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

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

Artist The Athena Painter Greek

Place of OriginGreece, Attica

Date500-490 BCE

Dimensions10 15/16 × 3 11/16 × 2 1/16 × 3 11/16 × 2 11/16 in. (27.8 × 9.4 × 5.2 × 9.4 × 6.8 cm)

MediumBlack Figure; Wheel-thrown, slip-decorated earthenware with incised details

ClassificationCeramics

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1947.62

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 02, Classic

Collections

Decorative Arts

Published References

Brommer, F., Vasenlisten zur griechischen Heldensage, 2nd ed., 1960, p. 265, no. 29.

Washington, S. "Greek Vase Painting," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, vol. 5, no. 4, 1962, p. 91.

Riefstahl, Rudolf M., "Greek Vases," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, vol. 11, no. 2, 1968, p. 36.

Auktion 40, Kunstwerke der Antike, 13 December 1969, Müzen und Mediallen AG Basel, p. 46, lot no. 77.

Brommer, F., Vasenlisten zur griechischen Heldensage, 3rd ed., 1973, p. 359, no. 38.

Boulter, Cederick G., and Kurt T. Luckner, Corpus vasorum antiquorum: Toledo Museum of Art, U.S.A. fasc. 17, Toledo, 1976, p. 20-21, repr. pl. 28, 2-5.

Lexicon oconographicum mythologiae classicae (LIMC), Zürich, 1981, v. I, pt. 1, p. 76, no. 246, repr. v. I, pt. 2, p. 81.

Exhibition HistoryToledo Museum of Art, The Berlin Painter and His World: Athenian Vase Painting in the Early Fifth Century BC, July 8-October 1, 2017.Comparative ReferencesSee also Auktion XXVI, Münzen und Medaillen AG Basel. Kunstwerke der Antike. 5 Oct. 1963, pp. 59-60, lot no. 115.

Label TextAt 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.