Aryballos

This is an aryballos or 'oil flask', decorated in the Corinthian style. Depicted is a red and dark brown eagle in flight on light ground. White dots and red patches are used for the details. This type of small vessel was designed to hold perfumed oil. The decoration of this aryballos clearly inscibes it to Humpry Payne's Lion Group: crescent moon wheel at the bottom, desing only on the front and no or few filling ornaments, fine toungs on the shoulder and small toungs between concentric circles on the mouth plate. The fine dots on the rim the handle is however unusual because it is not decorated with two vertical bands each side as it is common for this group but with supplementary horizontal lines. The shape is of the type B2 in Payne's publication, Necrocorinthia. A study of Corinthian art in the Archaic period, Berkley, Los Angeles - London 1988. The leading artist of the group is the Heraldic Lions Painter and 34.62 has a fine drawing, a well polished surface and a delicate use of added white dots and is therefore from the main core of the Lion Group.