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A Lekythos by the Achilles Painter
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 December 2013
Extract
The white lekythos reproduced in Fig. 1 and Pl. IV is not a recent find. A rough sketch of it, sent from Athens by Urlichs, was published by Emil Braun in Annali dell' Instituto for 1842, pl. L. The vase itself appeared in London at the Norfolk House sale in 1937 (sale catalogue no. 71), and was acquired by me shortly after. It is by the Achilles Painter, number 163 in my list of his works (ARV. p. 644), and belongs to his later middle period, between 440 and 430 B.C. Forty-two and a half centimetres high, it is one of his largest lekythoi, the same height as his well-known' lekythos, with a warrior and a seated woman, Athens 1818 (Riezler pl. 36, whence Pfuhl fig. 543: ARV. p. 643 no. 135). It has a false bottom, like a good many other white lekythoi, and the vent-hole made necessary by this construction is just visible in Fig. 1, on the left, half-way between the lower border and the base-fillet. The other false-bottomed lekythoi by the Achilles Painter have the hole in the same part of the vase. Figures and patterns are drawn in glaze-paint, thinned to brown and golden-brown. A few details are in matt colour, red and black, now much faded. In the middle is the monument, a tapering stele, with gable and acroteria, standing on two steps. Three sashes, in dull black, are tied round the stele. A chaplet, tied into a round, rests on the lower step and leans against the upper; another such chaplet, loose, passes round the foot of the stele and hangs down over the upper step. These objects are often represented both round the heads of revellers and at the tomb or in the basket of offerings brought to it, and other lekythoi by the Achilles Painter show the same arrangement of them as here.
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- Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1946
References
1 From Braun's publication it was known to Jahn, (Beschreibung der Vasensammlung König Ludwigs p. xxiv)Google Scholar and to Fairbanks (AWL p. 245 no. 73).
3 See Kourouniotis in Eph. (1906) 1–7, Buschor, ALP. 2–3Google Scholar, Haspels, A.B.L. 176–7Google Scholar. The first mention of false bottomed lekythoi seems to be in Benndorf, CSV. 29Google Scholar, top.
4 On these vent-holes see Haspels, loc cit. Weisshäupl mentioned them as early as 1890 (AM XV 50). Miss Haspels quotes two lekythoi by the Achilles Painter with such holes, our nos. 98 and 108: Athens 1963 (JHS XVI pl. 5, 2; Riezler pll. 4 and 4a and p. 92: CV. Jc pl. 3, 1–2 and 4) and Athens 12440 (CV. Jc pl. 2, 1–2). Others are London D48 (Murray WAV. pl. 2) and Oxford 545 (VA. 165); our nos. 123 and 139. A white lekythos, with the picture in matt red lines, formerly in the Pozzi collection (Cat. Pozzi pl. 12, 479), may be in the manner of the Achilles Painter. The pattern-work is his, and the vent-hole is in the right place. One cannot be sure from the faint illustrations that the picture is genuine, but it may well be. I am not sure from my notes that this is the same as the Revelstoke lekythos no. 10 on my p. 648, but think it very likely.
5 Boston 93.106 (Caskey B. pl. 25, 55); Athens 1821 (Riezler pl. 37); Victoria and Albert Museum (Burl. Cat. 1903 Pl. 94, H34): our nos. 134, 142, and 162.
6 See Caskey B. p. 49.
7 Caskey B. pp. 49–50.
8 Munich, von Schoen; Bonn (CV. pl. 43, 1 and 3, pl. 44, 3, and pl. 46, 2); Boston 08.368 (Caskey B. pl. 25, 54): our nos. 129, 133 and 179. Already on the early lekythos Athens 12744 (Riezler pl. 6; CV. Jc pl. 2, 5–6), our no. 102. Stopt key on Athens 1818 (Riezler pl. 36), our no. 135.
9 Athens 12794 (Riezler pl. 35), 12795 (CV. Jc pl. 6, 1–2), 12791 (Riezler pl. 39); 13750. The first three, our nos. 145, 146, and 148, belong to a group (nos. 145–50) which might be, rather than work of the Achilles Painter himself, copies or imitations of him by an artist of the same character as the Bird Painter. 13750 is an early vase.