(Anonymous Painter, 410-400 B.C.E, Lekythos, Athens, White-Ground, Terracotta, 46.4 x 13.4 cm., Art Institute, Chicago)
Numerous Greek cemeteries were filled with offerings to dead relatives, hoping to be seen in the afterlife. Many fall into the categories of terracotta containers and tombstones consisting of stone and marble. This specific vessel held oil, decorated in a unique process called white ground, named after the light coating on the shoulder and overall shape of the jar. Figures on the lekythos were first planned through a slight sketch technique, then detailed in bright colors. Due to the main usage of these receptacles, the images on them usually demonstrated burials, tombs, and departures from those who passed away. On this specific lekythos, a youth is seen wrapped in a bronze-colored garment, supporting himself with a walking stick, offering a brown-haired bearded man a helmet. His body sits in his blue upper body covering. The details that have remained after all this time are glorious, providing the world with a view into the impact the afterlife had on the development of Greek art through all periods.
Comments