Lekythos (Oil Jar)

about 400 BCE

Greek; possibly Campania, Italy

During the course of the 5th and 4th centuries B.C., black vessels (commonly called black-glaze vessels) were made with increasing frequency in both Greece and South Italy. Many of them replicate the shape of metal vessels. Others have detailing that is molded or incised. While the quality of these vessels varies greatly, all would have been less expensive than vessels decorated in other contemporary techniques, for example, in red-figure.

Status: On View, Gallery 151
Department: Arts of the Ancient Mediterranean and Byzantium

Culture: Ancient Greek
Title: Lekythos (Oil Jar)
Place: Ancient Greece (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.: 400 BCE
Medium: terracotta, black-glaze
Dimensions: 24.1 × 11.1 × 11.1 cm (9 1/2 × 4 3/8 × 4 3/8 in.)
Credit Line: Museum Purchase Fund
Reference Number: 1889.257
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/317/manifest.json

Art Institute of Chicago, Preliminary Catalogue of Metal Work, Graeco-Italian Vases, and Antiquities, December 9, 1889 (Chicago: Early and Halla Printing Company, 1889), p. 44, no. 347.
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. 18.

The Art Institute of Chicago, Of Gods and Glamour: The Mary and Michael Jaharis Galleries of Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Art, Gallery 151, November 11, 2012-present.

Pio Marinangeli, Rome; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1889.

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