Lekythos (Attic white-ground ware)
460 BCE-450 BCE
Medium
earthenware
Measurements
35.2 × 11.3 cm diameter
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Felton Bequest, 1971
© Public Domain
Gallery location
18th Century Decorative Arts - Great Hall Costume Corridor
Level 2, NGV International
About this work
A lekythos is an oil flask with a narrow neck and cup-shaped mouth, designed to dispense small amounts of expensive oil without dripping. The simple, two-figure decoration is typical of both the Achilles Painter and of white-ground ware. Mistress and maid are depicted preparing to take offerings to a tomb: the maid brings a tray of coloured cloth strips to decorate the grave monument, while the mistress holds an alabastron (perfume vessel), also destined for the tomb. The love inscription, translated as ‘Dromippos, the son of Dromokleides, is beautiful’, is a type that appears regularly on Athenian vases but rarely reflects the subject matter or the purpose of the vase.
Artwork Details
Place/s of Execution
Attica, Greece
Inscription
inscribed on the body (above the scene) in Greek script: DROMIPPOS KALOS DROMOKLEIDO
Accession Number
D93-1971
Department
Antiquities
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of Digitisation Champion Ms Carol Grigor through Metal Manufactures Limited
Physical description
Tall, slender jar with a sharply offset shoulder, single strap handle and a narrow neck topped by a cup-shaped mouth. The foot is a thick disc with reserved edges. The mouth, neck, handle and lower body/base are black. On the shoulder are palmettes and tendrils. Below the shoulder is a band of meander and saltires. The main scene is on a white-ground and depicts a mistress (in red at right) and maid bringing a tray of ribbons/fillets. In the field is a hanging lekythos on each side, stools and a portion of a curtain.