The red-figured hydria (water jar) is decorated with added yellow, and white on black ground, depicting a man and a woman making offerings at a heroon. The distyle heroon contains a large scrolling plant; on the basement a row of rosettes; and on the top, a palmette. On the left is a nude male figure holding a long flowered branch and a patera; on the right stands a draped woman holding a cista and a bunch of grapes. The lip is ornamented with a wave-pattern, the neck with a myrtle-wreath with a flower in the middle. There is a meander border below the design, and a large palmette with elaborate florals at the back.

There is a similar hydria in the British Museum (acc. no. 1836,0224.163). For further discussion of the Darius and Underworld Painters, see A.D. Trendall and A. Cambitoglou, The Red-Figured Vases of Apulia, Oxford, 1978, chapter 19, p. 127-9.

£ 15,000.00