ATTRIBUTED TO THE PAINTER OF ATHENS 1826, CIRCA 460 B.C.

The cylindrical body of the vessel has two women preparing to visit a tomb. The one at the left stands in profile to the right beside a diphros. She wears a chiton and a hair band tied with a string; in her hands she holds a wreath. The woman at the right stands frontally, with her head turned over her shoulder towards the other. She wears a peplos over a chiton, earrings and a sakkos, and holds a long cloth fillet in her hands. The women’s flesh is indicated in “second white,” a chalky slip that stands out against the creamy white background. There is a band of meander above, with palmettes and ovolo on the shoulders. For related scenes on white-ground lekythoi see nos. 15 and 16 in J.H. Oakley, Picturing Death in Classical Athens. The Painter of Athens 1826 takes his name from a white-ground lekythos in Athens (no. 1, p. 745 in Beazley, op. cit.). He was primarily a painter of white-ground lekythoi of the standard shape, although one squat lekythos was assigned to him, and he frequently used second white for details, as here.