Alabastron with the "Mistress of the Animals"

The main motif on this alabastron (perfume and oil vessel) shows a winged female figure in a black and red peplos (a long dress with short sleeves) decorated with incised lines. Her red face is in profile, while her black hair falls upon her shoulders. She wears a polos (a type of crown or headdress). Her wings are formed of red and black diagonal bands that are articulated with incised lines to create the effect of feathers. She grasps the neck of a red and black swan in each hand. The figure is a "Mistress of the Animals," or Potnia Theron, a female deity commonly associated with the goddess Artemis, displaying her power over animals.

The aryballos is in the style of pottery made in Corinth, which was a major ceramic production center during the Archaic period and created goods that were traded within Greece and around the Mediterranean. Corinthian artists and workshops innovated both technically and artistically by experimenting with black and red slips (mixtures of fine clay and water) to decorate their ceramics with their signature animal and figurative scenes. Corinthian-style pottery often employs motifs that were common in ancient West Asia, depicting real and mythological animals in registers crowded with decorative details, such as rosettes.

Provenance

Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object. Learn more about provenance at the Walters.

Dr. Hugo Weissman, Boston [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Walters Art Museum, 1954, by purchase.