Lotrophoros wedding attributed to the Baltimore... Lot 110

Lotrophoros wedding attributed to the Baltimore painter. Magna Graecia, Apulia, ca. 320 BC. Ceramic. Provenance: private collection of the painter Lionel Perrotte (1949-2020), France. Thermoluminescence test attached. Restored from original pieces. Measurements: 87 cm (height). Other pieces by the so-called "painter of Baltimore" are kept in the National Archaeological Museum in Madrid. In one of its technical data sheets, the museum calls him "one of the best Apulian painters of the last quarter of the 4th century BC". On this occasion the artist depicts a wedding scene: a young woman rests on a rich banquette, while two courtesans offer her gifts and other objects. The back of the lotrophoros is richly decorated with vegetal ornamentation covering the mouth, neck and base of the piece. The lotrophoros is a type of vessel characterised by an elongated neck with two handles. It was used to carry water during the rituals of wedding celebrations or at funerals, where it was placed on the graves of unmarried women. The day before the wedding or on the morning of the chosen day, the bride's friends would collect water from the lutrophore to bathe her. In addition to a hygienic sense, this bath was related to the bride's break with her previous life and a boast to fertility, in the same way that water fertilises the earth. The production of these objects was particularly important in Magna Graecia. This piece comes from the region of Apulia, in southern Italy, where Daunia, now the province of Foggia, and Messapia, in the southern part of the region, are located. From 320 BC onwards Athens no longer exported pottery, and only a few vessels were produced as prizes for athletes in the Panathenaeans. Pottery from the Italic Peninsula took the place of Athenian pottery on the Mediterranean market.