Torino Painter
Ancient Greek (active ) Primary

Late-Corinthian Aryballos (Oil Flask)

Archaic
575 BCE - 550 BCE

4 1/16 x 4 x 4 in. (10.3 x 10.2 x 10.2 cm)

This object has the following keywords:

• aryballoi - Relatively small ancient Greek vessels with a globular body, a short neck, a flat disk-shaped mouth with a small orifice, and a handle (or sometimes two) extending from the shoulder to the rim; used for holding oils, perfumes, and ointments. They are usually made of terracotta. Uses of the aryballoi included in funeral rituals and by athletes who wore them on their wrists, suspended by thongs or strings.
• Black-figure - Refers to a style of Greek vase painting that developed from the Geometric and Orientalizing styles. It appeared in Corinth around 720 BCE, flourished in Attica by 600 BCE, and was found in Sparta, eastern Greece, and elsewhere, until the Red-figure style gradually replaced it in the late sixth century BCE. The style is characterized by a particular technique, which is characterized by the use of a refined slip, a two-stage firing process, and sintering to create black figures in silhouette on a red ground. Details were incised into the black figures or applied in purple or white pigment.
• incising - The process and technique of producing, forming, or tracing a pattern, text, or other usually linear motif by cutting, carving, or engraving.
• Late Corinthian - Refers to the late phase of Corinthian pottery style, dating from around 575 BCE to around 425 BCE, after which Corinth was no longer a major exporter of pottery. It is characterized by continued mass production and repetitive designs with little detail, as well as innovative work created with apparent care. Painting on these vessels typically includes elaborate ornaments arranged in formal patterns, a lively animation of design, and animals with attenuated proportions. During this phase animal scenes were gradually replaced by more scenes of human figures.
• lotus - Either of two motifs that are both based on types of waterlily, one originating in ancient Egypt and the other in India. Within Egyptian lotus motifs, two varieties occur from the beginning of the Dynastic period ca. 3000 BCE: If the flower-head has a curved outline, it is based on the white-flowered species Nymphaea lotus, while if the flower has a triangular outline, it is based on the blue-flowered species, Nymphaea caerulea. The Egyptian motif continued in Greek, Roman, and later European art. For the Indian lotus specifically, based on the species Nelumbo nucifera, use the narrower term "padma."
• palmette - Motif resembling a stylized erect leaf divided into lobes, in the form of a fan or palm leaf, often supported by spirals. Its origins are obscure, but similar motifs are first recorded in Syria and Mesopotamia and in the islands of the eastern Mediterranean by the 2nd millennium BCE. As the name suggests, it may have been derived from representations of palm-trees, especially in view of the belief that a tree cult may have existed in western Asia in association with the introduction of the cultivated date-palm; however, it has much in common with other early floral and spiral motifs. The motif is common in classical and classicizing styles, used either individually or along with other conventionalized flower or foliage forms, for example, in an anthemion.
• toilettes - Term applied to a variety of French dressing tables designed for women.
• vase paintings - Refers to two-dimensional decoration applied to pottery by using paint made of metallic oxides or other pigments held in suspension in slip or another medium. The term is particularly used to refer to Ancient Greek red- and black-figure works. See also "porcelain paintings (visual works)."

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