On view
Pyxis (round box) depicting female musicians and dancers, with an interloping male youth,
ca. 300–250 BCE
This pyxis, or round box, is elaborately decorated. Detailed scenes of jumping dolphins adorn the lid while painted and appliqué acanthus leaves alternate with blue palmettes at the base. Around the body of the pyxis, women dance and play music in the presence of a single man. The bright polychromy distinguishes this pyxis from many other ceramics on display in this gallery. It is distinctive of a type of vessel made in Centuripe, Sicily, that is characterized by elaborate and delicately applied decoration, as well as polychrome painting that was applied after the vessel was fired. This particular vessel was likely never used in daily life but was instead placed directly in a grave, which may account for the survival of the fragile painting that decorates the surface.
Information
ca. 300–250 BCE
Europe, Italy, Centuripe, Sicily
-
Antiken-Auktion, Freitag, den 16. April 1971, (Zürich: Galerie am Neumarkt, 1971).
, cat. no. 72; pl. 24 - U. Wintermeyer, "Die polychrome Reliefkeramik aus Centuripe", Jahrbuch des deutschen Archäologischen Instituts 90, no. 1 (1975): p. 136-241., cat. no. 46; p. 199; figs. 45-46, 223
-
Egyptian, Greek, Etruscan, Roman and western Asiatic antiquities and Islamic works of art: Wednesday, November 29, 1989, (New York: Sotheby's, 1989).
, cat. no. 125 - "Acquisitions of the Art Museum 1989," Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 49, no. 1 (1990): p. 24-57., pp. 28–29
