Attic Black Figure Oinochoe

Date
Ca. 500-480 BC , Late Lydian (Persian)
Sardis or Museum Inv. No.
Butler P1373
Material
Ceramic
Object Type
Pottery
Pottery Shape
Oinochoe
Pottery Ware
Attic Black Figure
Pottery Attribution
Class of Vatican G 49
Site
Sardis
Sector
Nec
Trench
Butler Tomb 813
Locus
Butler Tomb 813
Findspot
Necropolis, Tomb 813.
Description

Chase, "Field Notes": "On neck, simple maeander, bordered above and below by a single line; on shoulder, ... tongue pattern bordered above and below by a single line, and defining top of main field; at either side of main field, three vertical lines and ... two rows of pellets in regular alternation. Above maeander, a single line runs about the neck; on upper part of foot, similar line; below main field, pair of similar lines. In the main field: female figure (Artemis?) seated on folding stool, right, but with head turned to left. She wears chiton and himation, decorated with a few scattered white and red spots, and in her hair a pellet (right). In her right hand, she holds a branch which extends downward and right. From her shoulders two similar branches rise obliquely. Another extends downward left from just below her right arm; a fifth rises obliquely from the ground under the chair. Four of these branches have a white pellet (berry?) on either side near the middle. The fifth has only one pellet. The left hand of the figure is raised and touches the muzzle of the bull at the right, which has a fillet (right) about his neck. The bull at the left has a similar fillet; his muzzle is marked by a white circle. The legs of the stool are in the form of animals' legs; at the upper end of each and at the point where they cross is a white circle.

"Attic style of 2nd half of 6th C [But here dated ca. 500-480.] Incision rather careless."

Beazley (ABV 524) relates this class to the Athena Painter, on whose dating, see ABL 163. G.M.A. Hanfmann suggested that the female figure may be Europa.

Dimensions
H. 0.197; diam. 0.125
Comments
See Also
Bibliography
Published: Sardis I, 118, fig. 124. For date, see ABV 533.10; for Tomb 813 contents, see Sardis R2, 75. For the tomb in general, see Sardis I, 159-62 and figs. 122, 177, 178. The tomb also contained a bronze end of a bier pole, a faience Egyptian eye, several terracottas, a stone alabastron, gold objects (Sardis XI, no. 12), and a seal (Sardis XI, no. 104 and Sardis I, 121, fig. 131). I am grateful to the late Edith Porada, who kindly provided the following information regarding this cylinder (by letters to C.H. Greenewalt, Jr., 22 February 1985 and 8 March 1985). She saw it as having been made at Sardis, late in the reign of Darius I, and cited comparisons with an example from Memphis (W. Flinders Petrie et al. ed., Meydum and Memphis III [BSAE XVIII, 1910], pl. 36, no. 27); and she compared the flat-topped headdresses of the sphinxes to those on a sealing from Persepolis (E.F. Schmidt, Persepolis II [Chicago 1953-1957], pl. III, PT 4, 673).
Author
NHR