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View: Handle to right
Oil flask (squat lekythos) depicting Nike sacrificing a bull between Ares and Aphrodite
Greek
Classical Period
about 394–390 B.C.
Place of Manufacture: Greece, Attica, Athens
Medium/Technique
Ceramic, Red Figure with added white, added clay lines, dilute glaze and traces of gilding
Dimensions
Height: 15.2 cm (6 in.); diameter: 8.4 cm (3 5/16 in.)
Credit Line
Henry Lillie Pierce Fund
Accession Number98.884
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsAncient Greece and Rome
ClassificationsVessels
DescriptionNike grasps a bull, which has been driven to its knees, as she holds a knife to its neck. Aphrodite is seated at the right, wearing a sleeveless chiton and holding a shield and spear. At the left Ares stands wearing a Corinthian helmet with long crest and supports a shield and spear place on the ground. The shield is trimmed with a wave pattern. An elaborate palmette and tendril pattern fills the area below the handle and spreads out over the rear third of the vase. A laurel wreath circles above the figures, and a tongue pattern forms the ground line. Elongated tongues circle the neck.
Bull and flesh of female figures painted white. Details of white areas added in dilute glaze, and brush strokes model Ares' shield. Added clay: details of wing, hair ribbons and neecklaces of Nike and Aphrodite, spears, wreath on helmet, olives in wreath above the figures, centers of scrolls below handle. Gilding would probably have covered the areas with added clay.
The weapons would be appropriate for Aphrodite, as venerated in the Piraeus, whose temple was built by the admiral Conon after he defeated the Spartan fleet off Cnidos in 394 B.C. Aphrodite was the patron goddess Cnidos, and she must have been regarded as favoring the Athenians on the day of the battle. (Herrmann, Shadow of the Acropolis, cat. no. 22)
Bull and flesh of female figures painted white. Details of white areas added in dilute glaze, and brush strokes model Ares' shield. Added clay: details of wing, hair ribbons and neecklaces of Nike and Aphrodite, spears, wreath on helmet, olives in wreath above the figures, centers of scrolls below handle. Gilding would probably have covered the areas with added clay.
The weapons would be appropriate for Aphrodite, as venerated in the Piraeus, whose temple was built by the admiral Conon after he defeated the Spartan fleet off Cnidos in 394 B.C. Aphrodite was the patron goddess Cnidos, and she must have been regarded as favoring the Athenians on the day of the battle. (Herrmann, Shadow of the Acropolis, cat. no. 22)
ProvenanceBy 1895: with Edward Perry Warren (according to Warren's records: purchased in 1895 from a Greek who said it was from Eretria); 1898: purchased by MFA from Edward Perry Warren for $ 69,618.13 (this figure is the total price for MFA 98.641-98.940)