Around the lip, pygmies fighting cranes Around the main surface of the handle, three satyrs; on the ends, Hermes and Perseus; on top, two tritons
Both potter and painter, Nearchos was one of the great artists active about 570 B.C. His son, Tleson, was the major potter of Little Master cups in the succeeding generation. Both were literate; they inscribed their vases. This aryballos is exceptional for the precision and vigor of the figures.
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Title:Terracotta aryballos (oil flask)
Artist:Signed by Nearchos as potter
Period:Archaic
Date:ca. 570 BCE
Culture:Greek, Attic
Medium:Terracotta; black-figure
Dimensions:H. 3 1/16 in. (7.8 cm)
Classification:Vases
Credit Line:Purchase, The Cesnola Collection, by exchange, 1926
Accession Number:26.49
Signature: Signed by Nearchos as potter
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Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC). 1994. Vol. 7: Oidipous-Theseus. "Perseus," p. 341, no. 153; "Psoleas," p. 568, no. 2, pl. 435; "Pygmaioi," p. 595, no. 2, pl. 467, Zürich: Artemis Verlag.
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