3-047-545 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

White-Ground Lekythos, 470-460 BC. Oil Jar with Preparations for Visiting a Grave. Additional Info: Intended as a grave gift, this Athenian white-ground lekythos depicts family members preparing to visit a loved one's grave. The woman holds a basket filled with standard funerary offerings: ribbons, wreaths, and aryballoi, a type of small oil vessel. The youth holds a pomegranate, a symbol of death. In the late 500s BC, Athenian potters began to cover the natural reddish color of their pottery with a clay that turned white when fired. Initially, artists applied this technique to a variety of shapes decorated with a wide range of scenes. Just before the middle of the 400s BC, however, artists began limiting the use of this technique to a specific shape - the lekythos, a small oil container used in funerary ritual, and the decoration on the vessels shifted almost exclusively to funerary scenes.