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View: Side B

Lebes gamikos

Greek, South Italian
Early Hellenistic Period
about 330–320 B.C.
Place of Manufacture: Italy, Apulia

Medium/Technique Ceramic, Red Figure
Dimensions 11.8 cm (4 5/8 in.)
Credit Line Gift of Thomas Gold Appleton
Accession Number76.61a-b
ClassificationsVessels

Catalogue Raisonné Vase-Painting in Italy (MFA), no. 056.
Description(a) Vase.
Side A: Eros seated, profile to left on a cista or altar decorated with yellow patterns. He holds a phiale in his raised right hand and rests the left on his seat. He wears a kekryphalos shoes, earrings, necklaces, a bandoleer, bracelets, and a large anklet, all in added color. In the field above the phiale is an ivy leaf, below it a rosette, both touched with added color. Except for some ing feathers and an offering in the phiale consisting of three white dots, all the added color is yellow.
Side B: Woman walking, profile to right. She carries a mirror in her raised right hand and a wreath in the lowered left hand A fillet hangs in the field at left, and at upper right is a "window." Many details are in added yellow.
(b) Cover.
Shape: The knob on the lid is barely taller than the two vertical handles. The body is ovoid, with a flattened shoulder. A reserved stem separates the body from the foot, which has a tall, tapering rider (reserved, with a black stripe around the top) and a black base with a cyma recta profile.

ITALIAN VASE PAINTING in ITALY, # 56 (76.61a-b)
Lebes Gamikos
Connected with the Woman-Eros Group
about 330-320 B.C.

A: Eros is seated to the left on a cista or altar decorated with yellow patterns. He holds a phiale in his raised right hand and rests the left on his seat. He wears a kekryphalos, shoes, earrings, necklaces, a bandoleer, bracelets, and a large anklet, all in added color. In the field above the phiale is an ivy leaf, below it a rosete, both touched with added color. Except for some wing feathers and an offering in the phiale consisting of three white dots, all the added color is yellow.
B: A woman in a chiton, kekryphalos, shoes, earrings, bracelets, and necklace is walking rapidly to the right, her head turned back to the left. She carries a mirror in her raised right hand and a wreath in the lowered left hand. A fillet hangs in the field at left, and at upper right is a "window." Many details are in added yellow.
There are tongues on top of the lid and on both shoulders. A band of wave-pattern circles the side of the lid. There are large palmettes on the sides beneath the handles. Tall, coiling tendrils and smaller palmettes flank the figures on both sides. The handles have two broad reserved stripes at their bases; another is at the base of the knob.
Trendall and Cambitoglou listed this vase among those of "coarser style" associated with the Woman-Eros Painter, a painter of skyphoi and lebetes gamikoi in the Darius-Underworld Workshop. In addition to RVAp, see A. Cambitoglou, AJA 64 (1960), pp. 365-366.
ProvenanceBy date unknown: Thomas Gold Appleton Collection (according to Robinson, Catalogue, no. 526: purchased by him of Alessandro Castellani; from Ruvo); gift of Thomas Gold Appleton to MFA, 1876