Vase Catalog Number: RISD 22.114

Decoration:

Woman seated at her toilet with four women. In the center a woman sits, facing right, and wearing a long Ionic chiton and himation. She holds a mirror in her right hand. Her hair is bound with a fillet which holds her diadem in place. At her feet and behind her chair are tall baskets or kalathoi (for wool?). In the field over her head another fillet hangs. In front of and facing her stands another woman similarly clad, with a heavier himation that conceals her left arm and hand. In her right hand she holds a casket which she offers to the seated woman. The fillet in her hair holds no diadem. Behind her hangs a wreath. She is followed by a third woman almost identically clad, who stretches out her right hand, palm up. This woman is partly concealed by the right handle. Behind the seated woman a fourth advances towards her, draped in a long Ionic chiton and himation, her left arm bent at the elbow with a rather unconvincing attempt at foreshortening, her right arm at her side. Her hair is bound in a fillet. Behind her comes yet another, a fifth, similarly clad, holding in her right hand a branch with spiral tendrils. She is partly hidden by the left handle.

On the rim of the lip and at the junction of handles and body there are egg-and-dart patterns. There is a palmette-lotus at the foot of the neck in front only. Meanders and saltire-squares occur below the design.

Parallels:

London E 183; London E 188; London E 445; Gerhard 1840-1858, Pl.156

Collection History:

Found in Athens before 1884. Formerly owned by W.J. Stillman, esq., sometime U.S. Consul in Crete. Purchased, 1922.

Date Description:

Period of Hermonax, or somewhat later (figures painted inside side handles suggests a late date

Sources Used:

CVA, USA 2, RISD 1, p. 29, Pl. 22: 1a-c

Other Bibliography:

M. A. Banks, RISD Bulletin XVI (1928) p. 52

(Susan H. Allen)