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Three-dimensional approximation of the vase

Overview: handle rear

Main panel: woman spinning

Collection: London, British Museum
Summary: Woman spinning
Ware: Attic Red Figure, White Ground
Painter: Attributed to the Foundry Painter
Context: from ? Locri
Date: ca. 480 BC
Dimensions:

H 8 3/4 inches
Primary Citation: ARV2, 403, 38, Addenda 213
Shape: Oinochoe
Beazley Number: 204379
Region: Bruttium
Period: Late Archaic

Decoration Description:

A woman stands to the right, wearing a long, sleeved, dotted chiton, a bordered himation, and sandals and further adorned with earrings and bracelets. Her hair is wound up in a ball on her neck and fastened with a fillet. She twists between the thumb and forefinger of her right hand a thread from a hank of wool on a distaff which she holds up with her left. To the right runs an inscription, [epig-rough]*E *P*A*I*S *K*A*L*E, "the girl (is) beautiful." This vase celebrates women's work within the domestic sphere, the production of all woven materials for the oikos.

The neck, handle, and foot are of black glaze. The edge of the lip is colored purple. At the base of the handle is an inverted palmette. Below the molding on the shoulder is a band of tongue pattern, red on black. The body is covered with a white slip, on which the design is drawn in black outline. Purple is used for the fillet, bracelets, sandals, wool, and spindle. Inner markings of the drapery and inscription are drawn in light brown.

Attributed to the Brygos Painter in Barber, in Neils 1992, p. 105 fig. 64.

Inscriptions:

On the right, [epig-rough]*E *P*A*I*S *K*A*L*E, "the girl (is) beautiful."

Collection History:

Castellani, 1873.

Sources Used:

Smith 1896, 394; Boardman 1975, fig. 267