Lebes (Stemmed Bowl with Lid)

Arts of the Ancient Mediterranean and Byzantium

725-700 BCE

Etruscan; possibly Vulci

Situated at the crossroads of Mediterranean trade routes, the Etruscans were avid importers of Greek vases with figural decoration. Many of these vessels survive today because they were buried with their Etruscan owners, and were discovered in tombs only during the last several centuries. This example was made by a local artist who quickly adopted the decorative motifs and painted styles of imported wares and adapted them to local tastes in order to capture some of the market.

When the Greeks established settlements along the Italian coast, they brought with them pottery decorated in the Geometric style. On this ceremonial vessel there are banded decorations of zigzags, diamonds, and cross-hatching. The long-necked birds and stylized horses present recall bronze votive figures from Geometric-period Greece.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Arts of the Ancient Mediterranean and Byzantium

Culture: Ancient Etruscan
Title: Lebes (Stemmed Bowl with Lid)
Place: Etruria (Object made in)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 725 BCE–700 BCE
Medium: terracotta
Dimensions: 57 × 43 × 20 cm (22 3/8 × 16 7/8 × 7 7/8 in.)
Credit Line: Costa A. Pandaleon Endowment
Reference Number: 1985.627
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/104488/manifest.json

Art Institute of Chicago, Annual Report: 1985-86 (Art Institute of Chicago, 1986), p. 72.
Louise Berge, “Recent Acquisitions in the Classical Collection at the Art Institute of Chicago” in Daidalikow: studies in memory of Raymond V. Schoder (S.J. Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, 1988), pp. 46, 50; illus. pp. 47, 48, 49.
Karen B. Alexander, “From Plaster to Stone: Ancient Art at the Art Institute of Chicago,” in Karen Manchester, Recasting the Past: Collecting and Presenting Antiquities at the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago; New Haven: Yale University Press, 2012), p. 33.

Art Institute of Chicago, Greek Vases - Form and Function, Gallery 101A, March 3, 1986 – October 8, 1986.
Art Institute of Chicago, The Human Figure in Early Greek Art, A Preview, Part One, Gallery 101A, September 1, 1988 – May 24, 1989.
Art Institute of Chicago, Ancient Art Galleries, Gallery 155, April 20, 1994-February 6, 2012.
Art Institute of Chicago, Of Gods and Glamour: The Mary and Michael Jaharis Galleries of Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Art, Gallery 152, November 11, 2012-September 8, 2017.

Galerie Gunter Puhze, Freiburg, Germany, by 1985; sold to the Art Institute, April 25, 1985.

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.