Apulian Gnathia Kantharos

A large ancient Apulian Greek Gnathia kantharos with ribbed body, two knotted double handles, and vine around neck in yellow paint, with white highlights and reserve band around the foot.

Apulia, Magna Graecia, South Eastern Italy.
Ca. 350 - 300 BC.
Height: 6 1/2 in. (16.6 cm).

Gnathia ware is so named as it was first found at the Apulian site of Egnathia. The black glaze ware is often decorated with applied red, white, or yellow painted floral motifs. Production probably was centered around Taras, with workshops in Egnathia, Canosa and Sicily.

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 a Japanese private collection, acquired in the 1970s; subsequently in the collection of Jerome Eisenberg, New York.

Inv#: 8434

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