Pelike depicting Helen and Paris

Artists

Description

The scene on the front of the pelike (jar) comprises five figures: a couple consisting of a woman and a young man, flanked by a boy and second woman, respectively. A small Eros flutters in between. The central woman holds a lobed shallow bowl--likely meant to be of precious metal--in her proper left hand and lifts the upper edge of her finely pleated garment with her right. She faces a young man seated on a rocky outcrop, which is indicated by fine lines incised into the black background. He sits in a relaxed pose, with crossed legs, his right hand placed on his knee, and holding two long spears in his left. His richly patterned clothing consists of a cap with long flaps and a body suit with zigzag patterns below a sleeveless garment richly decorated with elongated triangles, volutes, diamonds, and a wreath motif. Reminiscent of the clothing worn by Greece’s eastern neighbors, this highly ornate, “foreign” costume was used by Greek vase painters to characterize barbarians. Here it probably denotes a mythical easterner: Paris, prince of Troy (Adonis has been proposed, as well). Paris’ gaze is focused on the woman before him, likely the beautiful Helen, while he is crowned by Eros flying above. The woman behind Paris holds another, now barely visible garland up to his head. She could be the goddess Aphrodite or her companion Peitho (“persuasion”). She stands firmly on the ground line, as does the boy on the other side of the composition. He, too, is characterized by his rich eastern dress with zigzag and leaf patterns and wears a floppy cap with long flaps. With his left he extends a drinking horn, whose striped pattern was probably intended to denote its material as gold or silver, another barbarian attribute and a reference to the wealth of the royal house of Troy. The simpler scene on the pelike’s back features three women: a central woman holding a box and two fringed, patterned sashes or towels, a woman fully wrapped in a large mantle with a thick, black border (on the left), and another woman with mantle holding what appears to be a garland (on the right). The figures are more cursorily drawn than those on the front. Double palmettes decorate the lower handle attachment. Most of the finer lines are slightly raised, and raised dots decorate belts and borders of the elaborate garments. Diluted glaze was used for selected ornaments and the soft folds of the caps. Faint traces of added paint remain for the garlands held by Eros and the woman standing behind Paris. On the back, added paint was used to render the hairbands of all three women, the fringes of the sashes held by the central woman, and the garland held by the woman on the right. Pre-drawings are visible on all figures painted on the vessel’s front. The vessel is complete but has some minor surface erosion and manganese staining.

Dimensions

28.6 x 21.4 cm (11 1/4 x 8 7/16 in.)

Provenance

Joseph Clark Hoppin, purchased in Rome, 1898; bequeathed to Fogg Art Museum, 1925.