Harvard Art Museums > 1925.30.54: Lekythos (oil flask): Visit to the Grave Vessels Collections Search Exit Deep Zoom Mode Zoom Out Zoom In Reset Zoom Full Screen Add to Collection Order Image Copy Link Copy Citation Citation"Lekythos (oil flask): Visit to the Grave (Attributed to The Bird Painter) , 1925.30.54,” Harvard Art Museums collections online, Nov 21, 2024, https://hvrd.art/o/291597. Reuse via IIIF Toggle Deep Zoom Mode Download This object does not yet have a description. 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 Permissions The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request. 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. Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters (Oxford, England, 1963), 1231.2 J. D. Beazley, Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters, The Clarendon Press (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
