Alabastron with a Female Sphinx and a Lion-Headed Bird

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Alabastron with a Female Sphinx and a Lion-Headed Bird

Artist A painter near the Double-bodied Sphinx Painter (Greek)

Place of OriginGreece, Corinth

Dateabout 625 BCE

Dimensions6 1/2 × 3 1/2 × 2 in. (16.5 × 8.8 × 5 cm)

MediumSlip-decorated earthenware

ClassificationCeramics

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number

1917.132

Not on View

DescriptionA wheel-thrown, round-bodied alabastron with a narrow neck and a wide, flat discoid rim. The vessel stands on a rounded base without a foot and features a small, pierced lug handle at the neck. The surface is covered in a pale slip and decorated in the black-figure technique with added red and incised details. The primary frieze features two large, confronted mythological creatures: a female sphinx wearing a polos and a panther-bird (lion-headed bird), both facing right. The background is filled with large, solid incised rosettes. The rim is decorated with radiating tongues, while the neck features vertical tongues. A rosette of tongues decorates the bottom of the vessel.

Label TextThis small but powerful vessel, known as an alabastron, was designed to hold precious perfumed oil. Made in Corinth, a major center of trade and pottery production in the 7th century B.C., it showcases the Greek fascination with the "Orient" (the Near East). The artist has painted two fantastic creatures: a sphinx wearing a tall crown (polos) and a rare "panther-bird"—a lion’s head on a bird’s body. These monsters, adapted from Near Eastern art, served as magical guardians for the valuable contents of the jar. The large, solid rosettes filling the background are a hallmark of the Early Corinthian style, marking a shift away from earlier, more cluttered geometric patterns.Published References

Washington, Sheldon, "Greek Vase Painting," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, vol. 15, no. 4, Winter 1962, repr. p. 76.

Riefstahl, R. M., "Greek Vases," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, vol. 11, no. 2, 1968, repr. p. 31.

Lakofsky, C., Pottery, Dubuque, 1968, p. 84, fig. 84.

Boulter, Cedric G. and Kurt T. Luckner, Corpus vasorum antiquorum: Toledo Museum of Art, fasc. 2, U.S.A. fasc. 20, Mainz, 1984, pl. 73, nos. 1-4.

Amyx, D.A., Corinthian Vase Painters, Berkeley, p. 303, no. b-3.

Lexicon iconographicum mythologiae classicae (LIMC), Zürich, 1981-1999, vol. VIII, pt. 1, p. 1153, no. 29.