The representation may not be as simple as it appears. The seated lady faces Eros, who replaces a servant in holding a casket. The casket would normally be thought to contain jewelry and small personal items, but in the hands of Eros the contents may be less banal. Noteworthy also is the juxtaposition of the bird and Eros. While the bird may be merely a pet, it is given prominence and therefore invites comparison with the winged youth.
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Title:Terracotta squat lekythos (oil flask)
Artist:Attributed to the Washing Painter
Period:Classical
Date:ca. 420 BCE
Culture:Greek, Attic
Medium:Terracotta; red-figure
Dimensions:H.: 6 11/16 in. (17 cm)
Classification:Vases
Credit Line:Gift of Samuel G. Ward, 1875
Accession Number:75.2.8
Said to have been found in the vicinity of Athens
Before 1874, found in the vicinity Athens; briefly, with Professor Athanasios Sergiou Rhousopoulos, Athens; by 1874, purchased by Samuel G. Ward from Prof. A.S. Rhousopoulos, Athens; acquired 1875, gift of Samuel G. Ward.
Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1875. Fifth Annual Report of the Trustees of the Association for the Year ending May 1, 1875. p. 70, New York.
Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1895. The Terracottas and Pottery of the Cesnola Collection of Cypriote Antiquities in Halls 4 and 15. no. 1769, p. 131, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Beazley, John D. 1942. Attic Red-figure Vase-painters. p. 799, no. 13, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1946. Attic Red-Figured Vases: A Survey. p. 146, fig. 110, New Haven: Yale University Press.
Beazley, John D. 1948. Some Attic Vases in the Cyprus Museum, From the Proceedings of the British Academy, Vol. 33. p. 48, London: G. Cumberlege.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1953. Handbook of the Greek Collection. pp. 101–2, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1958[1946]. Attic Red-Figured Vases: A Survey, Revised Edition, 2nd edn. p. 146, fig. 110, New Haven: Yale University Press.
Beazley, John D. 1963[1942]. Attic Red-figure Vase-painters, Vols. 1 and 2, 2nd ed. p. 1248, no. 6, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Jucker, Ines. 1973. "Kephalos im Göttergarten." Antike Kunst. Zur griechischen Kunst. Hansjörg Bloesch zum sechzigsten Geburtstag am 5. Juli 1972., Supple. 9: pp. 65–66, pl. 23.3–.4.
Lezzi-Hafter, Adrienne. 1988. Eretria-Maler: Werke und Weggefährten. no. 236, pp. 3, 5, 11, 28, 213, 218, 225, 283 n. 544, 299, n. 592, fig. 72a, pl. 146, Mainz am Rhein: Verlag Philipp von Zabern.
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The Museum's collection of Greek and Roman art comprises more than 30,000 works ranging in date from the Neolithic period to the time of the Roman emperor Constantine's conversion to Christianity in A.D. 312.
