Oct 25, 2021
This is, I believe, the oldest item in the Louvre’s collection to have an attributed artist; it’s certainly one of the oldest, anyway. It is attributed to the Sphinx Painter, who also has work on exhibit at the Met. It’s difficult to learn much else about this artist, since most of the discussion about them is confined to extremely scholarly articles in obscure archives or German (or both) but I like their work.
[Description: A large vase with a pouring spout and handle at the top; the body is pear-shaped, and has four horizontal “fields” divided by dark stripes. Each field contains delicate paintings of a number of animals, including birds, big cats, ungulates, pigs, and at least one sphinx, rearing back from a bird flapping its wings.]