Francesca Hickin
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Lot 73
A Greek terracotta altar
28 November 2017, 10:30 GMT
London, New Bond StreetSold for £18,750 inc. premium
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A Greek terracotta altar
Sicily, circa 550-500 B.C.
On the front a lion attacking a bull in high relief, the lion's tail wrapped around the left side, on the right side a painted winged Nike in profile depicted running towards the right, wearing a short tunic and boots, with wings spread behind, both sides framed by cornices, the lower one decorated with a painted meander and band of triangles, the upper one preserving on the right side a row of tongues and meander, two round holes at the centre of the back face, 46cm wide x 23cm deep x 26.4cm high
Sicily, circa 550-500 B.C.
On the front a lion attacking a bull in high relief, the lion's tail wrapped around the left side, on the right side a painted winged Nike in profile depicted running towards the right, wearing a short tunic and boots, with wings spread behind, both sides framed by cornices, the lower one decorated with a painted meander and band of triangles, the upper one preserving on the right side a row of tongues and meander, two round holes at the centre of the back face, 46cm wide x 23cm deep x 26.4cm high
Footnotes
Provenance:
with Galerie Archeologie Borowski, Paris, 1984.
James Stirt collection, Switzerland, acquired from the above in 1984.
Several small clay altars have been found in funerary contexts in South Italy. They are evidence of funerary rituals that seem to have spread from western Greece to Magna Graecia to finally reach Rome (E. Langlotz, The Art of Magna Graecia. Greek art in Southern Italy and Sicily, London, 1965, p. 261). A small altar from Centuripe, Sicily, is decorated with a similar scene of zoomachia, with a lion biting into the neck of a bull - see M. Bennett & A. J. Paul, with M. Iozzo, Magna Graecia. Greek Art from South Italy and Sicily, New York, 2002, p. 240. This is an ancient motif, which was introduced to Greek art from the Near East in the 7th Century B.C.. A similar fighting scene is also on the upper register of a terracotta altar in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale in Gela, Sicily, where the main register is decorated with a high relief of three goddesses (D. Booms & P. Higgs, Sicily culture and conquest, London, 2016, p. 61, fig. 40.