Attic Pottery - Black Gloss Ware: Attic Black Lekythos
Inv. No.: 95.012
Provenance: Attica (Metaponto)
Date: first half of 5th century BC
Height: 213mm
Diameter: 71mm
A large plain black lekythos with a reserved shoulder decorated with black palmettes. The mouth is slightly concave and flaring in profile. The tall, narrow neck leads into a flat shoulder and there is a sharp angle where the shoulder joins the long, cylindrical body. This tapers to a narrow base and a flat disc foot. The strap handle passes from the base of the neck, along the side of the neck and then curves around and down on to the edge of the shoulder. A large area of the black on the body has fired red and the rest is chipped and worn. There are two large chips on the edge of the shoulder.
Function:
A container for oil or perfumed oil, used for domestic or funerary purposes.
Manufacture:
This vase was thrown on the wheel in sections with the neck probably thrown from a coil of clay placed on the shoulder. The foot, neck and mouth were turned at the leather-hard stage. The handle was shaped by hand and joined to the vase using slip.
Decoration:
- The mouth is black on the outside and inside with a reserved lip. The neck is reserved while the outside of the handle, the body and the top of the foot are black. The edge of the foot is reserved.
- The reserved shoulder is decorated with a band of short black diagonal rays around the base of the neck and four carelessly painted black palmettes connected by tendrils towards the edge. There are three upright palmettes and one inverted palmette. They would form an alternating pattern, but there are two black leaves where a second inverted palmette might be expected.
Bibliography:
Kurtz, D. C., Athenian White Lekythoi: Patterns and Painters, Oxford, Clarendon, 1975, 113-128.
Comparanda:
Calderone, A., Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, Italia 61, Agrigento 1 (1985), Tavola 86, 1-5 (similar decoration on squatter vases).
Genière, J. de La, Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, Italia 50, Palermo 1 (1971), Tavola 2, 12, Tavola 3, 1 and 2.
Giudice, F., Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, Italia 56, Gela 4 (1979), Tavola 42, 1 and 5, 3 and 7, 9, 10.
Hoppin, J. C. and A. Gallatin, Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, USA 1 (1926), Gallatin Plate 31, 20 (a more carefully decorated vase).