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On a narrow vessel, a figure gestures over another who lays in bed.

A vessel with a flat base and narrow body which connects to a tall fluted stem. It is painted in red, black and white, much of the paint is worn away. There are three partially visible figures. One lays down, their head resting on a pillow. Above them, another figure lifts one hand to their head and reach their other arm over the head of the reclining figure toward a third, who is barely visible on the side of the vessel. They wear draping robes. Above the scene there is a geometric border.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1952.75
People
Attributed to The Woman Painter
Title
Lekythos (oil flask): Laying Out the Body
Classification
Vessels
Work Type
vessel
Date
430-420 BCE
Places
Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Europe, Athens (Attica)
Period
Classical period
Culture
Greek
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/291306

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Terracotta with polychrome decoration
Technique
White-ground
Dimensions
H. 28 x Dia. 7 cm (11 x 2 3/4 in.)

State, Edition, Standard Reference Number

Standard Reference Number
Beazley Archive Database #217659

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Alpheus Hyatt Purchasing Fund
Accession Year
1952
Object Number
1952.75
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
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Descriptions

Description
Attic
Commentary
Re-View Exhibition, Spring 2008, gallery label information:

Lekythoi, containers for oil, were routinely deposited in or above tombs as gifts for the dead. Sometimes an insert just below the neck enabled mourners to leave just a small amount of oil while appearing to have offered a full vessel. In contrast to the majority of Greek vases, Attic lekythoi of the fifth century BCE were covered in a white slip and painted with fugitive polychrome decoration depicting funerary
themes. The left lekythos (1952.75) shows the prothesis, or laying out of the body, on a festooned bier surrounded by three mourning figures; the right (1925.30.54) depicts mourners visiting the grave, which is marked by a tall stele bedecked with garlands, now partly faded.

Publication History

  • Beazley Archive: Classical Art Research Centre, website, University of Oxford, accessed August 14, 2009, http://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/record/E0F7D877-AF02-46F2-BBFC-339992C32F5B
  • David Gordon Mitten and Amy Brauer, Dialogue with Antiquity, The Curatorial Achievement of George M. A. Hanfmann, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1982), p. 13, no. 25.
  • Sarah Jane Rennie, "The Identification of Original Decoration on a Collection of Attic White Ground Lekythoi" (thesis (certificate in conservation), Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies, 1994), Unpublished, pp. 1-24 passim

Exhibition History

  • Dialogue with Antiquity: The Curatorial Achievement of George M.A. Hanfmann, Fogg Art Museum, 05/07/1982 - 06/26/1982
  • To Bid Farewell: Images of Death in the Ancient World, Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence
  • Re-View: S422 Ancient & Byzantine Art & Numismatics, Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 04/12/2008 - 06/18/2011
  • HAA132e The Ideal of the Everyday in Greek Art (S427) Spring 2012, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 01/31/2012 - 05/12/2012

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu