Vase Catalog Number: London D 4

Decoration:

Interior: Tondo: In the center Pandora (or Anesidora) stands in a frontal pose, stiff as an Archaic kore or xoanon with her feet together and hands at her sides. She looks to the left and raises the edge of her drapery slightly with each hand. Above her is her name [A]NESIDORA. She is wearing a long, sleeved chiton undergirt and decorated with stars; her hair streams down loosely about her shoulders, confined with a fillet, apparently just placed there by Hephaistos. Athena appears to be fastening Pandora's chiton on her shoulders. Both deities stand taller than the mortal woman. Athena on the left wears a long chiton girt at the waist with a girdle, the ends of which fall in front under the upper fold of the chiton. Around her shoulders she wears the aegis fringed with snakes and set with the gorgoneion. It is decorated with a diaper pattern rather than scales. Over her is her name, ATHENAA. Hephaistos on the right wears a rather scanty himation and holds his hammer at his side in his left hand. His short hair is confined with a golden fillet. The scene recalls Hesiod's Theogony (Hes. Th. 573-580).

The inner face is covered with a white slip and has a thin, brown circle drawn within one inch of the lip, forming the border of the design. The figures are drawn in black outline with inner details in brown with accents in purple and white. The head-dresses and head of the hammer are molded and gilt on a raised ground.

Exterior: Side A: A horse stands to the right in the center. It is approached by two ephebes. The first holds the halter in his right hand and a spear in his left. He wears a chlamys, fillet, and petasos, hanging at his back. The second is closely draped in a himation and carries a crutched staff on his left arm. He too wears a fillet. Beside the horse in the foreground a woman stands to the left and holds a honeysuckle flower in her right hand. She wears a long, sleeved himation, sakkos, and stephane. Confronting her is a bearded man who rests on his staff with his right hand on his hip and offers her a purse with his left. He is dressed in himation and fillet.

Side B: In this scene the central horse turns to the left. Beside it in the background is an ephebe standing in a frontal pose, but looking left at another youth. The first wears a himation and fillet and holds a staff in his right hand. The second youth moves away, looking back and leading the horse by the halter with his left hand. He carries a spear and wears a chlamys, fillet and petasos at his back. On the left is a woman who raises a flower to her face with her right hand. She wears a long chiton and himation, with her hair knotted with a fillet. To the right of the horse are two figures. The first is a woman in a long, sleeved chiton, himation and radiated sphendone, who holds out a phiale in her left hand and pours wine onto the ground from a jug in her right. Facing her on the right is an old man in a long chiton, himation, and fillet, who stands in a frontal pose, looking left toward the woman. He leans with his right shoulder against a crutched staff. From the gesture of his left hand and his open mouth he seems to be addressing her.

The exterior is executed in red figure with fillets, wine and cords in added red and the old man's hair and beard in added white. Below is a band of meanders broken by red cross squares. Below each handle is a double palmette ornament.

Inscriptions:

Above Pandora is her name [A]NESIDORA. Above Athena is her name, ATHENAA.

Collection History:

Found at Nola in 1828 or 1829, ex Hope Collection. Purchased in 1881, from sale of Bale Collection.

Sources Used:

Smith 1896, 389-391; Murray & Smith 1896, pl. 19

(Susan H. Allen)