alabastron
- Museum number
- 1887,0801.61
- Description
-
Pottery white-ground alabastron (oil or perfume flask) with figural scene and a 'kalos' inscription; wheel-made; elongated body with a rounded base; narrow, slightly concave neck with a mushroom lip; pair of opposing lugs at the upper part of the vessel. Made of fine buff-orange clay with a white slip or ground, decorated with black and yellow; vessel restored from fragments and reconstructed in places (especially parts of the lower body).
Above and below the figural scene are tongues painted in black, on the bottom a rosette in red on black; on either side of the vase an ear in red. The pictorial scene shows a Bacchic ceremony. On the left is a Maenad to right, with hair in a tuft at the back, and a yellow plume (?), long yellow chiton and white himation over her shoulders, holding out a phiale in left hand. Before her is a crane to right, painted black, with yellow feathers on head and breast. On the right is a Maenad rushing towards the other, with sphendone and cap over her hair, chiton and himation as the other, sandals, and nebris tied at the neck, holding a laurel-branch in either hand. Around the flask just below the shoulder is an inscription in Greek alphabetic script naming Pasiades as the potter; around the mouth proclaims 'the boy is handsome [kalos]'.
- Production date
- 520BC-500BC (circa)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 14.60 centimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- BM Cat. Vases
J.H.S. viii. pl. 82, pp. 291, 318; The Owl (Science Suppl.), Nikosia, 1 Sept. 1888, pl. 1, p. 5 (Duemmler); Class. Rev. i. p. 25; Klein, Meistersig. p. 222; Duemmler, Bonner Stud. p. 80.
- Location
- On display (G14/dc1)
- Exhibition history
-
Exhibited:
2006 8 Jun-4 Sep, Los Angeles, The Getty Villa, The Colors of Clay
October 2012-January 2013, USA, Princeton, Princeton University Art Museum, 'City of Gold: Tomb and Temple in Ancient Cyprus'.
- Acquisition date
- 1887
- Department
- Greek and Roman
- Registration number
- 1887,0801.61
