London D 71 (Vase)
Woman seated at a tomb
- ID:
- aa_5236
- Beazley Number:
- 217816
- Type:
- Vase
- Date:
- ca. -410 — ca. -400
- Period:
- High Classical
- Painter:
- Attributed to Group R
- Dimensions:
-
H 0.51m
- Ware:
- Attic Red Figure, White Ground
- Shape:
- Lekythos
Decoration Description
To the right a woman sits at a broad monument draped with taeniae (ribbons) and laden with offerings (probably her husband's tomb). She looks left, her arms folded, as she sadly contemplates her future as well as the past. She wears a long chiton, himation, sandals, and a necklace of beads. A white-ground lekythos sits on the step beside her, two alabastra, and a black loutrophoros on the finial above her head. There appears to be a secondary monument a shaft with a triangular pediment surmounting the primary one. Beside the shaft there is a strigil, suspended in the field. A woman stands to the right holding a basket of ribbons in her left hand and places a large lekythos on the upper plinth with her left. She advances, wearing a long chiton. On the left is a figure, almost completely worn away, whose feet show that it was once seated on a mound to the left of the tomb with its left hand on its knees and feet resting on the plinth.
Figures "seated at the tomb on Group R lekythoi are regularly taken for the dead, even though (they) can in no way be distinguished from the other 'visitors' to the tomb." (
The style of drawing shows quick broken lines which indicate volume. The technique recalls the descriptions of the work of Parrhasios, a painter at work from 431-404 B.C. who was said to have achieved volume without shading. This work also reflects interest in perspective in the treatment of the alabastra on the tomb and in the strong foreshortening of the body.
- Collection:
- London, British Museum
