The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 26, 2024

Red-Figure Lekythos (Oil Vessel): Warrior Cutting Hair

Red-Figure Lekythos (Oil Vessel): Warrior Cutting Hair

c. 480–470 BCE

attributed to Oionokles Painter

(Greek, Attic, active c. 480–460 BCE)
Overall: 43.5 x 16.5 cm (17 1/8 x 6 1/2 in.)
Location: 102B Greek

Did You Know?

The painter lavished great detail on this warrior’s armor, even including a lion on his helmet’s cheekpiece!

Description

Whether cutting his hair or combing it, this solitary warrior seems to be contemplating his fate. If mythological, he may be Parthenopaios or another of the ill-fated Seven Against Thebes, a band of warriors tasked with overthrowing that central Greek city. The Seven left mementos for their loved ones before departing, and he may be cutting a lock of hair for this reason. The same motive might apply to historical soldiers as well, and he may represent one of the many Greeks who battled the Persians around the time this vase was made. Unfortunately, the inscriptions painted on either side of the figure seem to be nonsense—actual Greek letters that do not spell out recognizable names or words.
  • ?-1928
    Mario de Ciccio, Naples, Italy, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    1928-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Beazley Archive. n.d. Beazley Archive Pottery Database. Oxford: Beazley Archive. BAPD 207549 www.beazley.ox.ac.uk
    Carter, Martha L. Classical Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1961. Reproduced: cover archive.org
    Beazley, J. D. Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1963. p. 648, No. 37
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 20 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 20 archive.org
    Thompson, Dorothy Burr. An Ancient Shopping Center: The Athenian Agora. (Excavations of the Athenian Agora, Picture Book No. 12). Princeton, N.J.: American School of Classical Studies at Athens, 1971. p. 19, fig. 35.
    Boulter, C. G., Jenifer Neils, and Gisela Walberg. Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1971. p. 20, plate 31 www.beazley.ox.ac.uk
    Boardman, John. "Heroic Haircuts." The Classical Quarterly 23, no. 2 (1973): 196-97. Mentioned in n. 5. 638172
    Kunisch, Norbert. "Parthenopaios." Antike Kunst 17, no. 1 (1974): 39-41. Taf. 8,1. 41318586
    Boardman, John. Athenian Red Figure Vases, the Archaic Period: A Handbook. London: Thames and Hudson, 1975. P. 195, fig. 361.
    Dusenbery, Elsbeth B. "Two Attic Red-Figured Kraters in Samothrace," Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Vol.47, No. 3 (Jul. - Sep., 1978), pp. 211-243. Mentioned at p. 228, n. 55. www.jstor.org
    Moon, Warren G. and Louise Berge. Greek Vase-Painting in Midwestern Collections. Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago, 1979. Reproduced & mentioned: pp. 164-165, cat. 94 www.perseus.tufts.edu
    Burn, Lucilla, Ruth Glynn, and J. D. Beazley. Beazley Addenda: Additional References to ABV, ARV² & Paralipomena. Oxford [Oxfordshire]: Published for the British Academy by Oxford University Press, 1982. p. 134
    Cleveland Museum of Art, and Jenifer Neils. The World of Ceramics: Masterpieces from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Museum in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1982. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 17, no. 19
    Elfriede R. Knauer, "Ou gar en amis: A Chous by the Oionokles Painter," Greek Vases in the J. Paul Getty Museum, vol. 3. Pp. 91-100 (CMA vase mentioned in nn. on pp. 99-100).
    Carpenter, Thomas H., J. D. Beazley, Thomas Mannack, Melanie Mendonça, and Lucilla Burn. Beazley Addenda: Additional References to ABV, ARV² & Paralipomena. Oxford: Published for the British Academy by Oxford University Press, 1989. p. 275
    Serbeti, Eleftheria D. "The Oionokles Painter," Boreas: Münstersche Beiträge zur Archäologie 12 (1989), pp. 17-46. See esp. pp. 17-22, 40-46.
    Jarva, Eero. "Archaiologia on Archaic Greek Body Armour". Studi Archaeologica Septentrionalia 3 Rovaniemi: Pohjois-Suomen historiallinen yhdisys, 1995. p. 31, Fig. 8
    Fliegel, Stephen N. Arms and Armor: The Cleveland Museum of Art. [Cleveland, Ohio]: The Museum, 1998. p. 22
    Immerwahr, Henry R. A Corpus of Attic Vase Inscriptions (CAVI). [Place of publication not identified]: [publisher not identified], 1998. p. 791, no. 3202
    Herodotus, Aubrey De Sélincourt, and John Marincola. The histories. London: Folio Society, 2006. p. 380
    Fliegel, Stephen N. Arms & Armor: The Cleveland Museum of Art. [Cleveland, Ohio]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2007. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 32
    Girard, Thibaut. L'oblique dans le monde grec: concept et imagerie. 2015. p. 147, Fig.139
    Arrington, Nathan T. Ashes, Images, and Memories: The Presence of the War Dead in Fifth-Century Athens. Oxford Univ. Press, 2015. p. 37, n. 77.
    Osborne, Robin. The Transformation of Athens: Painted Pottery and the Creation of Classical Greece. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2018. p. 234, Fig. 10.6
    Oakley, John Howard. A Guide to Scenes of Daily Life on Athenian Vases. Madison, Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin Press, 2020. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 173-174, fig. 8.8
  • Greek Vase-Painting in Midwestern Collections. The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL (December 22, 1979-February 24, 1980).
  • {{cite web|title=Red-Figure Lekythos (Oil Vessel): Warrior Cutting Hair|url=false|author=Oionokles Painter|year=c. 480–470 BCE|access-date=26 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1928.660