Hermonax Totally Explained

Everything about Hermonax totally explained

Hermonax (active between 470 and 440 BC in Athens) was a Greek vase painter of the Attic red-figure style. At present, ten vases signed with the phrase "Hermonax has painted it" are known. They are mainly stamnoi and pelikes and a bowl. He also painted small-format neck amphorae, loutrophoroi, lekythoi, jugs and hydriai. He appears to have been a pupil of the Berlin Painter, but must, on stylistic grounds, have entered that workshop quite late. Hermonax adopted his master's tendency to paint large surfaces and his dryness. Hermonax' work shows no hint of any influence from the Berlin painters dynamic early works. Nevertheless, he managed to transform the habits he adopted into innovations. Hermonax began to pay little heed to the vessel surfaces. He pushed individual ornamentions, especially around the handles, more and more aside or omitted them entirely. On some vases he even used the handles to extend his figural compositions. In some cases he painted so many, partially overlapping, figures that the proportion of light red areas nearly repressed the black background. Only on his smaller vessels did he work without large groups of figures. His composition of figural groups on large vessels was fully innovative. So far, the depiction of mythological scenes had followed certain standards as regards the number of figures. Hermonax enriched the scenes by adding multiple additional figures that were not directly connected to the narrative action and thus extended it not in content but in size. One result was, that his works frequently have to accommodate figures that seem weakened in their expressive impact by extending beyond the traditional areas of painting and extending, for example, onto the handles. Many archaeologists therefore assume that Hermonax transferred pre-existing compositions onto his vases without previously asserting that they actually fitted the vessel's body.
A total of over 200 vases is attributed to Hermonax.

Selected works

Adria, Museo Civico ť fragments of a bowl B 34 • fragments of a bowl B 296 • fragments of a bowl B 785
Agrigento, Museo Archeologico Regionale ť lekythos
Altenburg, Staatliches Lindenau-Museum ť amphora 289 • oinochoe 297
Ancona, Museo Archeologico Nazionale ť two fragments of different bowls
Argos, Archaeological Museum ť bell krater C 909
Athens, Agora Museum ť 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 ť fragmente of several loutrophoroi
Athens, National Archaeological Museum ť fragment 2.692 • lekythos 1632
Baltimore, Walters Art Gallery ť amphora 48.55
Barcelona, Museo Arqueologico ť lekythos 581 • fragment of a bowl 4233.6
Basel, Antikenmuseum Basel and Sammlung Ludwig ť pelike BS 483 • oinochoe KA 430
Berne, Historical Museum ť pelike 26454
Bologna, Museo Civico Archeologico ť oinochoe 344
Boston, Museum of Fine Arts ť stamnos 01.8031
Boulogne, Musée Communal ť amphora 125
Bristol, City Museum ť hydria H 4631
Brussels, Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts ť pelike A 1579 • hydria A 3098
Bryn Mawr, Bryn Mawr College ť 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 ť fragment of a bowl 1995.18.42
Catania, Museo Civico ť hydria 706
Chicago, University of Chicago ť pelike 171
Christchurch, University of Canterbury ť amphora
Cologne, Cologne University ť amphora 308
Columbia, Missouri, Museum of Art & Archeology ť amphora 83.187
Corinth, Archaeological Museum ť fragment of a krater C 66.40
Dresden, Albertinum ť fragment of a bowl
Ferrara, Museo Nazionale di Spina ť oinochoe 2461 • oinochoe B 31.5.1958 • lekanis T0 • oinochoe T 216 CVP • oinochoe T 607 • oinochoe T 897
Florence, Museo Archeologico Etrusco ť fragment of a stamnos 14B5 • fragment 14B53 • stamnos 3995 • fragment of a stamnos PD 421
Gela, Museo Archeologico ť lekythos N 115
Glasgow, Museum & Art Gallery ť pelike 1883.32A
Gotha, Schlossmuseum ť amphora 50
Göttingen, Georg-August-Universität ť fragment of a bowl H 74
Hartford, Wadsworth Atheneum ť lekythos 1930.184
Heidelberg, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität ť fragment of a stamnos 170 • pelike 171 • fragment of a lekythos 172 • fragment of a bowl 173
Innsbruck, University ť fragment of a bowl II.12.66 • fragment of a bowl II.12.67
Istanbul, Archaeology Museum ť kfragment A 33.2322 • fragment of a bowl A 33.2350
Karlsruhe, Badisches Landesmuseum ť 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 ť amphora T 696
London, British Museum ť amphora E 312 • pelike E 371 • pelike P 374 • stamnos E 445
London, Victoria & Albert Museum ť hydria 4816.1858
Los Angeles, County Museum of Art ť pelike A 5933.50.41
Madrid, Museo Arqueológico Nacional ť amphora 11098 • amphora L 172
Mainz, Johannes Gutenberg Universität ť fragment of a pelike (?) 144
Manchester, City Art Gallery & Museum ť pelike III.I.41
Mannheim, Reiss-Museum ť stamnos 59
Marseilles, Musee Borely ť stamnos 1630 • pelike 3592 • pelike 7023
Melfi, Museo Nazionale del Melfese ť amphora (loan)
Metaponto, Museo Civico ť amphora 20113
Montreal, Museum of Fine Arts ť fragment of a bowl RS 470
Moscow, Pushkin Museum ť amphora 601 • amphora 1071
Munich, Glyptothek and Antikensammlung ť stamnos 2413 • lekythos 2477 • lekythos 2478
Münster, Archaeological Museum of Münster University ť lekythos 668
Naples, Museo Archeologico Nazionale ť amphora 81481 • amphora H 3385 • pelike SP 2028
Naples, Palazzo di San Nicandro (Museo Mustilli) ť pelike
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art ť 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 ť amphora 36.96
Orvieto, Museo Civico (Collezione Faina) ť bowl 43 • lekythos 66 A
Oxford, Ashmolean Museum ť amphora 1966.500
Paestum, Museo Archeologico Nazionale ť oinochoe 57799
Palermo, Collezione Collisani ť amphora R 33
Palermo, Museo Archeologico Regionale ť lekythos 1445 • lekythos V 672
Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale, Cabinet des Médailles ť lekythos 489
Paris, Musée National du Louvre ť 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 ť hydria 12884
Rome, Museo Nazionale di Villa Giulia ť stamnos 5241 • pelike (Beazley Nr. 33) • pelike 50459
Samothrace, Archaeological Museum ť fragment of a bell krater
St. Louis, St. Louis Art Museum ť amphora WU 3271 (External Link)
San Simeon, Hearst Corporation ť amphora 12359
St. Petersburg, Eremitage ť 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 ť fragment of a hydria 31 • loutrophoros 389 • fragment of a loutrophoros 425 • fragment of a loutrophoros 426
Stockholm, Medelhavsmuseum ť bowl G2334
Syracuse, Archaeological Museum ť lekythos 24552
Tampa, Tampa Museum of Art ť kylix 86.89
Trieste, Museo Storia ed Arte ť stamnos S 424
Tübingen, Eberhard-Karls-Universität ť 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 ť stamnos 16526
Warsaw, Muzeum Narodowe ť amphora
Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum ť pelike 336 • pelike 1095 • pelike IV 3728
Vienna, Vienna University ť fragment of a bowl 503.50 • fragment
Wiesbaden, Landesamt ť amphora
Würzburg, Martin von Wagner Museum ť amphora L 504 (External Link)
Zurich, Zurich University ť fragment of a stamnos 3550 • bowl L 95

Bibliography

Hanns E. Langenfass: Hermonax. Untersuchungen zur Chronologie. München, Univ., Diss. 1972.

John H. Oakley: Athamas, Ino, Hermes, and the Infant Dionysos. A Hydria by Hermonax. Antike Kunst 25 (1982), p. 44-47.

Cornelia Isler-Kerényi: Hermonax in Zürich, 1. Ein Puzzle mit Hermonaxscherben. Antike Kunst 26 (1983), p. 127-135.

Cornelia Isler-Kerényi: Hermonax in Zürich, 2. Die Halsamphora Haniel. Antike Kunst 27 (1984), p. 54-57.

Cornelia Isler-Kerényi: Hermonax in Zürich, 3. Der Schalenmaler. Antike Kunst 27 (1984), p. 154-165.

Cornelia Isler-Kerényi: Hieron und Hermonax. In: Ancient Greek and related pottery. Proceedings of the international vase symposium, Amsterdam 12 - 15 April 1984 (Amsterdam 1984), p. 164.

Cornelia Isler-Kerényi: Hermonax e i suoi temi dionisiaci. In: Images et sociétés en Grèce ancienne. L'iconographie comme méthode d'analyse. Actes du Colloque international, Lausanne 8-11 février 1984 (Lausanne 1987), p. 169-175.Further Information

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