Hermonax

Background

Forming the beginning of the 'early classic' generation of vase-painters, Hermonax was a pupil of the Berlin Painter and a contemporary of the Providence Painter. Sir John Beazley attributed just over 150 vases to his hand. His work has been found all over the ancient Greek world From Marseille to Southern Russia.

Hermonax entered the Berlin Painter's workshop towards its end. As a pupil of the Berlin Painter Hermonax adopted the practice of painting large figural scenes on large vessels. His meander patterns, unlike those of his master, can be careless, as with the Providence Painter. A characteristic of his style is his depiction of the eyes with a concave bottom and a convex top.

The largest share of Hermonax' surviving work depicts Dionysiac themes.

Appraisal

As Beazley states, "Sound and able as Hermonax's work generally is, he only once shows himself a remarkable artist, and that is not on any of his signed vases, but on the Munich stamnos...with the Birth of Erichthonios - Hauser has pointed out what was modern in that vase when it was painted; how the painter rejects the old-fashioned agreements of figure, face, and dress, and turns to a new kind of simplicity and truthfulness: new in his day, and fresh still, because the artist put his own thought, his own feeling into his shapes, and that keeps them alive and green."

As the 'brother' of the Providence Painter, he is seen as less technically proficient.

Selected works

Adria, Museo Civico

fragments of a bowl B 34 • fragments of a bowl B 296 • fragments of a bowl B 785

Agrigento, Museo Archeologico Regionale

lekythos

Altenburg, Staatliches Lindenau-Museum

amphora 289 • oinochoe 297

Ancona, Museo Archeologico Nazionale

two fragments of different bowls

Argos, Archaeological Museum

bell krater C 909

Athens, Agora Museum

fragment of a loutrophoros P 15018 • hydria P 25101 • fragment of a stamnos P 25357 • fragment P 25357 A • fragment of a krater P 30017 • fragment of a bell krater P 30019 • fragment of a bowl CP 11948 • fragment of a lekythos P 30065 • fragment of a hydria P 30134 • fragments of a pelike P 8959

Athens, Acropolis Museum

fragmente of several loutrophoroi

Athens, National Archaeological Museum

fragment 2.692 • lekythos 1632

Baltimore, Walters Art Museum

amphora 48.55

Barcelona, Museo Arqueologico

lekythos 581 • fragment of a bowl 4233.6

Basel, Antikenmuseum Basel and Sammlung Ludwig

pelike BS 483 • oinochoe KA 430

Berne, Historical Museum

pelike 26454

Bologna, Museo Civico Archeologico

oinochoe 344

Boston, Museum of Fine Arts

stamnos 01.8031

Boulogne, Musée Communal

amphora 125

Bristol, City Museum

hydria H 4631

Brussels, Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts

pelike A 1579 • hydria A 3098

Bryn Mawr, Bryn Mawr College

fragment of a bowl P 199 • fragment of a bowl P 209 • fragment of a bowl P 989

Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University, Arthur M. Sackler Museum

fragment of a bowl 1995.18.42

Catania, Museo Civico

hydria 706

Chicago, University of Chicago

pelike 171

Christchurch, University of Canterbury

amphora

Cologne, Cologne University

amphora 308

Columbia, Missouri, Museum of Art & Archeology

amphora 83.187

Corinth, Archaeological Museum

fragment of a krater C 66.40

Dresden, Albertinum

fragment of a bowl

Ferrara, Museo Nazionale di Spina

oinochoe 2461 • oinochoe B 31.5.1958 • lekanis T0 • oinochoe T 216 CVP • oinochoe T 607 • oinochoe T 897

Florence, Museo Archeologico Etrusco

fragment of a stamnos 14B5 • fragment 14B53 • stamnos 3995 • fragment of a stamnos PD 421

Gela, Museo Archeologico

lekythos N 115

Glasgow, Museum & Art Gallery

pelike 1883.32A

Gotha, Schlossmuseum

amphora 50

Göttingen, Georg-August-Universität

fragment of a bowl H 74

Hartford, Wadsworth Atheneum

lekythos 1930.184

Heidelberg, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität

fragment of a stamnos 170 • pelike 171 • fragment of a lekythos 172 • fragment of a bowl 173

Innsbruck, University

fragment of a bowl II.12.66 • fragment of a bowl II.12.67

Istanbul, Archaeology Museum

kfragment A 33.2322 • fragment of a bowl A 33.2350

Karlsruhe, Badisches Landesmuseum

fragment of a bowl 69.35C • two fragments of a bowl 86.360 A-B • fragment of a bowl 69.35 C

Kassel, Museum Schloß Wilhelmshöhe

amphora T 696

London, British Museum

amphora E 312 • pelike E 371 • pelike P 374 • stamnos E 445

London, Victoria & Albert Museum

hydria 4816.1858

Los Angeles, County Museum of Art

pelike A 5933.50.41

Madrid, Museo Arqueológico Nacional

amphora 11098 • amphora L 172

Mainz, Johannes Gutenberg Universität

fragment of a pelike (?) 144

Manchester, City Art Gallery & Museum

pelike III.I.41

Mannheim, Reiss-Museum

stamnos 59

Marseilles, Musee Borely

stamnos 1630 • pelike 3592 • pelike 7023

Melfi, Museo Nazionale del Melfese

amphora (loan)

Metaponto, Museo Civico

amphora 20113

Montreal, Museum of Fine Arts

fragment of a bowl RS 470

Moscow, Pushkin Museum

amphora 601 • amphora 1071

Munich, Glyptothek and Antikensammlung

stamnos 2413 • lekythos 2477 • lekythos 2478

Münster, Archaeological Museum of Münster University

lekythos 668

Naples, Museo Archeologico Nazionale

amphora 81481 • amphora H 3385 • pelike SP 2028

Naples, Palazzo di San Nicandro (Museo Mustilli)

pelike

New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art

lekythos 26.60.77 • lekythos 41.162.19 • bowl 1972.70.2 • fragment of a bowl 1972.257 • fragment of a bowl 1973.175.4A-B

Norwich, Castle Museum

amphora 36.96

Orvieto, Museo Civico (Collezione Faina)

bowl 43 • lekythos 66 A

Oxford, Ashmolean Museum

amphora 1966.500

Paestum, Museo Archeologico Nazionale

oinochoe 57799

Palermo, Collezione Collisani

amphora R 33

Palermo, Museo Archeologico Regionale

lekythos 1445 • lekythos V 672

Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Cabinet des Médailles

lekythos 489

Paris, Musée National du Louvre

pelike CP 10765 • fragment of a pelike CP 10766 • bowl CP 10955 • fragment of a pelike CP 11060 • fragment CP 11061 • fragment of a pelike CP 11064 • fragment of a stamnos CP 11065 • fragment of a stamnos CP 11067 • fragment CP 11068 • fragment of a bowl CP 11944 • fragment of a bowl CP 11945 • fragment of a bowl CP 11946 • fragment of a bowl CP 11947 • fragment of a bowl CP 11948 • fragment of a bowl CP 11949 • fragment of a bowl CP 11950 • fragment of a bowl CP 11951 • fragment of a bowl CP 11952 • fragment of a bowl CP 11953 • fragment of a bowl CP 11954 • bowl G 268 • stamnos G 336 • pelike G 374 • amphora G 376 • stamnos 413 • stamnos G 416 • pelike G 546 • oinochoe G 573

Rhodes, Archaeological Museum

hydria 12884

Rome, Museo Nazionale di Villa Giulia

stamnos 5241 • pelike (Beazley Nr. 33) • pelike 50459

Samothrace, Archaeological Museum

fragment of a bell krater

St. Louis, St. Louis Art Museum

amphora WU 3271 [1]

San Simeon, Hearst Corporation

amphora 12359

St. Petersburg, Eremitage

amphora 696 • pelike 727 • stamnos 804 • stamnos 2070 • stamnos 4121 • fragment of a stamnos NB 6463 • amphora ST 1461 • amphora 1672 • amphora ST 1692 • stamnos ST 1694

Sarajevo, Zemaljski muzej Bosne i Hercegovine

fragment of a hydria 31 • loutrophoros 389 • fragment of a loutrophoros 425 • fragment of a loutrophoros 426

Stockholm, Medelhavsmuseum

bowl G2334

Syracuse, Archaeological Museum

lekythos 24552

Tampa, Tampa Museum of Art

kylix 86.89

Trieste, Museo Storia ed Arte

stamnos S 424

Tübingen, Eberhard-Karls-Universität

fragment of a bowl E 43 • fragment of a loutrophoros E 90 • fragment of a loutrophoros E 99 • fragment of a pelike S101583

Vatican City, Museo Gregoriano Etrusco Vaticano

stamnos 16526

Warsaw, Muzeum Narodowe

amphora

Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum

pelike 336 • pelike 1095 • pelike IV 3728

Vienna, Vienna University

fragment of a bowl 503.50 • fragment

Wiesbaden, Landesamt

amphora

Würzburg, Martin von Wagner Museum

amphora L 504 [2]

Zürich, Zurich University

fragment of a stamnos 3550 • bowl L 95