Hermonax

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 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 fragments 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, Historisches 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, Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium 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 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 fragment 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 Lancut, Castle Museum neck amphora S 8176 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 Marseille, Musée Borely stamnos 1630 • pelike 3592 • pelike 7023 Melfi, Museo Nazionale del Melfese amphora (loan → Metaponto) 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 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, Museo Archeologico Regionale Paolo Orsi lekythos 24552 Tampa, Tampa Museum of Art kylix 86.89 Trieste, Museo Storia ed Arte stamnos S 424 Tübingen, University of Tübingen 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 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 Zürich, Zurich University fragment of a stamnos 3550 • bowl L 95