Pottery Phiale Decorated In The Six Technique
Attic, Late Sixth Century B.C.
With a symposium scene of four reclining couples divided by Doric columns, including a bearded man embracing a hetaira (courtesan), two symposiasts reclining to the left, a reclining woman looking towards a man playing the double-flute and a male looking towards a hetaira playing the double flute, the omphallos with bands, framed by radiating lines.
Diameter 20.3 cm
Provenance
Art market, Switzerland: Munzen und Medallien, Basel, 5 October 1963, lot 122
Dr Eli Borowski (1914-2003), Tel Aviv
Japanese Corporation, 1991-2000: Christie’s New York, 12 June 2000, lot 61
Robin Symes (1939-2023), London, 2000-02
Private collection, UK, 2002-25
Comment
Six’s technique is named after the Dutch scholar Jan Six who in 1888 first identified this distinctive group of vases which flourished briefly in Athens in the late sixth century B.C. The technique involved painting a vase black and then applying a figure or decoration in red, orange or white and then incising to reveal the colour beneath.