lekythos

Lekythos, oil flask, of Greek, South Italian, or Attic origin. It is made of fine red or pink clay. It is a single-handled miniature, possibly a grave offering. A low foot ring holds a flattened, spherical-bodied, one-piece vessel with a longish neck and bell nozzle. Thin, dull black paint covers the vessel, with a red figure scene on the body of a woman’s head in profile on a groundline. She wears her hair up, and has a large drop button earring. There is florid decoration, possibly of tendrils, a hand, or a mirror, behind and in front of the head.

Lekythoi often served as offerings to the dead, placed on tombs or on the steps of grave stelae and used to anoint funerary mounments, especially by female mourners

Collection Information

These objects are only a part of our collections, of which there are more than 350,000 objects. This information comes from our collections database. Some of this is incomplete and there may be errors. This part of the website is also still under construction, so there may be some fields repeated or incorrectly formatted information.

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