A Lebes Gamikos

Fired Terracotta

Sicily, Centuripe, ca. 275-225 BC
H: 67cm

A large vase consisting of three sections: foot, body, and domed lid. Each is enlivened with well-preserved polychromy, ornate plastically modelled features, and gilding. The effect is feminine to the modern eye, which fits with the shape’s connotations in the ancient world: associated with nuptial ritual, lebes gamikoi were typically decorated with painted figures and mythological subjects. On this example one can still see the faded phantom figure of a standing female.

Cf. G. Pugliese Carratelli, The Western Greeks (London 1996) p. 751 nr. 388.

Condition: Complete and reassembled from large fragments TL tested by CIRAM laboratories.

Provenance: The fragments formerly, in the 1970’s, in possession of Dr. Elie Borowski, Basel. Another part of Borowski’s Centuripe vases was auctioned by Christie’s, New York, in June 2000.

Item reference: CL1363