Red-Figure Lekythos Attributed to the Eucharydies Painter in the Getty Villa, June 2016

Title: Attic Red-Figure Lekythos

Artist/Maker: Eucharides Painter (Greek (Attic), active about 500 - 470 B.C.)

Date: about 480 B.C.

Medium: Terracotta

Dimensions: Object: 33.8 cm (13 5/16 in.)

Place: Athens, Greece (Place Created)

Culture: Greek (Attic)

Object Number: 73.AE.23

Inscription(s): Underneath is a graffito in the form of an M (Johnston type 13 B) with an additional stroke.

Alternate Titles: Oil Jar with a Man Holding a Lyre (Alternate Title)

Department: Antiquities

Classification: Vessel

Object Type: Lekythos

A young man holding a lyre made from a tortoise shell decorates this Athenian red-figure lekythos. He stands resting one hand on a walking stick and wearing only a mantle wrapped over one shoulder. Aristocratic Greek youths were trained in a variety of skills. In addition to athletics, boys were taught the arts of music and poetry, which were considered essential for well-bred youths to master.

A lekythos was used to store and pour precious oil, and the narrow neck and bowl-shaped mouth helped conserve the expensive commodity. Lekythoi and many other vessels produced in Athenian pottery workshop were exported to Italy, and an M -shaped graffito scratched under the foot of this lekythos was a trader's mark, used to identify goods in shipment.


Text from: www.getty.edu/art/collection/object/103SXV