Attic Red-Figure Lidded Pyxis

An ancient Attic Greek red-figure lidded pyxis, around the cylindrical body are five women draped in himations over chitons, a pair converse, one holding a mirror over a kalathos between them; another two stand with an altar between them, while one pours a libation from an oinochoe. On the lid two hounds pursue two hares around the central knobbed handle. Attributed to the workshop of the Penthesilea Painter.

Athens, Attica.

Ca. 460 - 450 BC.

Height: 5 1/2 in. (13.9 cm).

The pyxis was a lidded cylindrical vessel mostly used by women to hold cosmetics, trinkets or jewelry. Surviving pyxides from the Classical Period are mostly ceramic, but sometimes they are made of wood, metal, or ivory. The name derived from Corinthian boxes made of wood from the boxwood tree (puxos).

For a pyxis of slightly different form with related scenes of women making sacrifices and with dogs and hares on the lid, see the example by the Painter of London D 12 in the Kunstsammlungen, Bochum, Beazley Archive Pottery Database no. 213099.

With N. Koutoulakis (1910-1996), Geneva; subsequently in a New York private collection, acquired in 1987.

Inv#: 8023

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