Attic Pottery - Black-Figure Ware: Attic Pattern Lekythos
Inv. No.: 95.014
Provenance: Attica (Metaponto)
Date: first half of 5th century BC
Height: 113mm
Diameter: 35mm
A miniature lekythos decorated with black-figure geometric and floral patterns with some incision. The mouth is echinus-shaped and the lip square in profile. The narrow neck passes gently to the shoulder and there is a flat, strap handle which curves from the top of the neck to the edge of the shoulder. The cylindrical body is narrow and the small foot is disc-shaped. The colours are the light red of the clay, black-brown and very faint added white. The black has fired red on the lower part of the body of the vase and it is worn in places.
Function:
Lekythoi were used, mainly by women, to hold oil or perfumed oil for toiletry purposes. They could also be used as funerary offerings.
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 handle was shaped by hand, and the mouth, neck and foot turned on the wheel at the leather-hard stage.
Decoration:
- The exterior and interior of the mouth are painted black while the top of the lip is reserved.
- The exterior of the handle is painted with black gloss, some of which has flaked off.
- The shoulder is decorated with black tongues and vestigial lotus buds. There is a black-brown line around the edge of the shoulder.
- The upper part of the body of the vase is decorated with three black upright palmettes (with incision), each of which is enclosed by a very faint added white arc. Black upright lotus buds are painted on either side of each palmette. The floral decorations are placed above a painted and incised cable pattern. The interior of each cable has a reserved circle. Below is a black-brown ground line, a reserved band and the bottom one-third of the body of the vase is painted black which has fired red in one section and flaked off in some areas.
- The top of the foot is painted black and the exterior of the disc is reserved.
Bibliography:
Kurtz, D. C., Athenian White Lekythoi: Patterns and Painters, Oxford, Clarendon, 1975, 131 ff., 153.
Comparanda:
Boschi i Gimpera, P. and J. de C. Serra i Ràfols, Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, Spain 3, Barcelona 1 (1951-57), Plate 14, 8-9, and 11-12.
Calderone, A., Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, Italia 61, Agrigento 1 (1985), Tavola 90, 9-10, Tavola 91, 8-10, Tavola 92, 2.
Dimitriu, S. and P. Alexandrescu, Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, Rumania 1, Bucharest 1 (1965), Plate 31, 4-10.
Green, J. R., Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, New Zealand 1 (1979), Plate 24, 12, 14, 15.
Greifenhagen, A., Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, Deutschland 13, Mannheim 1 (1958), Tafel 19, 14.
Kurtz, D. C., Athenian White Lekythoi: Patterns and Painters, Oxford, Clarendon, 1975, Plate 69. 5.
Lamb, W., Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, Great Britain 6, Cambridge 1 (1930), Plate XXII, 18.
Moignard, E., Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, Great Britain 16, Edinburgh (1989), Plate 16, 8-10.
Palange, F. P. P., Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, Italy 47, Como 1 (1970), Tav. 7, 2 a and b.