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Oil flask (lekythos) with youth playing lyre
Greek
Early Classical Period
about 470 B.C.
Place of Manufacture: Greece, Attica, Athens
Medium/Technique
Ceramic, Red Figure
Dimensions
Height: 27.7 cm (10 7/8 in.)
Credit Line
Bartlett Collection—Museum purchase with funds from the Francis Bartlett Donation of 1912
Accession Number13.194
CollectionsAncient Greece and Rome
ClassificationsVessels
Catalogue Raisonné
Caskey-Beazley, Attic Vase Paintings (MFA), no. 135.
DescriptionA youth squatts with his weight on his right foot, his left foot advanced. Hi cloak (himation) hangs over his left shoulder, as he plays the lyre (barbitos). He leans back, and looks up, with lips parted, about to sing. The plektron for plucking the strings is attached to the lyre by a red cord. The sound-board is made of the shell of a tortoise. Brown dilute glaze is used for the youth's whiskers, forehead hair, and for a line representing the mustache.
Inscribed in Greek above his head in the field: "Handsome" (KALOS).
Inscribed in Greek above his head in the field: "Handsome" (KALOS).
Inscriptions"Handsome" (KALOS)
KALOS
KALOS
ProvenanceSaid to be from Gela, Italy. 1911, sold by Tommaso and Ignazio Virzi (dealers), Palermo, to Edward Perry Warren (b. 1860 - d. 1928), London and Rome; 1913, sold by E. P. Warren to the MFA for $18,948.70 [see note]. (Accession Date: January 2, 1913)
NOTE: Total price paid for MFA accession nos. 13.186 - 13.245. Shipped to Warren in 1911 as "Lekythos--Youth with Lyre falling back" (source: private archive). Many thanks to Erin Thompson for facilitating access to this material.
NOTE: Total price paid for MFA accession nos. 13.186 - 13.245. Shipped to Warren in 1911 as "Lekythos--Youth with Lyre falling back" (source: private archive). Many thanks to Erin Thompson for facilitating access to this material.