Oenochoe (Apulian red-figure ware)
375 BCE-350 BCE
Medium
earthenware
Measurements
17.2 × 13.9 × 14.5 cm
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Felton Bequest, 1959
© Public Domain
Gallery location
18th Century Decorative Arts - Great Hall Costume Corridor
Level 2, NGV International
About this work
An oenochoe is a wine jug. The scene on this example depicts the contest between the satyr Marsyas and the god Apollo. Marsyas, who has picked up a flute discarded by the goddess Athena, foolishly challenges Apollo to a musical contest. Apollo stands centrestage playing his lyreto a youth, probably the judge Olympus, while Marsyas leans despondently on a pillar to the left. His nudity reminds us that his punishment for losing to Apollo is to be flayed alive. This is the ‘name vase’, or signature vase for the Felton Painter, the painter identified and named after the Felton Bequest which has supported many of the major Greek and south Italian vasesin the NGV Collection.
Artwork Details
Place/s of Execution
Apulia, Italy
Inscription
none
Accession Number
90-D5
Department
Antiquities
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of Digitisation Champion Ms Carol Grigor through Metal Manufactures Limited
Physical description
Small trefoil-lipped, single-handled jug with stout ovoid/globular body. Decorated in black glaze with a red-figure scene of the contest of Marsyas and Apollo. Marsyas stands left, naked, and leaning on a pillar. Apollo, elaborately dressed, plays the lyre centre, while the judge (or a young man) sits to the right on a pile of rocks. At each side of the scene is a dwarf. Both dwarfs appear padded and caricatured. On the neck is an egg-and-dart pattern. Below the scene is a band of meander and saltires.