The paired figures within the elegant acanthus borders are most likely the hero Hippolytos and and his stepmother Phaidra. Although the plate does not illustrate an episode from ancient literature, the suggestiveness—or parody—of the stepmother who has fallen in love with her stepson fits the unusual interplay between the figures.
Provenance
- Charles Ratton, Paris (1895–1986); purchased from Ratton by Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington, DC, November 1949.
Selected Bibliography
- M. C. Ross, Metalwork, Ceramics, Glass, Glyptics, Painting, vol. 1 of Catalogue of the Byzantine and Early Mediaeval Antiquities in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection (Washington, DC, 1962), 7–9, no. 7, plate 8.
- K. Weitzmann, ed. Age of Spirituality: Late Antique and Early Christian Art, Third to Seventh Century (New York, 1979), 241–42, no. 217.
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