Obverse, woman with mirror Reverse, woman with plemochoe (perfume vase)
The column indicates that the scene is set indoors, and the kalathos (wool basket) on the ground suggests the ladies' occupation. The representation of each figure is noteworthy. The one with the mirror wears a peplos and her hair is bound with fillets. She appears younger. The other is dressed in a chiton and himation with her hair in a sakkos (snood). The Persephone Painter, whose masterpiece is displayed in the Jaharis Gallery on the main floor, characterizes figures with utmost economy.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Terracotta alabastron (perfume vase)
Artist:Attributed to the Persephone Painter
Period:Classical
Date:ca. 440 BCE
Culture:Greek, Attic
Medium:Terracotta; red-figure
Dimensions:H. 6 13/16 in. (17.3 cm) diameter 2 in. (5.1 cm)
Classification:Vases
Credit Line:Rogers Fund, 1908
Accession Number:08.258.27
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1909. "The Department of Classical Art: The Accessions of 1908. IV. Vases." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 4(6): p. 105.
Richter, Gisela M. A., Marjorie J. Milne, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1922. Shapes of Greek Vases. New York.
Richter, Gisela M. A. and Marjorie J. Milne. 1935. Shapes and Names of Athenian Vases. pp. 17–18, fig. 110, New York: Plantin Press.
Richter, Gisela M. A. and Lindsley F. Hall. 1936. Red-Figured Athenian Vases in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. no. 125, p. 158, pls. 123, 178, New Haven: Yale University Press.
Beazley, John D. 1963[1942]. Attic Red-figure Vase-painters, Vols. 1 and 2, 2nd ed. p. 1013, no. 18, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Noble, Joseph V. 1965. The Techniques of Attic Painted Pottery. fig. 156, New York: Watson-Guptill.
Beazley, John D. 1971. Paralipomena: Additions to Attic Black-Figure Vase-Painters and to Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters [2nd edition]. p. 440, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Wehgartner, Irma. 1983. Attisch Weissgrundige Keramik: Maltechniken, Werkstätten, Formen, Verwendung. p. 212, n. 14, Mainz am Rhein: Verlag Philipp von Zabern.
Badinou, Panayota. 2003. La laine et le parfum: Épinetra et alabastres, forme, iconographie et fonction, recherche de céramique attique féminine, Monographs on Antiquity, Vol. 2. no. A 350, pp. 217–18, Louvain: Peeters.
Algrain, Isabelle. 2014. L'Alabastre Attique: Origine, Forme et Usages, Études D’Archéologie 7. no. II.3, p. 266, Bruxelles: CReA-Patrimoine.
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