Hermonax Explained

Hermonax was a Greek vase painter working in the red-figure style. He painted between c. 470 and 440 BC in Athens. Ten vases signed with the phrase "Hermonax has painted it" survive, mainly stamnoi and lekythoi. He is generally a painter of large pots, though some cups survive.

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

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

lekythos

amphora 289 • oinochoe 297

two fragments of different bowls

bell krater C 909

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

fragments of several loutrophoroi

fragment 2.692 • lekythos 1632

amphora 48.55

lekythos 581 • fragment of a bowl 4233.6

pelike BS 483 • oinochoe KA 430

pelike 26454

oinochoe 344

stamnos 01.8031

amphora 125

hydria H 4631

pelike A 1579 • hydria A 3098

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

fragment of a bowl 1995.18.42

hydria 706

pelike 171

amphora

amphora 308

amphora 83.187

fragment of a krater C 66.40

fragment of a bowl

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

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

lekythos N 115

pelike 1883.32A

amphora 50

fragment of a bowl H 74

lekythos 1930.184

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

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

fragment A 33.2322 • fragment of a bowl A 33.2350

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

amphora T 696

neck amphora S 8176

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

hydria 4816.1858

pelike A 5933.50.41

amphora 11098 • amphora L 172

fragment of a pelike (?) 144

pelike III.I.41

stamnos 59

stamnos 1630 • pelike 3592 • pelike 7023

amphora (loan → Metaponto)

amphora 20113

fragment of a bowl RS 470

amphora 601 • amphora 1071

stamnos 2413 • lekythos 2477 • lekythos 2478

lekythos 668

amphora 81481 • amphora H 3385 • pelike SP 2028

pelike

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

amphora 36.96

bowl 43 • lekythos 66 A

amphora 1966.500

oinochoe 57799

amphora R 33

lekythos 1445 • lekythos V 672

lekythos 489

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

hydria 12884

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

fragment of a bell krater

amphora WU 3271 https://web.archive.org/web/20070315044409/http://www.kemperartmuseum.wustl.edu/collections/artwork.asp?artist=0000ZL

amphora 12359

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

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

bowl G2334

lekythos 24552

kylix 86.89

stamnos S 424

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

stamnos 16526

pelike 336 • pelike 1095 • pelike IV 3728

fragment of a bowl 503.50 • fragment

amphora

amphora L 504 http://www.theoi.com/Gallery/P13.9.html

fragment of a stamnos 3550 • bowl L 95

Bibliography

External links