The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 21, 2024

White-Ground Lekythos (Oil Vessel): Youths at Tomb

White-Ground Lekythos (Oil Vessel): Youths at Tomb

c. 420–400 BCE

attributed to Group R

(Greek, Attic, active c. 420–410 BCE)
Greek, Attic
ceramic
Overall: 49.5 cm (19 1/2 in.)
Gift of the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust 1928.859
Location: 102B Greek

Did You Know?

White-ground vases give some idea of the appearance of ancient wall painting.

Description

This white-ground lekythos, a large funerary oil vessel, shows three youths at a tomb. The one seated in the center likely represents the deceased, while those standing on either side are mourners. Although much of the pigment is now lost, the strong use of line and three-quarter views have been cited by some scholars as possibly reflecting the lost works of the famous wall-painter Parrhasios.
  • ?-1928
    Dr. Jacob Hirsch, New York, NY, 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 217811 www.beazley.ox.ac.uk
    Beazley, J. D. Attic White Lekythoi. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1938. p. 25, pl. VIII (as "Once Geneva, Dr. Hirsch").
    Cox, Warren E. The Book of Pottery and Porcelain. New York: L. Lee and Shepard Co.; distributed by Crown Publishers, 1944. Vol. I, p. 59, pl. 15.
    Archaeological Institute of America. 1953. "Art and Archaeology at the Cleveland Museum of Art," Archaeology: A Magazine Dealing with the Antiquity of the World, vol. 6.4. pp. 195-202 (ill. on p. 198).
    Carter, Martha L. Classical Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1961. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 5-6; Plate 10 archive.org
    Beazley, J. D. Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters, 2nd ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1963. p. 1383, no. 10.
    Boulter, C. G., Jenifer Neils, and Gisela Walberg. Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1971. p. 23, plates 35,2 & 36 www.beazley.ox.ac.uk
    Neils, Jenifer. "The Orestes Sarcophagus and Other Classical Marbles." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 71, no. 4 (1984). p. 103, fig. 4 www.jstor.org
    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. 372
    Beazley, J. D., and Donna C. Kurtz. Greek Vases: Lectures. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989. plate 24
    Moon, Warren G. and Louise Berge. Greek Vase-Painting in Midwestern Collections. Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago, 1979. Mentioned & reproduced pp. 218-219
  • Greek Vase-Painting in Midwestern Collections. The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL (December 22, 1979-February 24, 1980).
  • {{cite web|title=White-Ground Lekythos (Oil Vessel): Youths at Tomb|url=false|author=Group R|year=c. 420–400 BCE|access-date=21 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1928.859