Main panel: sphinx, from the shoulders down
Main panel: sphinx, right wing
Main panel: sphinx on a base, facing a palmette
Main panel: palmette
Main panel: sphinx, left wing
Main panel: sphinx
| Collection: | Yale University Art Gallery |
| Summary: | A sphinx seated on a three-stepped base, facing a stylized palmette. |
| Ware: | Attic Red Figure |
| Painter: | Attributed to the Bowdoin Painter |
| Attributed By: | J.D. Beazley |
| Context: | From Laureion |
| Date: | ca. 500 BC - ca. 480 BC |
| Dimensions: | H. 0.177 m |
| Primary Citation: | |
| Shape: | Lekythos |
| Beazley Number: | 208125 |
| Period: | Late Archaic |
Condition: The breaks have been repaired with large portions of the back and sides (including the tips of the wings) restored. The surface is scratched and pitted.
Decoration Description:
he base and palmette suggest that this sphinx serves here, as elsewhere, as a guardian of the dead, which is an appropriate decoration for an oil flask, or lekythos, which was customarily used as a grave offering.
The shoulder bears a reserved band with five black palmettes, below a tongue frieze. A short maeander frieze, between two red bands, serves as the ground line for the sphinx. Added red is used for the fillet worn by the sphinx.
Characteristics of the style of the Bowdoin Painter that are exhibited in this vase include the use of a continuous line to represent the nose and the forehead and a wide eye, with curved upper lid and straight lower lid.
Shape Description: Type II lekythos
Collection History: From the Rebecca Darlington Stoddard Collection.
Sources Used:
Other Bibliography: