# 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
    fragment of a stamnos 14B5 • fragment 14B53 • stamnos 3995 • fragment of a stamnos PD 421
* 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
* Marseilles, 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