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Lekythos
Terracotta, Greek, Attic, black-figure, ca. 550-530 B.C.
Attributed to the Amasis Painter
Fletcher Fund, 1931 (31.11.10)
Judy and Michael H. Steinhardt Gallery
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This vessel is a lekythos, a small container for olive oil. The decoration shows a scene of women making cloth. In the scene shown above, two women on the extreme left use hand-held spindles to spin wool into a basket on the floor. From the center to the right, two smaller figures are working a loom. Textile historians have used this image to reconstruct Greek weaving techniques. Weights tied to the ends of the warp threads hold them taut, and the weavers pass the weft threads back and forth across them. Very few Greek textiles survive, but some of the women depicted on the vase wear fancy-patterned clothing, and Greek literature offers descriptions of bright-colored garments, cushiony blankets, and splendid hangings woven with scenes from mythology.
The making of textiles was one of women’s most important occupations in ancient Greece. A good weaver was considered an attractive woman and also a good wife. Homer describes Penelope, the devoted wife of Odysseus, busy at the loom day after day. This lekythos seems to link weaving with marriage. Just above the loom on the shoulder of the vessel, you see a seated woman holding out her veil in a gesture associated with brides in Greek art. At the Museum, the lekythos stands beside another of identical form decorated by the same painter, who has been called the Amasis Painter. The other lekythos has a wedding procession painted on its surface. The wedding was the defining moment in an Athenian girl’s life, and the pair of lekythoi may have been a wedding present for an Athenian bride in the sixth century B.C.
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