Ancient Greece Ceramic Attic Lekythos - 14.5 cm

This beautiful Attic red-figure pottery piece on a black background, although its current state, following restoration, shows slight losses and the reassembly of fragments. The globular body rises to a narrow neck culminating in a funnel-shaped rim, accompanied by a vertical handle joining the shoulder and lip. The main surface preserves the image of a winged sphinx, depicted with great elegance and detail in its mane and wings, seated in a watchful attitude. This mythological creature, a hybrid of woman, lion, and bird, had strong funerary symbolism, linked to the guardianship of tombs and the transition between the world of the living and the dead.

The lekythos belongs to the tradition of Attic red-figure pottery, developed in Athens from the late 6th century BC and consolidated in the 5th century BC thanks to the mastery of workshops that produced both utilitarian pieces and votive and funerary offerings. The presence of the sphinx reinforces the ritual character of the vessel and connects it with the mythological imagery that accompanied the deceased on their journey to the afterlife.

Similar examples are found in important collections such as the National Archaeological Museum of Athens, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the British Museum, where lekythoi with representations of sphinxes and other protective creatures are preserved. This piece, therefore, is not only a functional object but also an artistic medium laden with spiritual and cultural significance.

This 5th-century BC Attic Lekythos is a refined example of classical Greek ceramics, in which technique, myth, and funerary rite converge, forming a bridge between earthly life and the eternal memory of the deceased.

Acquired from a Spanish private collection, A.B.M in the 70s.
-The piece includes an authenticity certificate. Repaired as shown in the pictures.

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