Magna Graecia, Southern Italy, Apulia, Canosan, ca. late 4th to early 3rd century BCE. An exceedingly fine and large Canosan polychrome pottery patera with a most impressive painted decorative program featuring a large bust-length portrait of Athena/Minerva, the goddess of wisdom, poetry, commerce, the arts, weaving, and magic, bedecked in jewelry and emerging from a flower in the central roundel that is framed by a blue on white interpretation of a Greek key pattern. Occupying the surrounding wide register are several goddesses dressed in Greek fashion and riding various aquatic creatures including magnificently delineated dolphins and hippocamps. This entire iconographic program is expertly rendered in a polychrome color scheme of vibrant red, white, blue, beige, and brown hues upon a pastel pink slip ground. In addition, petite modeled heads in relief that probably depict Minerva to complement the central image flank the twin loop handles which are applied to opposite sides of the flattened rim. In a word, BREATHTAKING! One of the most remarkable examples from this ancient culture that we have ever encountered, and in such wonderful condition to boot! Size: 16" in diameter x 5.875" H (40.6 cm x 14.9 cm)

Provenance: Ex - Important LA County collection acquired from German dealer before 2000

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