Alabastron (vessel for scented oil)

Place of OriginGreece, Attica

Date480-470 BCE

DimensionsH: 5 21/32 in. (14.4 cm); Diam (rim): 1 3/8 in. (3.5 cm); Max Diam (body): 1 7/8 in. (4.75 cm)

MediumWheel-thrown, slip-decorated earthenware

ClassificationCeramics

Credit LineGift of Patricia Neils Boulter in memory of Cedric G. Boulter

Object number

1991.107

Not on View

Label TextThe figure of a black warrior appears on a distinctive group of over sixty alabastra all made in the same workshop in Athens in the early fifth century B.C. Because Greeks at this time had little contact with black Africans, blacks rarely appear in GreekPublished ReferencesMünzen und Medaillen A.G., Auktion 16, Basel, 1956, pl. 27, no. 114.

Beazley, John D., Attic Red-figure Vase Painters, Oxford, 1963, p. 268, no. 15.

Neils, J., "The Group of the Negro Alabastra: A Study in Motif Transferal," Antike Kunst, vol. V, 1980, p. 17, no. 23, and po. 4, nos. 5-7.