Article
Online Activities: Red-Figure Lekythos
This fragment from a red-figure lekythos (oil bottle) in the Princeton University Art Museum is attributed to the Berlin Painter and dates to about 490—480 B.C. It represents a woman standing before an altar, on which rests a tall metal incense burner. The woman wears a long linen gown, or chiton, over which is draped a heavier woolen cloak, a himation. Her hair is wrapped in a cloth headdress, a kekryphalos. Her missing right hand holds an oinochoe (wine jug), and in her raised left hand she holds what appears to be a small branch, perhaps for fanning the coals in the incense burner. Over-painting has obscured most traces of the preliminary sketch, but otherwise it is possible to compare elements of the drawing with that on the cup with an Amazon.
Once again the ground line consists of parallel lines, but now the space between them has been filled with a band of meanders and framed crosses. The woman, the altar, and all the other objects in the scene are surrounded by an eighth-inch band, which is clearly visible in raking light.
Relief lines are used for most internal features‚—drapery folds, ankles, ear, eye‚—but they define very few contours in the scene, for example the woman's chin and the line of her nose, but not her mouth or nostrils. The line of her right leg, visible beneath her garments, is drawn with two relief lines that stop at her knee, which the artist preferred to draw with a diluted slip that fired golden brown.
The same brown slip is used for her necklace, for the folds of the upper chiton, and for her right breast, visible beneath the gown. The artist used a slightly less diluted slip and a brush to render the wispy locks emerging from beneath the woman's kekryphalos.
These subtle effects of line and color add variety and delicacy to the design, which exhibits several distinctive elements that permit a confident attribution to the Berlin Painter. Among these is the drawing of the eye, whose outline is open at the inner corner, and the pupil to the right of center. The necklace is like many others by the artist, as are the forms of the altar and incense burner.
The drawing of the ankles is particularly characteristic: two opposing curves, one longer than the other, that never touch.
The rigid symmetry of the folds of the woman's himation yields to more widely spaced catenaries that curve toward her right leg but stop short of the edge. The pattern work in the band below is a variation of a design closely associated with the Berlin Painter: individual meanders changing direction on either side of framed crosses, which alternately descend or rise, a subtlety of construction that imparts vitality to the design.
The result is an elegant, harmonious design, well adapted to the tall, cylindrical shape of a lekythos.
Once again the ground line consists of parallel lines, but now the space between them has been filled with a band of meanders and framed crosses. The woman, the altar, and all the other objects in the scene are surrounded by an eighth-inch band, which is clearly visible in raking light.
Relief lines are used for most internal features‚—drapery folds, ankles, ear, eye‚—but they define very few contours in the scene, for example the woman's chin and the line of her nose, but not her mouth or nostrils. The line of her right leg, visible beneath her garments, is drawn with two relief lines that stop at her knee, which the artist preferred to draw with a diluted slip that fired golden brown.
The same brown slip is used for her necklace, for the folds of the upper chiton, and for her right breast, visible beneath the gown. The artist used a slightly less diluted slip and a brush to render the wispy locks emerging from beneath the woman's kekryphalos.
These subtle effects of line and color add variety and delicacy to the design, which exhibits several distinctive elements that permit a confident attribution to the Berlin Painter. Among these is the drawing of the eye, whose outline is open at the inner corner, and the pupil to the right of center. The necklace is like many others by the artist, as are the forms of the altar and incense burner.
The drawing of the ankles is particularly characteristic: two opposing curves, one longer than the other, that never touch.
The rigid symmetry of the folds of the woman's himation yields to more widely spaced catenaries that curve toward her right leg but stop short of the edge. The pattern work in the band below is a variation of a design closely associated with the Berlin Painter: individual meanders changing direction on either side of framed crosses, which alternately descend or rise, a subtlety of construction that imparts vitality to the design.
The result is an elegant, harmonious design, well adapted to the tall, cylindrical shape of a lekythos.
