Lekythos Attributed to the Circle of the Phiale Painter in the Getty Villa, June 2016

Title: Attic Red-Figure Lekythos

Artist/Maker: Circle of Phiale Painter (Greek (Attic), active about 450 - 425 B.C.)

Culture: Greek (Attic)

Place: Athens, Greece, Europe (Place created)

Date: about 450 B.C.

Medium: Terracotta

Object Number: 86.AE.250

Dimensions: 31.6 × 10.5 cm (12 7/16 × 4 1/8 in.)

Alternate Titles: Oil Jar with a Woman at Her Toilette (Display Title)

Object Type: Lekythos

This red-figure lekythos captures an intimate moment of a woman at her toilette. The nude woman glances back over her shoulder, momentarily turning her gaze from contemplating herself in the mirror. The unknown vase-painter included familiar household items, such as the small chest at the left and the kalathos, or wool basket, at the right. Scenes of a woman at her toilette are found in Athenian vase-painting from the early 500s B.C. on, but the women are usually clothed. The portrayal of this woman as nude may indicate that she is a hetaira, or prostitute. The use of added white paint for the woman's flesh--an unusual choice in red-figure pottery of the mid-400s B.C.--further emphasizes her nudity. This vase did not fire properly in the kiln. Much of its surface is a red-brown, rather than the standard deep black of Athenian pottery. The side of the lekythos to the right of the woman even has a "ghost" of a meander pattern band caused by touching another vase during firing.


Text from: www.getty.edu/art/collection/objects/12025/circle-of-phiale-painter-attic-red-figure-lekythos-greek-attic-about-450-bc