AN ATTIC WHITE-GROUND LEKYTHOS (TYPE BEL)

CIRCA MID 5TH CENTURY B.C.

Details

AN ATTIC WHITE-GROUND LEKYTHOS (TYPE BEL)
Circa Mid 5th Century B.C.
With two female mourners standing on either side of a stele, the woman to the left in a dark peplos, offering a fillet, the woman to the right in a chiton and himation, holding an offering basket in her left hand, her right hand raised to her head, the stele with a palmette anthemion, on a five-step base outlined with cinnabar red, with an inscription (?) on the upper step, and possibly a band of figures on the middle, and a series of small circles on the lower step, the stele draped with ribbons in cinnabar red, a lyre hanging to the right, with bands of meander with crossed squares above and below, palmettes on the shoulders with vertical lines above, traces of red preserved throughout, with a false interior
13¼ in. (33.6 cm) high

Provenance

Asian Collection, purchased between 1968-1972

Lot Essay

Workshop of the Inscription Painter.

The shape of Type BEL lekythoi differs from the standard form by having an in-curving angle where the shoulders join the body. They take their name from the Beldam Painter, and were a specialty of his workshop. Many Bel lekythoi, including the present example, have false interiors. According to Kurtz (Athenian White Lekythoi, p. 86) "the addition of a small interior chamber enabled the living to economize (on the amount of oil offered) in an extravagant display of piety towards the dead."

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