Vase Catalog Number: Harvard 1959.193

Decoration:

A woman dressed in chiton, himation, and spotted sakkos stands with her feet to the left, her back to the viewer, and her head to the right. With her right hand she reaches back to dangle an alabastron by its mouth, as though offering it to someone off-stage. Her himation has a black border and her sakkos is lightly tinted with dilute glaze, also used for the folds of the chiton. On the ground behind the woman is a small chest with dicing on the lid. The alabastron contains perfumed oil; one is reminded of scenes on white-ground lekythoi with the preparations for mourning, with women going through boxes and baskets to select ribbons to deck the tomb and oil with which to anoint it. The woman may be in her own bed-chamber, or may she be a slave, who offers the perfume bottle to her unseen mistress.

There is a band of tongues on the upper shoulder. The groundline consists of stopt maeanders -- two to right, four to left -- and a single blackened cross-square. The fillet above the foot is framed by reserved grooves. The bevelled portion of the foot is reserved, as is the top of the mouth; the rest of the vase is a glossy black.

Parallels:

Buitron 1972, 108, compared the shape and decoration of two lekythoi by Douris: Boston 95.41 and Vienna, Univ. 526a (ARV2, 447, 270 and 272). All three are characterized by sparse decoration on the neck, no decoration on the shoulder, and a rather careless meander ground line. Beazley, however, stopped short of attributing the Harvard lekythos to Douris. The style is very close to a follower of Douris, the Oedipus Painter; cf. a kylix in a German private collection: Hornbostel 1986, 111-114, no. 53.

Collection History:

Gift of Frederick M. Watkins.

Shape Description:

Cylindrical body; concave neck; disk foot in two degrees, the lower three-quarters bevelled.

Sources Used:

Watkins Catalogue 1973.

Other Bibliography:

Collection de feu M. Jean P. Lambros (Athens) et de M. Giovanni Dattari (Cairo) (Paris June 17-19, 1912) pl. 7, no. 51; Hôtel Drouot, Collection Hirsch (Paris June 30 -July 2, 1921) pl. 3, no. 169; Buitron 1972, 108, no. 58; Watkins Catalogue 1973, no. 24.

Essay: Buitron No. 58

RED-FIGURE LEKYTHOS

Lent by the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University; gift of Frederick M. Watkins (1959.193)

(Michael Padgett)