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Oil flask (squat lekythos) with Eros, a man, and a woman
Painter: the Meidias Painter
Greek
Classical Period
410–400 B.C.
Place of Manufacture: Greece, Attica, Athens
Medium/Technique
Ceramic, Red Figure, with added clay and gilding
Dimensions
Height x diameter: 14 x 8 cm (5 1/2 x 3 1/8 in.)
Credit Line
Henry Lillie Pierce Fund
Accession Number00.353
CollectionsAncient Greece and Rome
ClassificationsVessels
DescriptionAt left a woman seated; flesh painted white, with traces of a pink garment, and of a yellow one at her feet. Holds a basket. In front kneels an Eros (white), with wings in relief; a patch of gilding about 3 mm square on them. At right sits a youth, in red of clay. Neck and mouth restored.
[Label text]:
Traces of gilding and polychromy remain on this lekythos. The woman's garments and other draperies would have been painted in various bright colors, but they are now discolored. Her flesh was painted white in a tradition that was established in the Archaic period. This convention differentiates the woman from the youth seated at right. Unfortunately, many of the colors added to the vases of the period are fugitive and cannot often be seen by viewers today. The Eros kneeling in front of the woman once had gilded wings; traces of the gold can still be seen.
[Label text]:
Traces of gilding and polychromy remain on this lekythos. The woman's garments and other draperies would have been painted in various bright colors, but they are now discolored. Her flesh was painted white in a tradition that was established in the Archaic period. This convention differentiates the woman from the youth seated at right. Unfortunately, many of the colors added to the vases of the period are fugitive and cannot often be seen by viewers today. The Eros kneeling in front of the woman once had gilded wings; traces of the gold can still be seen.
ProvenanceBy 1900: with Edward Perry Warren without provenance in his records); purchased by MFA from Edward Perry Warren, February 1900