Lekythos with white background. - Thermoluminescence test attached - Ancient Greek, c. 420 BC. Pottery. 31 cm height. CONDITION: Piece made from 3 fragments. Two intrinsic breaks in the vessel and one break in the lower part of the handle appear. PROVENANCE: - Private collection, France, 19th century. - Antoine Tarantino, Paris, 2002. - Private collection, Michel Meignan, Paris, France. DESCRIPTION: Attic lekythos from the Classical period, for funerary use, decorated with the white ground technique. The vessel is almost cylindrical, narrower towards the base and with a soft entasis in the profile. It stands on a tall, flat, circular foot. A sharp ridge indicates the starting point of the shoulders, which narrow until they join the neck forming a stylised curve. The neck is tall and narrow, cylindrical, and ends in a trumpet-shaped mouth, wider at the top, where it ends in a flat cut. The handle is vertical, in the form of a thick ribbon, and rises from the shoulders to the base of the mouth, where it curves to descend again following the line of the neck, ending at the junction between the neck and the shoulders. It is made of reddish ceramic and decorated with a white slip that serves as a background for the painted decoration, which covers most of the vessel. The mouth, neck, handle, foot and lower part of the vessel are covered with black varnish. The upper part of the mouth and the elevation of the foot are decorated with an orange-red varnish. The brushed motifs appear worked in red; the palette was probably originally broader, including cold-applied and therefore more delicate colours, which are not usually preserved except in rare examples (fig. 1). The figurative scene is framed by honey-coloured lines above and below. The brushed decoration is concentrated in the areas with a white background, with the neck of the vessel clearly distinguished. Although the shoulder area appears empty, it is possible that it was originally decorated with floral or geometric ornamental motifs; in fact, remains of a continuous fretwork can be seen in the band situated just below the shoulders. The figurative scene, of a funerary type, follows a symmetrical scheme with its axis at the front of the lekythos, where a column-shaped tomb appears decorated with a ribbon and topped by a large acanthus palmette, a common element in this type of funerary lekythoi (fig. 2). The column was one of the three types of funerary monument used in Greece in the 5th century BC, along with the amphora and the stele. There are various painted vases where column tombs appear with different elements on their upper part, mainly acanthus, palmettes and small pediments. The acanthus is a plant closely related in Greece to the realm of death, and the palmette would be nothing more than its geometric representation. On the other hand, the pediment alludes to the naiskos, a small funerary shrine that symbolises the heroisation of the deceased. The tomb appears flanked by two mourners, relatives of the deceased: a young man on the left and a woman on the right. The boy is bare-chested, wearing a cloak that falls from his hips, with a voluminous knot in front, and leaning on a staff as he leans his torso towards the tomb, extending his right hand towards it and slightly raising his gaze. A funerary lekythos with a very similar figure is preserved in Munich, although in this case a mature, bearded man (fig. 3). The woman is dressed in a long, light, loose, short-sleeved tunic, and is represented with her torso facing forward and her head and legs in profile, facing the tomb and also extending her right hand towards it, in a graceful gesture with her hand relaxed, with only the index finger extended. Unlike the male figure, the lady bows her head and lowers her gaze. The so-called Painter of Women was an artist specialising in the decoration of funerary lekythoi with a white background, active in Athens during the classical period, around 420 BC. In his pieces we can generally see the same scheme as this lekythos, with black varnish in the secondary areas, a white background on the container and shoulders and the figurative scene framed by honey-coloured lines, framing a border at the top, below the shoulders. Characteristic of his work is also the simple drawing style, with clean and expressive lines, as can be seen especially in one of the pieces by his hand preserved in the Louvre Museum (fig. 4) The lekythos is a type of Greek ceramic characterised by its vertical shape, narrow neck and wide mouth. Its function is not well known, although it was probably originally used to store olive oil. The smaller examples would be unguent jars, given that their open mouth allows the perfumed oil to be dispensed, and the larger ones have a clear funerary function, possibly due to their relationship with the ointments used to embalm the deceased. The lekythos is the most emblematic form of the white-ground decorative technique; It was created in Athens in the first half of the 6th century BC, and acquired its characteristic cylindrical container shape by the end of the century. Its production ceased at the end of the following century, when the white-ground decoration disappeared definitively. Although in the oldest white-ground lekythoi, from the archaic period and contemporary with black-figure pottery, the figurative themes can be varied, during the second half of the 5th century they will be exclusively funerary in type. The layout of the piece under study will then be very common, with the tomb flanked by two or more figures who appear lamenting or carrying offerings such as ribbons, baskets or vases. As can be seen in this lekythos, the figures flanking the tomb generally appear facing each other, facing the monument, and it is common for them to reach out one of their hands towards it, or even touch it (fig. 5). Developed in Attica between the 6th and 5th centuries BC, white-ground pottery is based on the use of a white slip as a background for pictorial decoration. Although it was initially drawn with glazes and slips, which are fired and therefore very durable, as the style evolved, cold-applied pigments were incorporated. This is why white-ground decoration is noticeably more fragile than that of black- and red-figure vessels; hence it was mainly applied to votive vessels or vessels intended for funerary goods. There is no consensus about the origin of this style; it could imitate marble funerary vessels, although very few of these pieces appear entirely covered by white slip. It has also been theorized that it could emulate contemporary fresco painting, something plausible but difficult to prove. The first examples of the style, dating from around 570 BC, are pieces decorated with parallel bands of different colours. Decades later, around 530, the first figurative vases with a white background appear, still very close to the contemporary black-figure technique: large fields of black, details in reserve and sgraffito, addition of red, white and violet colours. In these pieces the drawing is executed with a thick glossy varnish, difficult to apply. Gradually this varnish will be diluted, allowing greater freedom in the drawing and favouring the appearance of faded, more subtle colours. Around the middle of the 5th century, a matt varnish is introduced for the outlines, which will finally prevail over the previous, thicker glossy varnish. With this new pigment, which gives even more freedom to the painter, the fluid and sketchy style characteristic of the last pieces with a white background is achieved. At the same time, a new polychrome of pastel tones is introduced, colours applied cold and therefore perishable. Although the white ground technique was used for the decoration of various types of vessels, the lekythos predominates by far; it is one of the funerary typologies par excellence in classical Greece. Before the iconography of the white lekythos became eminently funerary, it included domestic and mythological scenes. However, from the second quarter of the 5th century onwards, the subject matter (and use) of these pieces was almost exclusively funerary, and mainly presented realistic portraits of the funeral practices of contemporary Athenians, which literature rarely mentions or describes. Less numerous were the traditional, mythological representations of the arrival of death; they included mythical figures such as Charon, Hermes, Thanatos and Hypnos, who in some exceptional pieces appeared taking part in the funeral rites of the deceased (fig. 6). The depictions of real scenes related to death and burial are of particular interest today, for the information they provide about the customs of the Athenians of the classical period. The deceased is shown on his coffin attended by his family, with the men showing a deep sorrow and offering their respects and the women lamenting in a more expressive way, or cemeteries are depicted, with their monuments and mourners. In some cases the deceased is even shown sitting at the foot of his grave (fig. 7). In all these lekythoi, mourning is expressed in a noble, simple and beautiful way; nothing in them is unpleasant or ugly. Although there were undoubtedly more grandiose funerary monuments, few have the human appeal of the white Athenian lekythoi. BIBLIOGRAPHY: - BEAZLEY, J.D. Attic White Lekythoi. Oxford University Press. 1938. - GARLAND, R. The Greek Way of Death. Cornell University Press. 2001. - KURTZ, D. Athenian White Lekythoi. Patterns and Painters. Clarendon Press. 1975. - OAKLEY, J. Picturing Death in Classical Athens. The Evidence of the White Lekythoi. Cambridge University Press. 2004. PARALLELS: Fig. 1 White-ground lekythos with a funerary scene, attributed to the Reed Painter. Attica, Greece, c. 420–400 BC, ceramic. British Museum, London, inv. 1875,0309.28. Fig. 2 Lekythos on a white background with a funerary scene. Attica, Greece, c. 450-400 BC, ceramics. Musée du Louvre, Paris, inv. CA 3130. Fig. 3 White-ground lekythos with a funerary scene. Athens, c. 450-400 BC, ceramic. Staatliche Antikensammlungen, München (Germany), inv. SS82. Detail. Fig. 4 White-ground lekythos with a funerary scene, attributed to the Woman Painter. Athens, c. 420 BC, ceramic. Musée du Louvre, Paris, inv. L 103. Fig. 5 White-ground lekythos with a funerary scene, attributed to the Reed Painter. Attica, Greece, c. 420–400 BC, ceramic. British Museum, London, inv. 1772,0320.593. Detail. Fig. 6 Lekythos with Thanatos and Hypnos depositing a warrior in his tomb, attributed to the Thanatos Painter. Attica, Greece, c. 435-425 BC, ceramics. British Museum, London, inv. 1876,0328.1. Fig. 7 White-ground lekythos with a funerary scene, attributed to the Woman Painter. Athens, c. 420-400 BC, ceramic. Metropolitan Museum, New York, inv. 06.1169. Notes: - The piece includes authenticity certificate. - The piece includes Spanish Export License. - The seller guarantees that he acquired this piece according to all national and international laws related to the ownership of cultural property. Provenance statement seen by Catawiki.