A figure carries dead animals on a narrow vessel.
Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College
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Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College

A vessel with a flat base and narrow body which connects to a tall fluted stem. It is painted in red, black and white. A figure walks to the right while looking to the left. They have a stick balanced on their shoulder, and a dead animal is tied to each end of the stick. They wear a piece of cloth draped around their upper arms. Next to the figures head letters seem to spell K O L O S. There are simple floral designs on either side of the figure, and linear and geometric borders above and below the figure.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1925.30.51
People
Attributed to The Diosphos Painter, Greek (c. 500 BCE - c. 475 BCE)
Title
Lekythos (oil flask): Hunter with Hare and Rabbit
Classification
Vessels
Work Type
vessel
Date
c. 470 BCE
Places
Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Europe, Athens (Attica)
Period
Classical period, Early
Culture
Greek
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/291031

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Terracotta
Technique
White ground
Dimensions
H. 20.8 x Dia. 7 cm (8 3/16 x 2 3/4 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • inscription: Above hunter:: KALOS [meaning "beautiful"]

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
[Athens, 1897] sold; to Joseph C. Hoppin, Pomfret, CT ( 1899-1925), bequest; to Fogg Art Museum, 1925.

State, Edition, Standard Reference Number

Standard Reference Number
Beazley Archive Database #203118

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of Joseph C. Hoppin
Accession Year
1925
Object Number
1925.30.51
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Descriptions

Description
White-ground lekythos. Scene depicts a young hunter who wears only a chlamys and walks to the right with a pole on his left shoulder from which are a dead hare and rabbit. With his right hand he touches the fox while looking back over his right shoulder.
Above him is an inscription: KALOS ("beautiful one")

A pair of addorsed, black palmettes frame the figure on both sides; above the figure, a meander patterns continues around the body. The shoulder is decorated with a chain of five black-figure palmettes. The vessel is intact except for a break at the spout.

Publication History

  • Joseph Clark Hoppin and Albert Gallatin, Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, U.S.A.: volume 1, Hoppin and Gallatin Collections, Libraire Ancienne Edouard Champion (Paris, 1926)
  • George M. A. Hanfmann, Greek Art and Life, An Exhibition Catalogue, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1950), no. 123.
  • J. D. Beazley, Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters, The Clarendon Press (Oxford, England, 1963)
  • John Boardman, Athenian Red Figure Vases: the Archaic Period, Thames and Hudson, Ltd. (New York, 1975)
  • Gundel Koch-Harnack, Knabenliebe und Tiergeschenke : ihre Bedeutung im päderastischen Erziehungssystem Athens (Berlin, 1983)
  • Thomas Carpenter, Thomas Mannack, and Melanie Mendonca, ed., Beazley addenda : additional references to ABV, ARV² & Paralipomena, Oxford University Press (UK) (Oxford, 1989)
  • Judith M. Barringer, The hunt in ancient Greece, The Johns Hopkins University Press (Baltimore, 2001), p. 110/fig. 68

Exhibition History

  • Greek Art and Life: From the Collections of the Fogg Art Museum, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and Private Lenders, Fogg Art Museum, 03/07/1950 - 04/15/1950
  • Unidentified Exhibition, Danforth Museum of Art, Danforth Museum of Art, Framingham, 01/01/1976 - 01/30/1976
  • 32Q: 3620 University Study Gallery, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 08/22/2016 - 01/08/2017

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu