Rare Miniature Greek Attic Lekythos w/ Nude Youth

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Ancient / Ethnographic Around The World

By Artemis Gallery

Mar 12, 2020

Set Reminder 2020-03-12 10:00:00 2020-03-12 10:00:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : Ancient / Ethnographic Around The World https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/artemis-gallery/ancient-ethnographic-around-the-world-4957
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• Lot Description
  Greek, Athens (Attic), ca. 5th century BCE. Petite and precious, this Attic red-figured lekythos is decorated with a boy who is nude save the garland around his waist, and crawls upon his hands and knees with one hand outstretched to the left. In addition to this iconography, there are two bands of frets (perhaps a stylized egg and dart motif) on the shoulder, a black band beneath the red rim, a black lower body and red foot. Lekythoi were used for storing oil used for a wide variety of purposes in the Classical World. While larger examples were usually designated for keeping olive oil, smaller more delicate examples like this were reserved for the bath to store precious unguents of sweet and floral aromas. Size: 3.25" H (8.3 cm)
  
  Alternatively, the iconography on this lekythos may depict a small child crawling towards a table on which his or her chous (not shown on the pottery) was placed. A chous was the gift of the important "day of the Choen". In mid February, both Attic and Ionian Greeks honored Dionysos with a three day holiday. On the first day, wine from the last year - known as the Pithoidia - was drunk for the first time; the Choen on the second day; and on the third day, they conducted wine drinking challenges and championships - the Chytren to remember the dead by donating food sacrifices. Also on the 2nd day, and pertinent to the imagery on this lekythos, they introduced three-year-old children to society by giving them a chous. This chous day was a very important lifetime event.
  
  A depiction of a crawling child usually adorns a chous. These vessels are typically 6 to 8 centimeters high, as is this example. Sadly, children who did not live to see their 3rd birthday were oftentimes buried with a chous. For more about this tradition read: Ingeborg Scheibler, Griechische Topferkunst, Munchen 1995, p. 50-51.
  
  Provenance: private Owen collection, Sussex County, New Jersey, USA, acquired in the 1990s from a US-based dealer
  
  All items legal to buy/sell under U.S. Statute covering cultural patrimony Code 2600, CHAPTER 14, and are guaranteed to be as described or your money back.
  
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  #146042

  Condition

  Handle reattached. Nicks to rim, edge of shoulder, and foot. Normal surface wear and scuffs/abrasions to areas commensurate with age. Imagery is still vivid.
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