Paestan, Asteas/Python Workshop
Lebes gamikos and lid, 350—320 BCE
‘Lebes gamikos’ translates to ‘marriage vase’ and this vessel is a scaled-down miniature (standing only eighteen centimetres tall with its lid on) that would have likely been included in a woman’s tomb as part of her funeral rites to commemorate the significance of her marriage. Found in Paestum, South Italy, the vessel is painted using the ‘red-figure’ technique, in which the imagery is ‘reserved’ from the black-painted background so that the figures appear in the tone of the red clay the vessel is made with. The imagery includes a seated woman—cloaked from the waist-down and wearing a necklace—who is likely a depiction of the goddess Aphrodite and on the other side, a wryneck, Aphrodite’s love-magic bird, with a garland above it. It is a tender and faithful rendition of what would be a larger and more elaborate vase used to celebrate a marriage.
- Artist / Maker
- Paestan, Asteas/Python Workshop
- Creation Date
- 350—320 BCE
- Place created
- Italy
- Collection
- Classics
- Subjects
- Classics and archaeology - ceramics
- Materials used
- ceramic
- Dimensions
(H x W x D) - overall 18 cm
- Credit line
- Classics and Archaeology Collection, the University of Melbourne Art Collection. Purchased, 1978
- Accession number
- 1978.0117.000.000 Request Access
