< PreviousUpper Paleolithic Period, Head of an Animal. H. 8 cm. Coarse-grained stone. Ca. 40000-12000 B.C.CQ11Cahn’s Quarterly 2/2017Intricate and Playful – Ornamentation in AntiquityNew Artworks Monthlyon www.cahn.chA BLACK-FIGURE NECK-AMPHORA. H. 33.5 cm. Clay. A: Quadriga, hoplites and Athena (in the Gigantom-achy?). B: Warriors in close-quarter combat. Reassem-bled from fragments, with very slight losses. A promi-nent kiln-dent on each side. On the reserved underside of the foot, a graffito: sigma-epsilon ligature. This small, well-preserved neck-amphora is a typical product of late sixth-century Athenian black-figure pottery, which was still produced in some quantities for the export market during the rising ascendancy of red-figure. In style, it has points of contact with works by the Euphiletos Painter, the Painter of Villa Giulia M 482, and the Red-Line Painter. Formerly W. Rosenbaum, Ascona, before 1984. Attic, ca. 510-500 B.C. CHF 38,000A RED-FIGURE CALYX-KRATER, ATTRIBUTED TO THE NIOBID PAINTER. H. 26 cm. Clay. This medium-sized, thick-rimmed krater with short, upturned handles, stands on a foot in two degrees with convex ring. Side A shows a warrior departing for battle: At the left edge is a woman facing right, clad in a floral chiton and himation with a fillet in her hair, holding an oinochoe in her hand. Facing her in the middle is a warrior in full armour with Attic helmet, lance and large round shield facing left, holding a phial for the parting libation in his right hand. Unusu-ally, a shield apron drapes down from the middle of the outside of his shield. The Doric column between the two figures partially obscures the phial. Behind the warrior is the bearded master of the house with cloak and sceptre, facing left. Side B shows another valedictory scene: The woman at left wearing a chiton and cloak is handing a phial to the man facing her at right, a warrior with pilos helmet leaning on a staff. Overhanging the two scenes is a moulded ledge with an encircling ovolos followed by a band of ivy in black, both finely framed, above it. Adorning the outside of the step defining the shoulder of the vessel is a frieze of double, right-facing maeanders interrupted by crossed tiles. Above the handles on either side are two palmettes leading into elaborate, volute-like coiled tendrils, some with lotus flowers. Reassembled; handle restored; foot not original; a fragment on the rim restored; surface losses refilled. Formerly private coll., Paris, before 1970. Thereafter Auction Pierre Bergé, 27 January 2009, lot 351. Thereafter Royal Athena Galleries, New York, 2010. Attic, ca. 450-440 B.C. Price on requestCQ12Cahn’s Quarterly 2/2017A FRAGMENT OF A PILASTER CAPITAL. H. 28 cm. Marble. A volute curls upwards between two acanthus leaves. Above it, a row of alternating acanthus and lanceolate leaves crowned by a Lesbian cymation. Traces of the orig-inal polychromy preserved. Lower right corner slightly worn. Formerly Coll. Marchioness of Dufferin and Ava, 1960s-1970s. Previously Coll. Julian Sands. Roman, 2nd half of 1st cent. A.D. CHF 22,000A PILLAR FRAGMENT. H. 15 cm. Limestone. Fragment of a pillar sawn up in Antiquity with a relief on two sides. On one side a coiled tendril with panicle and cupped leaves, on the other a bell flower sprouting an-other coiled tendril. Worn, with chipped edges in places. Formerly Coll. Max Hagemann, prior to 1964. Southern Italy, 2nd half of 4th cent. B.C. CHF 1,800A RED-FIGURE TREFOIL OINOCHOE. H. 18.9 cm. Clay, red and white paint. This bulbous oinochoe with trefoil mouth belongs to the group of Phlyax vases, a group of vases from Lower Italy, whose scenes can be traced back to the comic dramas of Greek theatre. Our vase shows a pot-bellied comic actor with naked upper body, breeches, mantle, conical hat and over-long, almost erect sex. The picture field is framed by a wave pattern at top and bottom and an arrow frieze on either side. Ring foot and rim slightly worn. Paint slightly chipped in places. Formerly Swiss art market, February 1983. Campanian or Apulian, 4th cent. B.C. CHF 18,500A SMALL RED-FIGURE LEKYTHOS. H. 11.8 cm. Clay. The ornamental decoration on the front of the body of the lekythos is divided into three friezes: a band of maean-der at the top, palmettes and volutes in the centre and a band of laurel at the bottom. The reverse of the lekythos is glazed black. Two concentric bands of tongues on the flat shoulder. The robust, offset foot adorned with a fine groove. Interior and exterior of mouth, exterior of handle, top and part of the side of the foot glazed black. Neck and handle reattached, neck filled with stuc-co. Glaze partially abraded. Formerly Coll. J.M. E., New York, acquired from Gallery G. Puhze, Freiburg, in Octo-ber 1984. Attic, ca. 450-425 B.C. CHF 3,000CQ13Cahn’s Quarterly 2/2017A NESTORIS (XENON GROUP). H. 16.8 cm. Clay. Bicon-ical; loop strap handles; profiled foot. Decorated with a vine motif on A and an olive branch on B; ornamental friezes. Reassembled, two fragments of lower part re-stored. Xenon Group. Formerly Estate Wladimir Rosen-baum (1894–1984), before 1984. Western Greek, Apu-lian, 3rd quarter of 4th-early 3rd cent. B.C. CHF 1,800A SMALL RED-FIGURE LEKYTHOS. H. 11.4 cm. Clay. Vessel for storing oil with slender neck, trumpet-shaped mouth, a body that broadens slightly and disc-foot (shape of the Petit Palais Type, cf. J.D. Beazley, Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters, Oxford2 1963, 675 f.). A frieze of lines on the reserved shoulder, below it, four palmettes linked by tendrils. The body of the vessel is bordered at the top by a maeander. The picture field depicts a cloaked youth to left holding the knotty staff typical of Athenian citizens in his outstretched right hand. The left arm be-low the garment is akimbo. Traces of a white fillet visi-ble in his short hair. The facial features with heavy chin are typical of the Severe Style. Minor wear to surface retouched, paint partially abraded. From the estate of a Swiss private collector; object was acquired 1987 from Fortuna, Zurich. Attic, ca. 480 B.C. CHF 2,800A RED-FIGURE JUG WITH SPOUT. H. 16 cm. Clay, black glaze. Squat, bellied body on flat base, wide neck with evert-ed rim, broad strap handle that juts over the rim and tubular spout on the shoulder. To the right of the spout, a nude satyr wearing shoes and holding a thyrsos staff in his left hand is seated on a wine amphora. He holds an offering bowl with his left hand. A stele and an open window before him. To the left of the spout, a nude satyr shouldering a thyrsos staff dances in front of a krater that stands on the ground. A suspended ivy vine and a drinking horn on the ground enliven the background. A band of ovolos around the neck, wave pattern around the rim and a frieze of lines around the base of the spout. Palmettes below the handle. Polychromy partially faded, red preliminary drawing visible. Reassembled from fragments, smaller lacunae restored. Priv. coll. Basel, acquired from Cahn Auktionen AG, Basel, Auction 1, 25.9.2006, lot 441. Lucanian, early 4th cent. B.C. CHF 38,000A FISH-PLATE. Dm 18.6 cm. Clay, white and pink paint. Flat plate on low foot with broad overhanging lip adorned by a wave band on the exterior. Four bream swimming clockwise around the centre in red-figure technique. A rosette in the central concavity. Reassem-bled out of large fragments. Formerly priv. coll. L.A. County, USA, acquired prior to 2000. Western Greek, Apulian, ca. 340-320 B.C. CHF 8,800A PILASTER WITH RELIEF DECORATION. H. 25.5 cm. Marble. All four sides of this decorative fragment of a pillar are sculpted in low relief. One of the two broader sides is adorned by a female figure, possibly a maenad, whose cloak is slung over her left shoulder and passed below her left armpit. She holds a flower in her raised left hand and wears a wreath or fillet on her head. The opposite side is decorated by a luxuriant flower arrange-ment with a lotus blossom flanked by ears of grain. Both of the narrow sides are adorned by a tendril of flowers. All four picture fields are bordered by a profiled frame. Upper part of an architectural element which may have formed the base of a candelabrum. Slightly worn. For-merly Swiss art market, February 1983. Roman, late 1st cent. B.C.-early 1st cent. A.D. CHF 22,000CQ14Cahn’s Quarterly 2/2017description of the uncanny, trumpet-like call made by the freshly hatched queen in order to seek out her rivals, and of the dramatic departure of a swarm from the hive!The texts by Virgil and Pliny bear witness to a profound interest in the bees’ life-cycle and behaviour. Doubtless, much of what was known about bees was the result of direct observation, even if the gender of the leader of a bee colony was not identified correct-ly and fanciful ideas about the non-sexual procreation of bees abounded: “This custom approved of bees may truly waken thy won-der,” Virgil notes, “that they neither delight in bodily union, nor melt away in languor of love, or bear their young by birth-throes; but straight from the leaves, from the scent-ed herbage gather their children in their mouths.” (197-201). Furthermore, it was thought that bees could be generated spon-taneously from the decaying carcass of a bull (bougonia) (Vergil, Georgics, IV, 281-314; Varro, De Re Rustica, III, 16.4; with scepti-cism, Pliny the Elder, Hist. Nat., XI, 16, 23).The ancient Romans were certainly not lack-ing in opportunities to observe the behaviour of bees, as beekeeping was widely practiced, on the one hand because bees “‘produce a substance which, because it is the sweetest of all, is acceptable to gods and men alike; for the comb comes to the altar and the honey is served at the beginning of the feast and for the second table,’” and, on the other, because honey was a profitable source of income: “‘I have heard [our friend Varro here] tell the story that he had two soldiers under him in Spain […]. They were well-off, because, though their father had left only a small villa and a bit of land certainly not larger than one iugerum, they had built an apiary en-tirely around the villa […]. These men nev-er received less than 10,000 sesterces from their honey.’” (Varro, De Re Rustica, III, 16.5, 16.10-11). Correspondingly, the Roman agricultural treatises, in which tradition the Georgics also stand, deal in depth with the techniques of beekeeping. Both Virgil and his contempo-rary Varro as well as Columella, who wrote some 100 years later, provide instructions pertaining to the choice of location, the se-Recipe from Antiquity“Aërii mellis caelestia dona”Beekeeping and honey cakes in ancient Rome“But among them all, the first rank, and our especial admiration, ought, in justice, to be accorded to bees, which alone, of all the in-sects, have been created for the benefit of man. They collect honey, that sweetest and most refined and most health-giving of juic-es. They model combs and wax that serves a thousand practical purposes, they endure toil, they construct works, they have a gov-ernment and individual enterprises and col-lective leaders, and, a thing that is the most remarkable of all, have their own code of morals (rem publicam habent, consilia pri-vatim quoque, at duces gregatim et, quod maxime mirum sit, mores habent).” (Pliny the Elder, Hist. Nat., XI, 4).The people of Antiquity were fascinated to observe a rationality and virtuousness in the behaviour of these “minute creatures” that was similar to that exercised by human be-ings, and, in fact, even excelled it. For, as Pliny goes on to explain in his Historia Nat-uralis, which he completed in ca. 77 A.D., “they recognize only the common interest (quod nihil novere nisi commune).” (XI, 4). The great poet Virgil, too, was full of admi-ration for the bees’ “small society” to which he devoted the fourth book of the Georgics (37-29 B.C.). His description of the strict di-vision of labour practiced in the hive already corresponds closely to our present state of knowledge: “Some are responsible for food and by a fixed agreement keep busy in the fields, others stay within the walls and […] suspend the clinging honey cells. Others are appointed to bring up the young, the future of the race, while others still pack the honey, the purest honey, and stuff the cells with per-fect nectar. Some [are] allotted to be sentries at the alighting boards.” (158-165). In contrast to Pliny, however, Virgil, who ex-perienced both the civil wars that marked the demise of the Roman Republic and the begin-ning of the Pax Augusta, stresses that disci-pline and order reign only as long as the bee colony has a leader: “Their king safe, all are of one mind; he lost, they break allegiance, plunder the honey-cells themselves have built, and break open the plaited combs.” (212-213). Even civil war is not unknown to the bees: “If they are gone forth to battle – for often high swelling discord rises between two kings, and at once and afar thou may-est foreknow the raging of the multitude and the hearts beating fast for war; for a note as of the hoarse brass of our Mars chides the lingerers and a cry is heard that mimics bro-ken trumpet-blasts […], they sally from the gates; high in air the armies clash and the din swells; gathering they cluster in a great ball and come tumbling down, thick as hailstones through the air.” (67-80). What a wonderful Placenta after a recipe by Cato the Elder. A VICTORY. H. 16.5 cm. Bronze. Roman, 2nd half of 1st-2nd cent. A.D. CHF 23,800. AN OIL LAMP. L. 12 cm. Bronze. Roman, 1st cent. B.C.-2nd cent. A.D. CHF 18,000. AN AMPHORISKOS. H. 15 cm. Glass. Eastern Mediterranean, 3rd-4th cent. B.C. CHF 4,500. A SMALL BOTTLE. H. 7 cm. Glass. Roman, 1st cent. A.D. CHF 2,200.By Yvonne YiuCQ15Cahn’s Quarterly 2/2017lection of melliferous plants, the construction of hives, the honey harvest and on methods to ensure the bees’ health. In De Re Rusti-ca, Columella recommends that the apiary should be built “facing the sun at midday in winter, far from the noise of men and beasts” but as close as possible to the main building, for “in beekeeping perfect honesty is neces-sary, and since this is very rare, it is better se-cured by the intervention of the master.” (IX, 5). It is also important that suitable mellifer-ous plants such as thyme, marjoram, savory, pines, holm oaks, ivy, fruit-bearing trees, and lime trees, but not yew trees which produce a bitter honey, should grow close to the apiary. (IX, 4). Furthermore, water should be readi-ly available, and “it should contain heaps of sticks and stones” to provide the bees with easy and safe access. (IX, 5). The hives (vasis alveorum) should preferentially be made from cork, fennel stalks or wood. Hives were also made from clay, dung or bricks, but Colu- mella advises not to use these materials. Up to “three rows of hives” were placed “one above the other” on a “bank made of stones built three feet high” and protected against frost and heat by a roof. (XI, 6-7). The honey is harvested a first time “when the solstice is passed and until the rising of the Dog-star”, ie. between 21 June and 28 July, and a second time before the autumn equi-nox. This honey, which the bees make from “the dew-drenched flowers of thyme and marjoram and savory” is “of the finest quali-ty”. The honey which the bees gather after the autumn equinox should be left in the hives as they “are sustained by it” during the winter months. (IX, 14). “The morning should gener-ally be chosen for the removal of the honey.” The bees are calmed by means of smoke and a part of the honeycombs are cut out. In sum-mer, “when the country still provides plenty of food,” one-fifth of the honeycombs are left in the hive; in autumn, “when the winter is already causing apprehension,” one third is left. “Old and defective honeycombs should be removed, and those which are sound-est and full of honey should be left, as also those which contain young bees, so that they may be preserved for propagating a swarm.” The still warm honeycombs are broken into pieces, thrown into a wickerwork basket or a loosely woven bag and hung up in a dark place. “Care must be taken” that those parts of the comb that contain brood are removed “for they have an ill flavour and corrupt the honey.” The honey that flows out is filled into earthenware vessels and the foam is skimmed off; it is regarded as honey of the best quality. Subsequently the combs are squeezed out to produce a second quality honey. (IX, 15).The honey sometimes found its way direct-ly onto the table, as for instance in Martial’s idealized description of country life, in which Lay out a circle of ca. 20 cm diameter with oiled bay leaves and place the solum on top of it. he praises that man happy who can “open up nets full with the spoils of the woods and countryside in front of the fire place, and […] pull in the leaping fish with trembling line, and […] take out yellow honey from a ruddy jar (flavaque de rubro promere mella cado).” (Epigrams, I, 55.7-10). Honey was also often fermented to produce honey wine (mulsum) and used to sweeten foods and cakes. In the oldest Roman agricultural treatise, which is at the same time the oldest preserved work in Latin prose, De Agri Cultura, which was written by Cato the Elder in ca. 150 B.C., there are several recipes for honey cakes, something that Varro finds quite laughable. As his friends make fun of inappropriate digressions by other authors, he chips in: “‘Why, are there not many such items in the book of the renowned Cato, which he pub-lished on the subject of agriculture, such as his recipes for placenta, for libum, and for the salting of hams?’” (I, 2.28). For us today, however, these recipes are very valuable and Columella, too, did not shy away from in-cluding many recipes in his De Re Rustica.The cake called placenta thus derided by Var-ro is frequently mentioned in Latin literature and was not only sacrificed to the gods but also eaten in non-religious contexts. It was often cut into quarters (secta quadra de pla-centa), for instance in a poem by Martial, in which he wishes that at the kalends of March, during which the Matronalia were celebrated, “there be offered to thee [ie. Venus] at thy fair altars many a quarter of parcelled cake (pla-centa).” (Epigrams, IX, 90.15-18). Indeed, the quantities given in Cato’s recipe – 26 Roman pounds, which is equivalent to almost 9 kg – suffice to make a very large cake, of which a quarter would easily make an offering wor-thy of a deity. It seems that smaller placentae were also baked, for Horace mentions a cer-tain Porcius, who made himself ridiculous by swallowing the cakes whole (ridiculus totas semel absorbere placentas). (Satires, II, 8.24-25). We cannot be certain that all placentae were made in the manner described by Cato, but it is highly likely that they were most-ly sweetened with honey. Such a placenta is mentioned by Horace, who compares himself to a priest's runaway slave who is fed up with eating honeyed placentae and craves plain bread (pane egeo iam mellitis potiore placen-tis). (Epistolae, I, 10.10-11). Cato’s placenta is composed of several lay-ers of pastry sheets and honey-cheese paste which are wrapped up in a larger sheet of pastry, placed on bay leaves and baked under- neath a clay baking cover. (De Agri Cultura, 76). The cake has a simple, mild flavour and a pleasant layered structure. In the follow-ing recipe, I have used one-eleventh of the amounts proposed by Cato.PlacentaFor the tracta (pastry sheets) knead together 60 g semolina, 120 g flour and [100 ml] wa-ter. Roll out thinly, cut into tracta and brush with oil. For the solum (outer sheet) knead together 60 g flour and [35 ml] water. Roll out thinly to form a circle. For the cheese and honey filling, use 420 g ewe’s milk cheese which should be fairly young and not sour. It can be made according to the recipe in CQ 3/2016 and used after 3-7 days ripening. Soak the cheese in water three times. Blend together with 120 g honey to form a paste.Cover the solum with tracta and spread on the cheese and honey paste. Alternate layers of tracta and paste until both are used up. End with a layer of tracta. Fold the solum over the filling. Bake at 180 °C for ca. 40 minutes. Drizzle the hot cake with honey.CQ16Cahn’s Quarterly 2/2017This magnificent Greek head is a stroke of good fortune for archaeolo-gists, art dealers, museums, and collectors alike, since it supplies us with a rare example of Classical political sculpture and the important role that it played. It owes its exceptional charisma in part to the theme, specifi-cally the god Hermes, who in addition to the fillet binding his curly hair, here sports a relatively long, carefully combed beard, clusters of curls at the temples and at the back of his head a great mass of hair spilling over the fillet along with strands from either side bound together in a braid.The quality of the sculpture is striking. There can be no doubt that this is an original Attic sculpture from the Classical Period. The fine-grained white marble could be Pentelic in origin. Dating this work is thus not dif-ficult. Clearly we are in the 5th century B.C. and right at the beginning of the High Classical Period, meaning the years 460-450 B.C. – the “severe”, box-like shape of the head an echo of the style of preceding decades. HighlightA Clear Symbol of Democracy A marble head of a herm leads straight to the heart of Classical AthensBy Martin FlasharA BEARDED HEAD OF HERMES, once part of a herm. H. 25 cm. Marble. Greek, (probably Attic), ca. 460-450 B.C. Formerly Coll. N. Koutoulakis, Geneva, 1950s-1960s. Price on requestThe question of function is of course an important one. The head must have surmounted a herm, as is evident from the neck, which is almost rectangular in cross section (with rounded edges). The same technical feature can be seen on the head of a herm in New York – from the same period, incidentally – which has a similar braid motif on the reverse and like this one is slightly under life-size (Metropol-itan Museum, inv. 1992.11.61; formerly Thétis Collection, Geneva). What political role did herms such as this one play, both in Athens and in Ancient Greece generally? Certainly an important one – that much is beyond dispute. As semi-anthropomorphic representations of deities, herms had been widespread since the Late Archaic Peri-od. The canonical herm took the form of a stone pillar with human head, arm stumps, and phallus. The herm was primarily a bound-ary-, way- or place-marker; but as an image of Hermes it could also be a cult object, often with some fertility-bestowing aspect, though above all apotropaic. In other words, it was believed to ward off evil and protect property.In the late 6th century B.C., the Tyrant Hipparchos had some 130 to 150 herms erected as way-markers to mark the distance between the polis of Athens and the individual demes. Their appearance thus co-incided with an expansion of the road network in Attica. The Altar of the Twelve Gods erected on the agora in Athens that counted as “kilometre 0”, and hence as the (conceptual) centre-point of Attica, should also be viewed in this context. And so Attic herms made the transition from a primarily sacred sphere into a political one. The concept of Athens as the centre and of Attica as the periphery was ultimately a necessary preliminary to the tribal reforms of Cleisthe-nes, which in turn smoothed the way to the democratic system. That the Hermes Agoraios, as a public deity in the centre of the polis, gained in importance during this period is thus not surprising. Once the tyrants had been deposed, the Hipparchic herms were removed and replaced by new ones representing the changed order.One of the most important consecrations of a herm on the agora in Athens was that undertaken by Cimon (and fellow strategists), who to mark a victory over the Persians in 476-475 B.C. had three herms installed following a resolution by the people's assembly. The prominent location of these deities and their reinterpretation as (personalized) victory monuments had the effect of secularizing herms; it also marked the maximum extent of the cult of the poli- tician that this young democracy could bear. The old context, the Tyrant’s visualization of the extent of his power, was thus recast as a symbolic proclamation of victory by a democratic society, making herms monuments to democracy par excellence. This interpretation is confirmed in retrospect by the profanation and mutilation of the herms one night in 415 B.C., when, in a massive attack on democracy itself, the heads of numerous herms in Athens were knocked off or otherwise vandalized. This act of desecration was followed just a few years later by an oligarchic overthrow (411 B.C.), and it is against this historical backdrop that the head of a herm at the Gallery Cahn must be viewed.Next >