Attic red-figure pelike by the Sabouroff painter.... Lot 6

Attic red-figure pelike by the Sabouroff painter. Circa 450 BC. H 19.7 cm, ø body 15.2 cm. The front depicts a seated, pensive woman with sphendone, her legs crossed and her head resting on her right arm - most likely Penelope. In front of her is a servant who wants to hand her something. Behind her is a young man in a cloak with a walking stick. Details in red. A reddish overlay on the underside. Poignant depiction! Glossy tone chipped in tiny areas, otherwise intact. Exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston from 1961 to 2002, in the meantime loaned to the Fogg Museum, Cambridge from March 11 to April 15, 1971 and again in 2002. Published in J. P. Oleson - D. Buitron, Coins and Vases of Arthur Stone Dewing (1971) no. 22; Christie's New York Auction June 9, 2011, lot 91. The pensive woman's pose is reminiscent of a depiction of Penelope waiting for her husband Odysseus. This theme was quite popular in the early Classical period, see T. Hölscher, Penelope für Persepolis - Oder: Wie man einen Krieg gegen den Erzfeind beendet, Jahrbuch des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts 126, 2011, pp. 33-76. The well-known statue in the Vatican, Galleria delle statue Inv. 754 (Hölscher op. cit. p. 38 fig. 2) or on the famous Scyphos by the Penelope painter in the National Archaeological Museum of Chiusi 63.564 (Hölscher op. cit. p. 48 fig. 14; Beazley Archive Pottery Database 216789), Odysseus' wife has covered her head, in contrast to our depiction. More similar is a Melian relief, now unfortunately lost, formerly in the Berlin antiquities collections, which is probably based on the same model as the vase painting (Hölscher op. cit. p. 47 fig. 11). On the Sabouroff painter see J. D. Beazley, Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters 2nd edition (1963) pp. 837-851. Provenance: Ex private collection Arthur Stone Dewing, Boston (1880-1971), subsequently owned by his daughter Mary Morain (d. 1999) and her husband Lloyd (d. 2010); now in private Austrian ownership.