Object Description
A very fine ancient Greek, Apulian skyphos with painted decoration. The vessel consists of a deep bowl, ribbed vertically throughout and decorated across the centre with a wide chevron pattern. This register is painted in a deep yellow ochre, with two flanking linear lines and dot motifs. The bowl rises upwards into a wide mouth and rim, decorated with a register of spiralling foliate and floral tendrils. Towards the centre is a painted female figure, with pale skin and blonde hair. Her wavy curls are tied into an elegant chignon at the back of her neck. Dark hatched lines provide a semblance of an open cap. Her facial features have been delicately rendered, with pale blonde eyebrows and dark eyes. Two D-shaped handles sit on each side, just beneath the rim. They are decorated with painted radiation striations half way up, with applied yellow pigment. The vessel sits on a high concave foot, glazed at the bottom with black glaze, with a meandering, yellow, decorative line running through the middle. The patterns on the whole of the vessel are repeated on both sides.
Date: Circa 340 – 310 BC