The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 18, 2024

Black-Figure Lekythos (Oil Vessel): Pan Presenting Hare to Woman

Black-Figure Lekythos (Oil Vessel): Pan Presenting Hare to Woman

c. 330–320 BCE
(South Italian, Paestan, active c. 360–320 BCE)
South Italian, Paestan
ceramic
Diameter: 6.1 cm (2 3/8 in.); Overall: 25.7 x 12.9 cm (10 1/8 x 5 1/16 in.); Diameter of foot: 8.1 cm (3 3/16 in.)
John L. Severance Fund 1985.1
Location: 102D Pre-Roman

Did You Know?

Although his name means “all” in Greek, Pan is primarily a god of shepherds.

Description

This round-bodied oil vessel, produced in Paestum, belongs to a small group of vessels decorated with black figure in the second half of the fourth century BC, long after the technique had previously fallen out of fashion. Unlike most such vessels, which are smaller and feature just a single figure (often a woman or bird), this one shows a more complex and colorful scene. The goat-legged god Pan perches on a branched tree trunk, holding his syrinx (panpipe) and a hare. Facing him, her hands on the trunk, is a draped woman, perhaps a nymph or the moon goddess Selene.
  • 1985-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Beazley Archive. n.d. Beazley Archive Pottery Database. Oxford: Beazley Archive. BAPD 10012936 www.beazley.ox.ac.uk
    Turner, Evan H. "The Year in Review for 1984." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 72, no. 2 (1985) p. 168 & 200, no. 3 www.jstor.org
    Trendall, A. D., and A. D. Trendall. The Red-Figured Vases of Paestum. [London]: British School at Rome, 1987. p. 387
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1991 Reproduced: p. 10 archive.org
    Hurschmann, Rolf. Die Pagenstecher-Lekythoi. Berlin: W. De Gruyter, 1997. p. 27, no. 36 (Gruppe von Cleveland), pl. 15 a-d
    Lexicon iconographicum mythologiae classicae 2. 2. Zürich: Artemis-Verl, 1997. no. 175
    Neils, Jenifer, and Gisela Walberg. Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum: The Cleveland Museum of Art. [Cleveland, OH]: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2000. pp. 56-57, PL.(1848) 102.1-4
  • Year in Review for 1984. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 3-May 5, 1985).
  • {{cite web|title=Black-Figure Lekythos (Oil Vessel): Pan Presenting Hare to Woman|url=false|author=Asteas/Python Workshop|year=c. 330–320 BCE|access-date=18 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1985.1