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Oil flask (alabastron)
Greek
Late Archaic Period
about 510–500 B.C.
Place of Manufacture: Greece, Attica, Athens
Medium/Technique
Ceramic, white ground
Dimensions
Height: 16.7 cm (6 9/16 in.)
Credit Line
Henry Lillie Pierce Fund
Accession Number00.358
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsAncient Greece and Rome
ClassificationsVessels
DescriptionThree women are drawn in black outline on a prepared white ground. Parts of their garments are colored with golden, dilute glaze. One woman, wearing a necklace and a sakkos, or head covering, holds a piece of fruit, and another holds a flower, while the third plays the castanets and dances. On the rounded bottom of the vessel is a small reveller painted in black glaze, nude apart from a cloak thrown over his arm. On the mouth of the vessel is a Greek inscription: "the boy is handsome" (PAIS KALOS). Meandering among the women is an inscription, "Hello!" (PROSALORENO).
Condition: slight restorations
Condition: slight restorations
Inscriptions"The boy is handsome" (PAIS KALOS); "Hello" (PROSALORENO)
ΠΑΙSΚΑLΟS
ΠΡΟSΑΛΟΡΕVΟ
ΠΑΙSΚΑLΟS
ΠΡΟSΑΛΟΡΕVΟ
ProvenanceBy date unknown: W. H. Forman Collection; inherited by his sister-in-law Mrs. Burt and then by his nephew Major A. H. Browne about 1889; by 1899: with Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge, 13 Wellington Street, Strand, London (sale of the Forman Collection, June 19-22, lot 366); by 1899: with Edward Perry Warren; February 1900: purchased by MFA from Edward Perry Warren