Skyphos. Attica culture, Greece, ca. 480-510 BC.

Skyphos. Attica culture, Greece, ca. 480-510 BC.
Red pottery with black figures.
Restored.
Provenance: Georges Savès collection.
Measurements: 9.5 x 9.8 x 9.8 cm.

Ceramic vessel of deep body and exvasado edge, corresponding to the typology of the attic skyphos. Decorated by means of the technique of black figures, in which the silhouettes were painted in black on the reddish clay background, completed with incised details and purple applications. The scene represented in continuous frieze shows human and animal figures in dynamic attitude: armed warriors, possible mythological heroes and bovines, probably with a narrative background. The formal language is in full transition between late archaism and the beginning of the classical period, by the fluidity in the movement and the articulation of the scenes.

This piece comes from the collection of Georges Savès (1908-1985), a French numismatist and collector with a deep vocation for archaeological study. Heir to a family tradition of collecting, he devoted himself fully from the 1950s to historical and numismatic research, especially on Toulouse and Gallic coins. Throughout his life, he assembled an eclectic collection of archaeological, ethnographic and artistic pieces, enriched in 1966 with the acquisition of part of the Roger Bédiat collection. Author of specialized studies, his legacy remains a reference in the academic and patrimonial fields.