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Oil Jar (Lekythos), with two women holding grave goods

Oil Jar (Lekythos), with two women holding grave goods

Currently unknown artist or artists

By the 5th century BCE, Greeks commonly used slender oil vessels called lekythoi for funerary rituals. The two women painted on this example prepare for a graveside visit. Each carries a shallow, rectangular basket brimming with ribbons and a single lekythos, ready for offering.
Artist/Maker
Currently unknown artist or artists
(Greek)
Title
Oil Jar (Lekythos), with two women holding grave goods
Date
around 460 B.C.E.
Period
Hellenistic period
Material & Process
Earthenware with red-figure decoration on white-ground
Dimensions
At shoulder: 15 7/8 x 5 1/4 in. Overall
Credit
Edna G. Dyar Fund and Fairchild Foundation Fund purchase
Inventory No.
70.2
Classification
Ceramics
Location
Greece

Related

Unknown private collection (Basel, Switzerland or England); 13 December 1969, purchased from Münzen und Medaillen, A.G. (Basel, Switzerland) auction "Kunstwerke der Antike" [sale 40, lot 111] on behalf of the Elvehjem Art Center [now called the Chazen Museum of Art]. [last researched by Chazen staff January 2023]

  • Alden, Maureen. " 'Ancient Greek Dress' Costume." The Journal of the Costume Society (May, 2003). pp. 1-16, pl. IIIA
  • Lynch, Gay. "Greek Gravemarkers Heed the Warning," Markers XX, Gravestone Studies (2003). pp. 289, 290, no. 8
  • Oakley, John H. "Picturing Death in Classical Athens: The Evidence of the White Lekythoi." Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
  • Elvehjem Museum of Art. "Ancient Etruscan and Greek Vases in the Elvehjem Museum of Art." University of Wisconsin Regents. Madison, Wis., 2000. pp. 23, 61, no. 40; pl. 7
  • University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. "The Classical World: Aegean Art." Art History Image Search, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. Online. Mar 7, 2003. <http://facstaff.uww.edu/henigec/imagesearch/index.htm>;
  • Moon, Warren G, and Louise Berge. "Greek Vase-painting In Midwestern Collections." Chicago: The Art Institute, 1979.
  • Elvehjem Art Center. "Bulletin 1970-1971." Madison: Elvehjem Art Center, 1971. p. 44
  • Elvehjem Museum of Art. "Handbook of the Collection." Elvehjem Museum of Art, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Madison, 1990. no. 5
  • Havelock, Christine M. ed., and Stephen L. Hyatt. "Mourners on Greek Vases: Remarks in the Social History of Women," in "The Greek Vase." Troy, NY: 1981. p. 115, pl. 93
  • D. C. Kurtz. "Athenian White Lekythoi: Patterns and Painters." Oxford 1975. pp. 27, 45, 206, pl. 25.3
  • Biers, W. "Outline of Greek Archaeology." Cornell 1979. no. 8.60
  • Arrington, Nathan T. "Connecting with Corpse and Tomb: Greek Mortuary Objects as Tools of Haptic Mediation." "Anthropology and Aesthetics" 81/82, no. 1 (2024): 97-118. p. 112, fig. 16
  • Classical Art Research Centre. University of Oxford. "Beazley Archive Pottery Database.": https://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/record/15C4DFC7-A331-40D0-A229-45EA534D7F1D. no. 1433
  • Carpenter, Thomas H. "Beazley Addenda: Additional References to ABV, ARV2 & Paralipomena." Oxford: Published for the British Academy by Oxford University Press, 1989. p. 392
  • Oakley, John H. "A Guide to Scenes of Daily Life on Athenian Vases." Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2020. pl. 33

  • Century of American Printmaking 1880-1980, A: Elvehjem Museum of Art, 2/18/1984–4/8/1984
  • Greek Vase-Painting in Midwestern Collections: The Art Institute of Chicago, 12/22/1979–2/24/1980

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Information about artworks presented here may not reflect the most current research. Chazen staff update records as new details emerge; please verify independently for scholarly use and notify us of any errors.