Ancient Greek Pottery Attic, White-Ground decorated Lekythos H: 19.5 cm

Lekythos Attic, Greek End of 6th – 5th century BC Pottery Height 19. 5 cm PROVENANCE: Private collection, New York, USA. Acquired from an auction house between 1970 and 1990. CONDITION: In a good general state with some slight knocks visible. Without any repainting of the polychrome. There are lines of breakage at the neck and the handle which have been professionally restored. DESCRIPTION: A classical-form lekythos with a pyriform body above a disk-form base, a strip handle and a long neck ending in a trumpet-form mouth. It is made from light-coloured clay painted with an evolving type of black-figure technique. The belly of the vase is covered by white slip, with a sketch of a figure silhouetted in red. This is an effigy of a naked warrior wearing a cape or cloak which covers part of his back and left arm. The right hand is holding a spear. His head is inclined slightly to the left. A sort of mound, or perhaps the outline of a shield, can be seen next to him and above him is a band or garland. As they were fragile items, white-ground lekythoi were at first made to fulfil particular orders. From 470-460 BC this style of lekythos was limited to funerary use, where it was to be found placed in a tomb. They were only used once and therefore were not exposed to the elements. As a result of this evolution in their use, the iconography also evolved to be centred on funerary scenes, like farewells and lamentations, representations of the deceased in life, for example, seated in front of the very tomb. In some cases the painter has represented a lekythos next to the deceased. Other scenes have been inspired by mythology. In this way we can find Charon crossing the river Styx, or Hermes as a psychopomp guiding a deceased soul, or Hypnos and Thanatos carrying the owner of the tomb to the Underworld. The figurative decoration on these vessels reached very high levels of artistic quality. Notes: The seller guarantees that he acquired this piece according to all national and international laws related to the ownership of cultural property. Provenance statement seen by Catawiki. The piece includes authenticity certificate. The piece includes Spanish Export License (Passport for European Union) - If the piece is destined outside the European Union a substitution of the export permit should be requested. This process could take between 1 and 2 months.