- Medeia and child, by the Ixion painter (Louvre)
Two landmark works by the art historian A.D. Trendall:
The Red-Figured Vases of Lucania, Campania and Sicily (2 volumes, with 3 supplements). $1,525.00 Details
and
The Red-Figured Vases of Apulia (3 volumes, with a supplement). $1,525.00 Details
A multi-volume catalogue of ancient art is usually the work of a community of scholars, often distributed across a number of institutions, nations and continents. The Corpus Vasorum and Corpus Signorum series are such works: monumental achievements, but clearly resting on the shoulders of many.
The red-figured vase painting of South Italy, on the other hand, was collected, organised and published chiefly by A.D. Trendall (d. 1995). The two works listed above comprise the largest part of this life’s work, although they are supplemented by a number of shorter volumes. The systematic description of these paintings created a coherent field of study, clearly identifying many artists and local styles and greatly easing scholars’ access to a wealth of information about art and daily life in the greater Greek world.
A. D. Trendall was a native of New Zealand and was educated there and at Cambridge. He spent his academic career in Australia, at the University of Sydney, the Australian National University and La Trobe University. His long and highly productive years of scholarship were interrupted only by his wartime service, when he served in a code-breaking unit attached to the Australian Navy. One can imagine that the mind that brought order to the thousands of vases and fragments in his field was a welcome addition to a team of cryptographers and signals analysts.
More information can be found at the website of the A.D. Trendall Research Centre, La Trobe University, where Trendall’s personal library is housed, together with his vast photographic record of Greek vases. In addition to the two major works noted above, Powell’s frequently handles other works by Trendall, such as:
The Red-Figured Vases of Paestum
Red figure vases of South Italy and Sicily: A handbook
Apulian Red-Figured Vase-Paintings of the Plain Style
South Italian Vase Painting
Pulp (Limited Edition)
