An ancient Paestan Greek red-figure plate painted with a lively scene of a leopard chasing two fleeing hares; with a laurel outer band and stamped palmettes in the middle; probably by the Aphrodite Painter.
Paestum, Magna Graecia, Southern Italy.
Ca. 340 – 330 BC.
The output and quality of the Greek colonial potters working in Southern Italy increased greatly following the Peloponnesian War when Attic exports fell off sharply. South Italian Colonial Greek craftsmanship of the 4th century BC was an amalgamation of the Ionian (Athenian, Attic) conventions, and Doric (western colonial Greek) styles, with a noticeable native Italian aesthetic. The five predominant regional schools of South Italian pottery were: Apulian, Sicilian, Lucanian, Paestan, and Campanian.
Formerly in the Leo Mildenberg collection; Christie’s, London, September, 2004; subsequently, J. Eisenberg collection, New York.
$17,500