Lekythos (oil flask): Visit to the Grave | Harvard Art Museums

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Identification and Creation

Object Number: 1925.30.54
People: Attributed to The Bird Painter
Title: Lekythos (oil flask): Visit to the Grave
Classification: Vessels
Work Type: vessel
Date: c. 430 BCE
Places: Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Europe, Attica
Period: Classical period, High
Culture: Greek
Persistent Link: https://hvrd.art/o/291597

Physical Descriptions

Medium: Terracotta with polychrome decoration
Technique: White-ground
Dimensions: H. 30.1 x Dia. 8.4 cm (11 7/8 x 3 5/16 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History: JCH purchased in Athens 1898.

State, Edition, Standard Reference Number

Standard Reference Number: Beazley Archive Database #216396

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line: Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of Joseph C. Hoppin
Accession Year: 1925
Object Number: 1925.30.54
Division: Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact: am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
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Descriptions

Description: A garlanded stele on two steps with a pediment; at r. a youth in a red cloak, at l. a woman holding a basket with garlands; she appears to be nude.
Commentary: Re-View Exhibition, Spring 2008, gallery label information:

Lekythoi, containers for oil, were routinely deposited in or above tombs as gifts for the dead. Sometimes an insert just below the neck enabled mourners to leave just a small amount of oil while appearing to have offered a full vessel. In contrast to the majority of Greek vases, Attic lekythoi of the fifth century BCE were covered in a white slip and painted with fugitive polychrome decoration depicting funerary
themes. The left lekythos (1952.75) shows the prothesis, or laying out of the body, on a festooned bier surrounded by three mourning figures; the right (1925.30.54) depicts mourners visiting the grave, which is marked by a tall stele bedecked with garlands, now partly faded.

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. 133.
J. D. Beazley, Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters, The Clarendon Press (Oxford, England, 1963), 1231.2
Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters (Oxford, England, 1963), 1231.2

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
Re-View: S422 Ancient & Byzantine Art & Numismatics, Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 04/12/2008 - 06/18/2011

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