Terracotta lekythos (oil flask)

Attributed to the Achilles Painter 

Period:
Classical
Date:
ca. 440 B.C.
Culture:
Greek, Attic
Medium:
Terracotta; white-ground
Dimensions:
H. 14 3/4 in. (37.39 cm)
Classification:
Vases
Credit Line:
Gift of Norbert Schimmel Trust, 1989
Accession Number:
1989.281.72
  • Description

    Mourner and the deceased at tomb

    This vase exemplifies Attic white-ground funerary lekythoi at their finest. Funerary representations of the sixth century B.C. depicted the deceased surrounded by mourners. By the middle of the fifth century, the deceased was shown either as living or not at all. The figure at the left is a mourner; the deceased is identifiable by the diminutive soul fluttering above his head.

  • Provenance

    By 1974, collection of Norbert Schimmel; acquired October 10, 1989, gift of the Norbert Schimmel Trust.

  • References

    Bothmer, D. von. 1974. In Ancient Art: The Norbert Schimmel Collection, edited by O. W. Muscarella. Mainz: P. von Zabern, no. 63.

    Vermeule, E. 1979. Aspects of Death in Early Greek Art and Poetry. Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 9, 213, n. 15, ill. p. 10, fig. 5.

    Milleker, Elizabeth J. 1992. "Ancient Art: Gifts from the Norbert Schimmel Collection." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 49(4): p. 48.

    Oakley, J. H. 1997. The Achilles Painter. Mainz: P. von Zabern, pp. 67, 68, 69, 146, no. 234, pl. 123, a, b.

    Manchester, Karen. 1999. “The new Greek and Roman Galleries at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.” Apollo 150: p. 8, fig, 11 (left and right reversed).

    Oakley, J. H. 2004. Picturing Death in Classical Athens: The Evidence of the White Lekythoi. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 15, 204, 212, pl. VIII, a, b.

    Picón, Carlos A., et al. 2007. Art of the Classical World in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, no. 156, pp. 139, 435.

    Sparkes, Brian. 2011. Greek Art. Greece & Rome: New Surveys in the Classics 40. 2nd edn. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. x, 99, 101, 106, 114, fig. 31.

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    In the Museum
    Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History
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