Lekythos (unguent container); Scene: King Acrisius sending off Danae and Perseus

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Lekythos (unguent container); Scene: King Acrisius sending off Danae and Perseus

Artist Providence Painter (Greek)

Dateabout 470 BCE

DimensionsOverall: H 16 × Diam 5 5/8 in. (40.6 × 14.3 cm)
Base Diam: 3 5/8 in. (9.2 cm)
Rim Diam: 3 1/8 in. (7.9 cm)

MediumRed Figure; Wheel-thrown, slip-decorated earthenware

ClassificationCeramics

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

Object number

1969.369

On View

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

Label TextA lekythos is a container for oil used in funeral rites. They often therefore depict funerary rites, a scene of loss, or a scene of departure. On this lekythos, however, the painter has depicted an episode in the story of Danae and Perseus. King Acrisius of Argos had been warned by an oracle that he would be killed by his daughter Danae’s son, so he locked her in a tower. However, Zeus, king of the gods, entered the tower as a shower of gold and impregnated Danae, who gave birth to Perseus. To save himself, Acrisius put Danae and her son in a wooden chest and set them adrift on the sea (the scene shown here). The infant Perseus, shown as a miniature adult, is already in the chest. His mother is about to climb in. Acrisius, on the right, gestures as if to hurry the two away. Mother and child survived the ordeal, and much later Perseus did kill his grandfather, although by accident.Published ReferencesMünzen and Medaillen A.G., Auktion 40. Kunstwerke der Antike. 13. Dezember 1969. Basel.

"Recent Accessions," Art Quarterly, vol. 33, no. 4, 1970, pp. 454, 455.

Luckner, Kurt T., "Greek Vases: Shapes and Uses," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, vol. 15, no. 3, 1972, pp. 82-83, figs. 33, 34.

Brommer, Frank, Vasenlisten zur greichen Heldensagen, 3rd ed., Marburg, 1973, p. 273, no. 16.

Boulter, Cedric G., and Kurt T. Luckner, Corpus vasorum antiquorum: Toledo Museum of Art, U.S.A. Fasc. 17, Toledo, 1976, p. 29, repr. pl. 44.

Lexicon iconographicum mythologiae classicae (LIMC), Zürich, 1981, v. I, pt. 1, p. 451, no. 5, repr. v. I, pt. 2, p. 343, vol. III, p. 331, no. 43.

Brümmer, Elfriede, "Griechische Truhenbehälter," Jahrbuch des Deutschen Archäologischen instituts, Bd. 100, 1985, p. 45, abb. 11a, p. 47.

Carpenter, T.H., Art and myth in ancient Greece, New York, 1991, p. 103, fig. 146, p. 109.

March, Jenny, Cassell dictionary of classical mythology, London, 1998, p. 124, fig. 45.

Oakley, John H., "Pity in Classical Athenian painting," in Pity and power in ancient Athens, ed. by Rachel Hall Sternberg, Cambridge Eng., Cambridge University PRess, 2005, p. 193-194, fig. 1.

Buxton, Richard, Den grekiska mytologins värld, Stockholm, Prisma, 2007, p. 104, repr.

Exhibition HistoryDallas, Meadow Museum; Amarillo Art Center, Classical myth in Western art: ancient through modern, 1985-1986, no. 5, p. 34, repr. p. 35, (col.) frontispiece.

Baltimore, The Walters Art Gallery; Dallas Museum of Art; Basel, Antikenmuseum und Sammlung Ludwig, Pandora: Women in Classical Greece, 1995, no. 75, pp. 271-272, repr. p. 271.

Hanover, NH, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College; New York, Onassis Cultural Center; Cincinnati Art Museum; Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum, Coming of age in ancient Greece: images of childhood from the classical past, 2003-2004, no. 13, p. 213-214, repr. (col.) p. 203, 213.