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.

Hermonax: stamnos G 416, death of Orpheus, Paris, Louvre.

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
fragments of a bowl B 34 • fragments of a bowl B 296 • fragments of a bowl B 785
lekythos
amphora 289 • oinochoe 297
  • Ancona, Museo Archeologico Nazionale
two fragments of different bowls
  • Argos, Archaeological Museum
bell krater C 909
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
fragments of several loutrophoroi
fragment 2.692 • lekythos 1632
amphora 48.55
lekythos 581 • fragment of a bowl 4233.6
  • Basel, Antikenmuseum Basel and Sammlung Ludwig
pelike BS 483 • oinochoe KA 430
pelike 26454
oinochoe 344
stamnos 01.8031
amphora 125
hydria H 4631
pelike A 1579 • hydria A 3098
fragment of a bowl P 199 • fragment of a bowl P 209 • fragment of a bowl P 989
fragment of a bowl 1995.18.42
hydria 706
pelike 171
amphora
amphora 308
amphora 83.187
fragment of a krater C 66.40
fragment of a bowl
oinochoe 2461 • oinochoe B 31.5.1958 • lekanis T0 • oinochoe T 216 CVP • oinochoe T 607 • oinochoe T 897
fragment of a stamnos 14B5 • fragment 14B53 • stamnos 3995 • fragment of a stamnos PD 421
  • Gela, Museo Archeologico
lekythos N 115
pelike 1883.32A
amphora 50
fragment of a bowl H 74
lekythos 1930.184
fragment of a stamnos 170 • pelike 171 • fragment of a lekythos 172 • fragment of a bowl 173
fragment of a bowl II.12.66 • fragment of a bowl II.12.67
fragment A 33.2322 • fragment of a bowl A 33.2350
fragment of a bowl 69.35C • two fragments of a bowl 86.360 A-B • fragment of a bowl 69.35 C
amphora T 696
neck amphora S 8176
amphora E 312 • pelike E 371 • pelike P 374 • stamnos E 445
hydria 4816.1858
pelike A 5933.50.41
  • Madrid, Museo Arqueológico Nacional
amphora 11098 • amphora L 172
fragment of a pelike (?) 144
pelike III.I.41
stamnos 59
stamnos 1630 • pelike 3592 • pelike 7023
  • Melfi, Museo Nazionale del Melfese
amphora (loan → Metaponto)
amphora 20113
fragment of a bowl RS 470
amphora 601 • amphora 1071
Birth of Erichthonios, Munich Antikensammlungen.
stamnos 2413 • lekythos 2477 • lekythos 2478
  • Münster, Archaeological Museum of Münster University
lekythos 668
amphora 81481 • amphora H 3385 • pelike SP 2028
  • Naples, Palazzo di San Nicandro (Museo Mustilli)
pelike
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
amphora 36.96
  • Orvieto, Museo Civico (Collezione Faina)
bowl 43 • lekythos 66 A
amphora 1966.500
  • Paestum, Museo Archeologico Nazionale
oinochoe 57799
amphora R 33
  • Palermo, Museo Archeologico Regionale
lekythos 1445 • lekythos V 672
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
Stamnos Louvre G 413: Detail Philoktetes
hydria 12884
stamnos 5241 • pelike (Beazley Nr. 33) • pelike 50459
fragment of a bell krater
amphora WU 3271
amphora 12359
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
bowl G2334
  • Syracuse, Museo Archeologico Regionale Paolo Orsi
lekythos 24552
kylix 86.89
stamnos S 424
fragment of a bowl E 43 • fragment of a loutrophoros E 90 • fragment of a loutrophoros E 99 • fragment of a pelike S101583
stamnos 16526
pelike 336 • pelike 1095 • pelike IV 3728
  • Vienna, Vienna University
fragment of a bowl 503.50 • fragment
amphora
amphora L 504
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.
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