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Lekythos (unguent container); Scene: Achilles and Polyxena at a fountain

Lekythos (unguent container); Scene: Achilles and Polyxena at a fountain

Artist: The Athena Painter (Greek)
Date: 500-490 BCE
Dimensions:
H: 11 1/32 in. (28 cm); Diam (mouth): 2 3/32 in. (5.3 cm); Diam (shoulder): 3 21/32 in. (9.3 cm); Diam (foot): 2 21/32 in. (6.7 cm)
Medium: Black Figure; Wheel-thrown, slip-decorated earthenware with incised details
Place of Origin: Greece, Attica
Classification: Ceramics
Credit Line: Purchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey
Object number: 1947.62
Label Text:At a fountain outside Troy, Achilles, Greek hero of the Trojan War, spies on Polyxena, the daughter of King Priam of Troy. This is an episode from the Trojan War not mentioned in the Iliad, but which does appear in later epic stories.

The technique used to decorate this flask is called white ground. It is a variation on the black-figure technique in which the vessel is coated with a liquid mixture (slip) of pure white clay and then painted with the standard slip used for the black-figure technique.

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