Day 48 - Oil jar showing woman at her bath


April 26, 2018

With Gallery 159, it's back to vases, lots of them, all red-figured and most if not all from the 5th century B.C.E. A little time away has been restorative, and I am able to admire the fineness of the work - especially when I put my reading glasses on.

 I plan to write about one of the first works I see, which I immediately recognize as Thetis giving the new armor to her son, Achilles. Maybe I want to write about it just because I do recognize it.

 But then I see a small black oil jar, only about 5 inches high, that charms me no end. On the body, it depicts a woman in profile. She is nude excpt for a headband and a garter around her thigh; her torso is very slim, but her arms and thighs and breasts are well developed, her pubic hair just suggested. She is bending over to pick up (or perhaps put down) a garment that is partly draped over the back of a cushioned chair facing her. The caption explains that the object beside her on the floor is a vase for holding scented oil.  The floor she stands on is patterned (indicating tilework, perhaps?). The neck of the jar is painted with small, fine palmettes. 

 I think I like this so much partly because I can imagine the pleasure its owner, whom I surmise to have been an Athenian woman of some means, took in its use. Perhaps it was a gift from her husband. In any event, I can see her smiling as she decanted the oil to smooth her body from this beautiful yet eminently utilitarian little jar.

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