Seated on a stool, the young man hands what appears to be a piece of fruit to the woman standing before him. An oinochoe (jug), a mirror, and a sakkos (snood) are suspended in the background. It is impossible to determine whether this is a vignette of daily life, as depicted by Douris, the Villa Giulia Painter, and many other artists of the mid and later fifth century B.C. It may instead be a funerary representation as depicted on grave stelai; the youth would be the deceased.
Artwork Details
Use your arrow keys to navigate the tabs below, and your tab key to choose an item
Title:Terracotta lekythos (oil flask)
Artist:Attributed to the Achilles Painter
Period:Classical
Date:ca. 440 BCE
Culture:Greek, Attic
Medium:Terracotta; white-ground
Dimensions:H. 15 1/2 in. (39.4 cm)
Classification:Vases
Credit Line:Rogers Fund, 1907
Accession Number:07.286.42
Richter, Gisela M. A. and Lindsley F. Hall. 1936. Red-Figured Athenian Vases in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. no. 117, p. 151, pls. 116, 176, New Haven: Yale University Press.
Metzger, Henri. 1951. Les représentations dans la céramique attique du IVe siècle. no. 28, pp. 23, 25, 30, Paris: E. de Boccard.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1953. Handbook of the Greek Collection. p. 99, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Beazley, John D. 1963[1942]. Attic Red-figure Vase-painters, Vols. 1 and 2, 2nd ed. p. 1001, no. 209, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Wehgartner, Irma. 1983. Attisch Weissgrundige Keramik: Maltechniken, Werkstätten, Formen, Verwendung. pp. 190, n. 26, 221–2, n. 30, Mainz am Rhein: Verlag Philipp von Zabern.
Oakley, John H. 1997. The Achilles Painter. pls. 3a, 150, Mainz: Verlag Philipp von Zabern.
Oakley, John H. 2004. Picturing Death in Classical Athens: The Evidence of the White Lekythoi. p. 60, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Cohen, Beth. 2006. The Colors of Clay: Special Techniques in Athenian Vases no. 65, pp. 228–29, Malibu: J. Paul Getty Trust.
Mertens, Joan R. 2010. How to Read Greek Vases. no. 28, pp. 23, 25, 30, 103, 112, 140–44, 168, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The Met's Libraries and Research Centers provide unparalleled resources for research and welcome an international community of students and scholars.
The Met Collection API is where all makers, creators, researchers, and dreamers can connect to the most up-to-date data and public domain images for The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.
Feedback
We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.
The Museum's collection of Greek and Roman art comprises more than 30,000 works ranging in date from the Neolithic period to the time of the Roman emperor Constantine's conversion to Christianity in A.D. 312.