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Oil flask (lekythos) with Eros seated on an altar holding a wreath
Greek, South Italian
Late Classical Period
about 350 B.C.
Place of Manufacture: Italy, Apulia
Medium/Technique
Ceramic, Gnathian Ware
Dimensions
21.2 cm (8 3/8 in.)
Credit Line
Henry Lillie Pierce Fund
Accession Number01.8106
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsEurope, Ancient Greece and Rome
ClassificationsVessels
Catalogue Raisonné
Vase-Painting in Italy (MFA), no. 111.
DescriptionEros, seated on an altar, holding wreath in right hand. (Eros painted in brown on black glaze.)
Label text:
Gnathia technique
Eros seated on an altar holding a wreath
VASE PAINTING in ITALY, # 111 (01.8106)
Squat Lekythos
about 350 B.C.
Eros is seated to the right on a cube-shaped block or altar, his legs crossed and his left hand resting on his knee. He is nude except for his yellow shoes. With his right hand he holds out a yellow wreath, which he regards witha rather disgusted look. The altar is incised directly on the black ground in three-quarter view (the base in profile). Eros is painted with brown skin delicately shaded with strokes of lighter hue. His hair, pulled up in a tall chignon, is blonde and his wings yellow and white. The ground line is a wavy white line. Compare a pelike in Taranto with a seated Eros holding a wreath (Forti, Gnathia, pl. 6). For the combination of incised block and polychrome figure, compare a krater fragment in Taranto (Forti, Gnathia, pl. 33,c).
Label text:
Gnathia technique
Eros seated on an altar holding a wreath
VASE PAINTING in ITALY, # 111 (01.8106)
Squat Lekythos
about 350 B.C.
Eros is seated to the right on a cube-shaped block or altar, his legs crossed and his left hand resting on his knee. He is nude except for his yellow shoes. With his right hand he holds out a yellow wreath, which he regards witha rather disgusted look. The altar is incised directly on the black ground in three-quarter view (the base in profile). Eros is painted with brown skin delicately shaded with strokes of lighter hue. His hair, pulled up in a tall chignon, is blonde and his wings yellow and white. The ground line is a wavy white line. Compare a pelike in Taranto with a seated Eros holding a wreath (Forti, Gnathia, pl. 6). For the combination of incised block and polychrome figure, compare a krater fragment in Taranto (Forti, Gnathia, pl. 33,c).
ProvenanceBy date unknown: van Branteghem Collection; 1892: auction of the van Branteghem Collection, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, May 30-31, June 1, lot 231 (said to have been found at Tarentum); by 1897: Somzée Collection; 1901: auction of the Somzée Collection (Catalogue des Tapisseries Antiquités Grecques & Faiences Italiannes faisant partie de la Collection de Somzée, Brussels, May 20-23, 1901, lot 105: Trouvé à Tarente); 1901: with E. P. Warren; purchased by MFA from E. P. Warren, December 1901