During the late sixth century B.C., Athenian artists began to use the white-ground painting technique to decorate special lekythoi, containers that held oil used to anoint the bodies of the dead and were also left as offerings at graves. Until their production diminished at the end of the fourth century B.C., lekythoi of this type were associated almost exclusively with funerals. They often feature scenes of domestic life.

In this simple composition, a specialty of the Achilles Painter, one woman presents another with a chest. These two women are often thought to be mistress and maid, although it is only the smaller size of the girl on the left that suggests they are not social equals; they may instead represent a mother and a daughter. A pitcher and a hair wrap hang in the upper left-hand corner, indicating that the scene is indoors. Since the woman on the right wears a mantle over her yellow tunic, she is probably dressing to go outdoors-perhaps to visit a grave or even to depart from this world. Jewelry from the chest may add the final touches to her outfit.

The rich colors of white-ground lekythoi provide exceptional evidence for ancient Greek monumental painting, which was highly esteemed in antiquity and is almost entirely lost to us today. The flaking away of the color on the left side of this composition, both from the girl's clothing and from the panels of the chest, offers a rare glimpse of the process behind the technique: after white was applied to the body of the vase, the artist made a line drawing and then filled in bright colors, bringing the design to life. These colors, layered atop one another after the vase was fired, were fragile and prone to loss, perhaps used because the vases' funerary function did not require long-lasting materials-a tangible sign of the ancient Greek view of life and death.

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