A youth holding two spears. On the shoulder palmettes joined by tendrils, below the shoulder a key pattern between lines.

The youth on this small lekythos (oil flask) is a hunter. He carries two long spears suitable for large game such as deer or wild boar. He wears a chlamys (cloak) and has a petasos (traveller’s hat) slung over his back. The figure turns back as he walks, perhaps saying farewell as he departs on an expedition. His beardlessness shows that he is a young man, not an adult citizen. Until the age of Alexander the Great (356 – 323 BC), who started a fashion for shaving, possession of a beard was a clear sign of maturity.

Hunting was an important activity for upper-class Athenians and hunting scenes appear quite often in vase painting. Like warfare and athletics, it was a characteristically masculine activity associated with strength, skill and courage.

 

Literature: J. Falconer and T. Mannack, Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum: Great Britain, Fascicule 19: Winchester College (Oxford, 2002), p. 11, plate 9.7-9; J. Falconer, ‘Return of the Prodigal Vase’, The Trusty Servant, no. 92 (November 2001), pp. 5-6; J. Falconer, ‘Greek Vases’, The Trusty Servant, no. 88 (May 1999), pp. 7-8; C.R. Mack (ed.), Classical Art from Carolina Collections: An Exhibition of Greek, Roman and Etruscan Art from Public and Private Collections in North and South Carolina, Columbia Museum of Art Columbia, South Carolina 3 February – 3 March, 1974 (Columbia, 1974), 19.26, plate on p. 29; J.D. Beazley, Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters 2^nd edn. (Oxford, 1963), p. 713.137; J. Chittenden and C. Seltman, Greek Art, a Commemorative Catalogue of an Exhibition held in 1946 at the Royal Academy, (London, 1947), p. 9 (no. 96); J.D. Beazley, Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters (Oxford, 1942), p. 494.112; Winchester College Memorial Buildings: Department of Classical Art (Winchester, 1909), p. 21 (no. 65)

Exhibited: Royal Academy of Arts, Burlington House, London, 15 February – 17 March, 1946, no. 96; Columbia Museum of Art, 3 February – 3 March 1974, and 1993-2001

Provenance: From Phocis, at Winchester College by 1909. Stolen from Winchester around 1964 and sold on the London and New York market. In a private collection in South Carolina and bequeathed in 1993 to the Columbia Museum of Art, South Carolina; returned to Winchester in 2001.

Location: Treasury, Gallery 3