Attic Black-figure Lekythos
Lekythos used to contain perfumed oil often associated with funerary rites. This example has a trumpet-shaped mouth, painted inside and out, a narrow neck, a single handle joining it to the shoulder, and cylindrical body on a circular foot. On the upper wall of the body is a band of dots with the scene below it: painted on a red-ground, having accessories of purple and incised lines, with three black figures: Dionysos at the centre, bearded with long sleeaved chiton and incised drapery folds, possibly holding in left hand a kantharos and in right a vine-branch with clusters of grapes, stands looking straight to the right, between two standing figures possibly female, facing him and raising one arm in surprise or to welcome him. On the shoulder a band of tongues, and a band of stylised dotted lotus buds.
Object number: 127.005.
Date: 5th century BCE
Parallels: Canberra, Australian National University, Classics Museum 1973.06 (Manner of the Haimon Painter); Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum 86.AE.134 (attributed to Leagros Group); Providence, Rhode Island School of Design Museum 11.012, 37.020, 54.142.86; Florence, Museo Archeologico Nazionale 1200951580; Wellesley, Davis Museum and Cultural Center 1942.1. For very close examples see London, British Museum 1856,1208.11, 1952,0204.4, 1967,1102.22; very similar example in style and structure Wellesley, Davis Museum and Cultural Center 2013.51.
References: Haspels C. H. E., Attic Black-Figured Lekythoi, (Paris, 1936); Beazley, J.D., Attic Black-Figure Vase-Painters (Oxford, 1956), p. 595; Beazley, J. D., Paralipomena (Oxford, 1971), p. 298; Beazley, J.D., Paralipomena (Oxford, 1971), 298.29.
Photo by Steve Morton