ground Pottery. The Athenian Agora, vol. 30. Princeton, 1997, p. 105.

For the subject, see Abbreviation: Moret, OedipeJ.-M. Moret, Oedipe, la Sphinx et les Thebains: Essai de mythologie iconographique. Rome, 1984; I. Krauskopf, review of ibid., Göttingische gelehrte Anzeiger 239 (1987): 228–58; J.-M. Moret, “Quelques observations à propos de l’iconographie attique du mythe d’Oedipe,” in Edipo: Il teatro greco e la cultura europea, Atti del convegno internazionale, Urbino, 1–19 novembre 1982 (Rome, 1986), pp. 205–10; a series of papers in the same volume; J. Bremmer, “Oedipus and the Greek Oedipus Complex,” in Interpretations of Greek Mythology, ed. J. Bremmer (New York, 1986), pp. 41–55; E. Keuls, “The Social Position of Attic Vase Painters and the Birth of Caricature,” in Proceedings of the 3rd Symposium on Ancient Greek and Related Pottery: Copenhagen, August 31–September 4, 1987, ed. J. Christiansen and T. Melander (Copenhagen, 1988), pp. 300–303; H. Hoffmann, “The Riddle of the Sphinx: A Case Study in Athenian Immortality Symbolism,” in Classical Greece: Ancient Histories and Modern Archaeologies, ed. I. Morris (Cambridge, 1994), pp. 71–80; Krauskopf, “Oidipous” (supra); N. Kourou with M. Konvou and S. Raftopoulou, in Abbreviation: LIMCLexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae. 1981–2009, vol. 8 (1997), pt. 1, pp. 1160–61, 1164–65, s.v. “Sphinx”; Petit, Oedipe et le chérubin (supra).

On the Sphinx, see also N. M. Verdelis, “L’apparition du Sphinx dans l’art grec aux VIII^e et VII^e siècles av. J.-C.,” Abbreviation: BCHBulletin de correspondance hellénique 75 (1951): 1–37; A. Dessene, Le Sphinx: Étude iconographique, vol. 1, Des origines à la fin du second millénaire (Paris, 1957); H. Demisch, Die Sphinx (Stuttgart, 1979); P. Bosana-Kourou, “The Sphinx in Early Archaic Greek Art” (Ph.D. diss., University of Oxford, 1979); N. A. Rhyne, The Aegean Animal Style: A Study of the Lion, Griffin and Sphinx (Ann Arbor, 1982); A. Dierichs, “Ein Terrakottarelief mit Sphinx und Greif,” Studia Varia from the J. Paul Getty Museum 1 (1993): 33–54; A. K. Zacharou-Loutrari, Chiaki Sfigga: I diachroniki poreia enos topikou symbolou (Chios, 1998); C. Zivie-Coche, Sphinx: History of a Monument, trans. from French by D. Lorton (Ithaca, N.Y., 2002); L. Winkler-Horaček, “Der geflügelte Menschenlöwe (Sphinx): Ein Bildmotiv in der frühgriechischen Vasenmalerei und sein Verhältnis zu den östlichen Vorbildern,” in Abbreviation: Griechische Keramik im Kulturellen KontextGriechische Keramik im Kulturellen Kontext: Akten des Internationalen Vasen-Symposions in Kiel vom 24. bis 28.9.2001 veranstaltet durch das Archäologische Institut der Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel. Edited by B. Schmalz and M. Söldner. Münster, 2003, pp. 225–28; D. Tsiafakis, “‘Πέλωρα’: Fabulous Creatures and/or Demons of Death?” in Abbreviation: Padgett, Centaur’s SmileJ. M. Padgett, with contributions by W. A. P. Childs et al. The Centaur’s Smile: The Human Animal in Early Greek Art. Princeton, 2003, pp. 73–104.

The Sphinx is usually depicted facing right. For examples facing left, cf. a cup by the Oedipus Painter in the Vatican 16.541 (Abbreviation: ARV²J. D. Beazley. Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters. 2nd ed. Oxford, 1963 451.1, 1653–54; Abbreviation: ParalipomenaJ. D. Beazley. Paralipomena: Additions to Attic Black-Figure Vase-Painters and to Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters. Oxford, 1971 376; Abbreviation: Beazley Addenda²Beazley Addenda: Additional References to ABV, ARV² & Paralipomena. 2nd ed. Compiled by T. H. Carpenter with T. Mannack and M. Mendonça. Oxford, 1989 119; Krauskopf, “Oidipous” [supra], p. 4, no. 19); a cup by the Veii Painter in Gotha, Schlossmuseum 80 (Abbreviation: ARV²J. D. Beazley. Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters. 2nd ed. Oxford, 1963 902.36; Abbreviation: ParalipomenaJ. D. Beazley. Paralipomena: Additions to Attic Black-Figure Vase-Painters and to Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters. Oxford, 1971 429; Krauskopf, “Oidipous” [supra], p. 5, no. 39); an amphora that may be by the Barclay Painter in Oxford, Ashmolean Museum 526 (Abbreviation: ARV²J. D. Beazley. Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters. 2nd ed. Oxford, 1963 1068.5; Abbreviation: CVACorpus Vasorum Antiquorum Oxford 1 [Great Britain 3], pl. 19.5.8); a Nolan amphora by Polygnotos in Naples, Museo Archeologico Nazionale H 3131 (Abbreviation: ARV²J. D. Beazley. Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters. 2nd ed. Oxford, 1963 1031.48; Abbreviation: Moret, OedipeJ.-M. Moret, Oedipe, la Sphinx et les Thebains: Essai de mythologie iconographique. Rome, 1984, p. 176, cat. no. 96, pl. 55); a column-krater by the Agrigento Painter, once in Potenza, Coll. Barone (Abbreviation: ARV²J. D. Beazley. Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters. 2nd ed. Oxford, 1963 574.5; Abbreviation: Beazley Addenda²Beazley Addenda: Additional References to ABV, ARV² & Paralipomena. 2nd ed. Compiled by T. H. Carpenter with T. Mannack and M. Mendonça. Oxford, 1989 128; Abbreviation: Moret, OedipeJ.-M. Moret, Oedipe, la Sphinx et les Thebains: Essai de mythologie iconographique. Rome, 1984, pp. 9, 33–34, 169, cat. no. 33, fig. 4).

The Sphinx often appears seated on the top of an Ionic column. Cf. the cup by the Oedipus Painter in the Vatican 16.541 (supra). For the Sphinx seated on a column or rock, see Abbreviation: Moret, OedipeJ.-M. Moret, Oedipe, la Sphinx et les Thebains: Essai de mythologie iconographique. Rome, 1984, pp. 69–75.

The full face of the youth behind Oedipus clearly presents an expression of panic. His total frontality—body and face—also gives a sense of depth. He is very similar to Hermes as depicted on a bell-krater by the Persephone Painter in New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art 28.57.23 (Abbreviation: ARV²J. D. Beazley. Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters. 2nd ed. Oxford, 1963 1012.1; Abbreviation: ParalipomenaJ. D. Beazley. Paralipomena: Additions to Attic Black-Figure Vase-Painters and to Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters. Oxford, 1971 440; Abbreviation: Beazley Addenda²Beazley Addenda: Additional References to ABV, ARV² & Paralipomena. 2nd ed. Compiled by T. H. Carpenter with T. Mannack and M. Mendonça. Oxford, 1989 314; Abbreviation: PandoraPandora: Women in Classical Greece. Exh. cat. Walters Art Gallery. Edited by E. D. Reeder. Baltimore, 1995, pp. 289–90, cat. no. 82, entry by E. Reeder). For another youth facing frontally in the scene with Oedipus and the Sphinx, see the column-krater by the Agrigento Painter, once in Potenza, Coll. Barone (supra).

On frontal faces and frontality, see T. Banndorff, “Die Frontalität in der griechischen Flächenkunst” (Ph.D. diss., University of Vienna, 1969); A. Conrad, “The Development of the Frontal Face and the Three-Quarter View in Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painting to the End of the Fifth Century” (M.A. thesis, New York University, 1972); Y. Korshak, Frontal Faces in Attic Vase Painting of the Archaic Period (Chicago, 1987); idem, “The Three-Quarter View Face: Origins, Development and Meaning,” in Praktika tou 12ou Diethnous Synedriou Klasikēs Archaiologias, Athens, 4–10 September, 1983, vol. 2 (Athens, 1988), pp. 121–24; F. Frontisi-Ducroux, “In the Mirror of the Mask,” in Abbreviation: City of ImagesA City of Images: Iconography and Society in Ancient Greece. Edited by C. Bérard et. al. and translated from French by D. Lyons. Princeton, 1989, pp. 151–65. See also F. Frontisi-Ducroux, “Eros, Desire, and the Gaze,” in Sexuality in Ancient Art, ed. N. B. Kampen (Cambridge, 1996), pp. 85–89.