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Overview of fragment. (©Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College)
Attic Black-Figure Lebes Fragment
Monograph 10: The Corinthian, Attic, and Lakonian Pottery from Sardis
(1997)
Cat. Att 37
- Date
- Ca. 570 BC, Lydian
- Sardis or Museum Inv. No.
- P63.178
- Material
- Ceramic
- Object Type
- Pottery
- Pottery Shape
- Lebes
- Pottery Ware
- Attic Black Figure
- Pottery Attribution
- Sophilos (?)
- Site
- Sardis
- Sector
- HoB
- Trench
- HoB
- B-Grid Coordinates
- W15 - W20 / S115 - S120 *101.5
- Description
- Wall fragment from upper body. A man riding a horse. He sits low on the back of the horse with his hands out in front of him, his fingers extended and holding onto the reins, which show at both sides of the horse's neck. The rider wears a purple tunic and his arms and feet are black. Incision is used to outline his body and fingers, the part of his body that overlaps the horse, and his right foot, but not his left. The outline of the horse is painted in a dilute glaze, with a heavier line used for the back parts. No trace of paint remains on the body of the horse or the man's legs where they overlap the horse's body, but there must have been white paint, which is now lost. The man's thigh is thick and short, and his whole figure somewhat ill defined. Glazed on interior. The technique is unusual but not unknown. D. von Bothmer (personal communication, from a photograph) expressed doubt that the piece is Attic, but its Athenian provenance has been confirmed by chemical analysis (Appendix 2, sample AP 14).
- Dimensions
- P.H. 0.028; W. 0.041; Th. 0.005--0.006.
- Comments
- Cf. dinos by Sophilos from Gortyn (W. Johannowsky, "Frammenti di un dinos di Sophilos da Gortina," ASAtene 33--34 [1955--56] 45--51), which also has a white horse with the nearer foot incised, but the farther one not, as on Att 37. The white body of the horse is outlined in dilute glaze. The Gortyn piece differs chiefly in that there is incision on the nearer leg. In addition, the men are nude and better proportioned than the figure on the Sardis fragment. On early horsemen, G. Buchner, "Figürlich bemalte spätgeometrische Vasen aus Pithekussai und Kyme," RM 60--61 (1953--1954) 51--55.
- See Also
- Bibliography
- Author
- NHR