Greek, 4th century B.C.

Terracotta

H: 12.1 cm (4.7 in) – D: 10.3 cm (4.0 in)

Serial: 30618

Greek potters developed several specific shapes of the vessels which were used in everyday life for storage the liquids (water, wine, oil, perfumed oil). The variety of designs can be surprising today; it widely depended on the custom of drinking and serving wine in ancient Greece. Covered amphorae were appropriate for temporary storage of wine; wine was usually mixed with water (the proportion required at least two parts of water) in the kraters or large mixing bowls; water was supplied in three-handled water-pitchers, hydriae; the ladle, the kyathos, was used for dipping the mixture off into the jugs, oinochoai, or into the drinking cups.

Other vessels were used for the cosmetic oils. A small amount of oil necessary for personal hygienic purposes was carried in a small container such as an aryballos, alabastron, or lekythos, suspended by a string from the wrist. Like a lekythos, an epichysis is a container for oil. It is of an unusual form: a jug with a reel-shaped body and elongated handle and neck ending in a beaked spout. The body of this epichysis is low and wide, resembling a pyxis shape. The roughly modeled female faces, located on both sides at the juncture of the handle and mouth, are typical for this conventional type as well as for other more unusually shaped epichyses. 

The neck of the vessel, the shoulders and the rim of the bottom are black-glazed while the body keeps the color of the clay which was once covered with red paint. Such division clearly follows the compound shape. Its origin is not very clear; however, the beaked spout and curved handle suggest the metal prototype. The precision of the execution makes this vessel a remarkable piece of the ancient Greek pottery design.

CONDITION

A few scratches; small restoration on shoulder; handle and spout repaired.

PROVENANCE

Sotheby’s London, June 18, 1968, Lot 114; Ex- Mrs. C. Lewis collection; Ex- Breitbart collection; Sotheby’s New York, June 20, 1990, lot 145; Ex- US private collection, New York

PUBLISHED

Sotheby’s London, June 18, 1968, Lot 114;  Sotheby’s New York, June 20, 1990, lot 145

BIBLIOGRAPHY

GREEN J.R., Some Gnathia Pottery in the J. Paul Getty Museum, in Greek Vases in The J. Paul Getty Museum, vol.3, Occasional Papers on Anti       quity 2, Los Ahgeles, 1986, p. 117-121.

MAYO M.E., HAMMA K., The Art of South Italy: Vases from Magna Graecia, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, 1982, p. 273, no. 132