A youth, holding spears, stands beside a horse, flanked by two Scythian archers. Ex collection of Dr. J.L., Bay City, Texas, acquired from Royal-Athena Galleries in 1988.

Ca. 510 BC

H. 7 7/8 in (20 cm.)

Published: Art of the Ancient World IV, A Guide to the Collector and Investor, J. M. Eisenberg.

Similar to an oinochoe, an olpe was a jug intended to serve wine at symposia.

A note about the Michigan Painter: He was the most prolific painter of ancient greek pottery. His favorite subjects were those seen on this olpe, (atheletic youths), as well as banquets and scenes of konos, (drunken dance), and occasional mythological subjects. The Michigan painter is very close to another Attic Vase Painter of the same period, the Beaune Painter. These two painters make up Beazley's,(SIr John Beazley is the one who created the Beazley archive at the University of Oxford for the entire Greek vase production eras), Perizoma Group, so named beacuse of the perizoma (or lion cloths) worn by some athletes and revelers on their vases. A stamnos, painted by the Michigan Painter, (7 1/2 inches), sold at Bonhams Antiquities Auction for $108,000, (lot 193, Bohams London auction, 28 October 2009).

Antiquities
Ancient Greek