Apulian Red-Figure Lekanis with Lid
Red-figure
about 320–310 B.C.
The bowl has an inset rim and horizontal handles, a short stem, and a foot with a convex edge. The domed lid has a downturned rim and a knobbed handle on a cylindrical stem. Both the lid and bowl have been reconstructed from numerous fragments, and the lid does not fit perfectly. There is an overall red wash on the exterior of both the lid and the bowl, and on the underside of the foot. In some areas, the glaze has misfired red-brown. Glaze abraded on part of lid, and especially on handles of bowl.
Lid: both sides, head of a woman in profile to left. The hair is caught up in a covering (kekryphalos), patterned with pinkish white lines and strokes at the top, where the hair emerges in a wavy bunch and is tied with a white ribbon. Each woman also wears a row of beads across the hair on the brow, a yellowish white radiate stephane, a circular earring with a dot-cluster, and a double-strand necklace. Between the heads are palmette-fans with side-scrolls and white dots between the upper leaves. Behind each head is a white-tipped, four-petaled rosette. In the field in front of one is an ivy leaf.
The interior of the bowl is entirely black except at center where there is a small, elliptically shaped area that is red, perhaps as a result of misfiring due to the thickness of the clay, or because another vessel was placed upon it during the firing process. On the exterior: band of laurel in red-figure with white berries between leaves.
On the lid, the recessed disk in the center of the knob is decorated with a rosette, the petals of which have a white stroke down the center and are separated by white circles. On the outer edge of this disk, a stripe that, due to misfiring, is more red than black. The stem has a broad black band and, around its join to the lid, an egg pattern. The lower edge of the lid is also decorated with an egg pattern, with central strokes of white. The inside of the lid is reserved.
After Jentoft-Nilsen, M. R. and Trendall, A.D., CVA Malibu 3 (1990).
Lid: both sides, head of a woman in profile to left. The hair is caught up in a covering (kekryphalos), patterned with pinkish white lines and strokes at the top, where the hair emerges in a wavy bunch and is tied with a white ribbon. Each woman also wears a row of beads across the hair on the brow, a yellowish white radiate stephane, a circular earring with a dot-cluster, and a double-strand necklace. Between the heads are palmette-fans with side-scrolls and white dots between the upper leaves. Behind each head is a white-tipped, four-petaled rosette. In the field in front of one is an ivy leaf.
The interior of the bowl is entirely black except at center where there is a small, elliptically shaped area that is red, perhaps as a result of misfiring due to the thickness of the clay, or because another vessel was placed upon it during the firing process. On the exterior: band of laurel in red-figure with white berries between leaves.
On the lid, the recessed disk in the center of the knob is decorated with a rosette, the petals of which have a white stroke down the center and are separated by white circles. On the outer edge of this disk, a stripe that, due to misfiring, is more red than black. The stem has a broad black band and, around its join to the lid, an egg pattern. The lower edge of the lid is also decorated with an egg pattern, with central strokes of white. The inside of the lid is reserved.
After Jentoft-Nilsen, M. R. and Trendall, A.D., CVA Malibu 3 (1990).
Images courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art (CC0)