Main panel: Nike, right wing

Main panel: Nike, from the waist down

Main panel: Nike holding phiale and oinochoe, altar at left

Overview: handle at left

Main panel: Nike, left wing

Base

Collection: Cambridge, Harvard University Art Museums
Summary: Nike flying toward an altar.
Ware: Attic Red Figure
Painter: Attributed to the Berlin Painter
Date: ca. 485 BC - ca. 475 BC
Dimensions:

H. 0.243 m.; D. 0.08 m.
Primary Citation: ARV2, 211, 189; Beazley Addenda 2, 196.
Shape: Lekythos
Beazley Number: 202008
Period: Late Archaic

Date Description:

Beazley called it "early" (ARV2, 211, 189), but it is clearly not earlier than 490, and the Berlin Painter started painting before 500; note also the similar treatment of the overmantle by a younger artist, the Providence Painter (see below).

Condition:

Neck broken and mended, with a mouth that does not belong. Otherwise in excellent condition.

Decoration Description:

Nike half runs, half flies to the left toward a low altar. Her left leg is raised, as though just coming in for a landing. Her wings are spread out to left and right, and she turns her head to the right. The wings have dotted coverts and red stripes through the primary feathers. Nike wears bracelets of added red and a diaphanous chiton with a deep overfold; the lower chiton is flecked with dots and bisected by a group of parallel folds drawn with relief lines. Over her shoulders she wears a short overmantle (diploïs, with weights on the corners and curiously stylized folds. Her long hair is tied in a queue with a small cloth bag at the tip. On her head is a stephane, from beneath which cascade ringlets drawn with dilute glaze. Like her wings, her arms are extended to either side, with an oinochoe in the left hand and a phiale in the right. She is about to pour a libation at the altar, which sits on a low block. The altar has Ionic volutes and a burn pan with horn-like projections, on which the fire, drawn with added red, is blazing fiercely.

The baseline consists of alternating black dentils framed by paired stripes. A band of egg-pattern is below the neck. The fillet is framed by reserved incisions. The side of the foot is reserved except for a broad, streaky black stripe near the base. Top of the mouth reserved; inside of mouth glazed. The rest of the vase, including the shoulder and handle, is a glossy black.

Shape Description:

Lekythos: flat shoulder with sharp, slightly flaring edge; disk foot; vertical handle; fillet between foot and body.

Collection History:

Lent by the Misses Upham.

Sources Used:

CVA, Fogg-Gallatin; Kurtz 1983.

Other Bibliography:

CVA, Fogg-Gallatin, 34, pl. 17, 43; Kurtz 1983, pls. 31.69 and 59b.