Decoration: Obverse: FUNERARY, PROTHESIS, DRAPED MEN AND WOMEN MOURNING, DRAPED YOUTH, (NAMED), COLUMN
Last Recorded Collection: Paris, Musée du Louvre: MNB905
Previous Collections:
Paris, Musée du Louvre: L4
Publication Record: American Journal of Archaeology: 95 (1991), 630, FIG.1 Angiolillo, S., and Giuman, M. (eds.), Imago, Studi di iconografia antica (Cagliari, 2007): 40, FIG.10 Archäologischer Anzeiger: 1977, 596, FIG.21 Arrigoni, G. (ed.), Le donne in Grecia (Bari, 1985): 226, PL.7 Beihefte zum Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum Deutschland: IV (2009) 95, FIG.4 Benndorf, O., Griechische und sicilische Vasenbilder (Berlin, 1883): PL.1 (DRAWING) Boardman, J., Athenian Black Figure Vases (London, 1974): FIG.265 Boardman, J., The history of Greek vases, potters, painters and pictures (London, 2001): 229, FIG.250 Charbonneaux, J., Martin, R., and Villard, F., Archaic Greek Art (London, 1971): 311, FIG.356 Chiarini, S., The so-called Nonsense Inscriptions on Ancient Greek Vases, Between Paideia and Paidiá (Leiden, 2018): 138, FIG.27 (COLOUR OF OV) Cohen, A. and Rutter, J.B. (eds.), Constructions of childhood in ancient Greece and Italy, Hesperia Supplement 41 (Princeton, 2007): 91, FIG.4.2 Delavaud-Roux, M-H., Les danses pacifiques en Grece antique (Aix-en-Provence, 1994): 126, NO.54 (DRAWING OF PART) Duby, G., Perrot, M. (eds.), Histoire des femmes (Plon, 1991): 187, FIG.14 (DRAWING) Evans Grubbs, J., and Parkin, T. (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Childhood and Education in the Classical World (Oxford, 2013): 202, FIG.9.1 Fantham, E. et al., Women in the Classical World, Image and Text (New York, 1994): 48, FIG.1.13 Foxhall, L. and Salmon, J. (eds.), When men were men, Masculinity, power and identity in classical antiquity (London, 1998): 35, FIG.1.17 Haack, M-C. (ed.), Ecritures, cultures, societes dans les necropoles d'Italie ancienne (Bordeaux 2009): 69, FIG.2 Haspels, C.H.E., Attic Black-figured Lekythoi (Paris, 1936): 229.58 Huf, L., Frauen jenseits der Konvention, Alterszüge, Tätowierungen und afrikanische Physiognomien im Frauenbild attischer Vasen des 5. Jahrhunderts v. Chr. (Munich, 2018): 172, FIG.64 (COLOUR) Kurtz, D. & Boardman, J., Greek Burial Customs (London, 1971): PL.33 Kurtz, D.C. and Boardman, J., Thanatos, Tod und Jenseits bei den Griechen (Mainz, 1985): 171, FIG.50 Laxander, H., Individuum und Gemeinschaft im Fest, Untersuchungen zu attischen Darstellungen von Festgeschehen im 6. und frühen 5. Jahrhundert v. Chr. (Münster, 2000): PL.51 Matheson, S.B. and Pollitt, J.J., Old Age in Greek and Roman Art (Yale, 2022): 203, APP.3 (COLOUR OF OV) Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Athenische Abteilung: 53 (1928), BEIL.11 Mommsen, H., Exekias I, Die Grabtafeln (Mainz, 1998): BEILAGE C Neils, J. and Oakley, J.H. (eds.), Coming of Age in Ancient Greece, Images of Childhood from the Classical Past (New Haven, 2003): 165, FIG.3 Oakley, J.H., A Guide to Scenes of Daily Life on Athenian Vases (Madison, 2020): PL.31 (COLOUR OF OV) Perrot, G., Chipiez, C., Histoire de l'art dans l'antiquite, vols. IX-X (Paris, 1911-14): IX, 257, FIG.118 Pfisterer-Haas, S., Darstellungen alter Frauen in der griechischen Kunst (Frankfurt, 1989): 177, FIG.26 Ruhfel, H., Das Kind in der Griechischen Kunst (Mainz, 1984): 41, FIG.14 Rumpf, A., Die Religion der Griechen (Leipzig, 1928): FIG.181 (DRAWING) Scheibler, I., Griechische Malerei der Antike (Munich, 1994): 131, FIG.59 Seifert, M., Dazugehören, Kinder in Kulten und Festen von Oikos und Phratrie. Bildanalysen zu attischen Sozialisonsstufen des 6. bis 4. Jahrhunderts v. Chr. (Stuttgart, 2011): FIG.3 Smith, T.J. and Plantzos, D. (eds.), A Companion to Greek Art (Malden, 2012): II, 489, FIG.24.4
CAVI Lemma: BF plaque. From Kolias. Sappho Painter. First quarter fifth. Ca. 500
(Boardman).
CAVI Subject: Prothesis: a male on a kline surrounded by mourning women; at left, chorus of
men, and column. Boardman: the mother rests her right hand by the deceased's
head; the small sister mourns by the head of the bier; a taller girl is by the
foot; a baby boy is behind her beside a stool; at left, a white column stands
before the approaching men.
CAVI Inscriptions: Boardman's readings: among approaching men is αδελφος; they are greeted by
πατερ, who faces them at the foot of the bier; the μετερ holds her dead son's
head [I trust B. is right to call the dead a male]; beside her, her second
daughter, αδελφε; at head of bier stands θεθε [for τηθη], the grandmother; three
mourners are called aunts, θεθις [for τηθις, father's or mother's sister], one
of them, on the father's side, προσπατρ[ρος] [printed as one word by B.]{1}.
Also: οιμοι and οιμιοι. λοσυτοσ and λοσυτ are read below the bier and by the
column; both words are nonsense; ο[.]ελοσα̣(2) appears before the aunt at the
right (the last perserved letter should be alpha, perhaps followed by more),
just possible is ωφελουσα, `rendering service,' "or something from the ομηλ-
root might fit the context", but it is probably nonsense. Typical of nonsense
inscriptions on Sappho Painter's funerary works are: on this plaque: λοσυτ,
λοσυτοσ, ο.ελοσα; On Louvre E 734: λοστοστ, λοσ, λοστσ. Acr. 2569: λολοσλοσ,
with other inscriptions (this can be used for attr. to Sappho Ptr.) Column
krater in Carlsruhe (Haspels 228/57) has: λισλισ, etc. Athens, Vlasto MVB 55
(B., no. 29, q.v.): the inscription corresponding to Louvre MNB 905's λοσυτοσ
may be λο...
CAVI Footnotes: {1} My reading from a photo: (1)προσπατο̣◊̣, i.e. πρὸς πατρό̣[ς], an aunt on
the father's side? {2} I read from the photo: οδ̣εγοσυ[--], retr., with space
for 3+ letters.
CAVI Comments: = L 4. The inscriptions done from the photos. They include not only names,
but also nonsense inscriptions, perhaps imitating wailing. I am not sure I have
read all the inscriptions.