Red-Figure Fish Plate — After the Altes Museum (Berlin) Original
Apulia, South Italy, c. 335 BCE — in the manner of the Eyebrow Painter
Inspired by an Apulian red-figure fish plate in the Altes Museum collection (Berlin) (inv. LOHL1994112), this piece reflects the South Italian love of painted seafood “menus” arranged around the central sauce well. Inside, a vivid selection of marine life circles the depression: a spiny rockfish/scorpionfish swallowing a smaller fish, a sea-bream type fish, a flatfish with both eyes on one side, and a squid (calamari), with a small shellfish detail as a final accent. Details are enriched with added pale highlights to pick out fins, gills, and facial features in the manner associated with the Eyebrow Painter’s workshop.
The downward-sloping rim is decorated with a crisp standing-wave band, framing the scene like a rhythmic edge of sea. In antiquity, such plates were both practical tableware and meaningful offerings, often placed in graves as symbols of nourishment and Mediterranean abundance—where everyday food becomes image, and image becomes memory.
made in September 2025
Dimensions: D 18,5 cm, H 5,4 cm,