Important East Greek Faience Aryballos with the Heads of a Lion and a Kore

Culture: Greek/Naucratis

Period: 6th century B.C.

Material: Faience

Dimensions: 7.4 cm high

Price: 14 000 Euro

Ref: 2654

Provenance: From the collection of the defunct French Galerie Samarcande, acquired before 2003. With a copy of the French antiquities certificate dated 17 March 2003.

Condition: Intact and preserved in near-perfect condition.

Description: Exceptionally rare and elaborately crafted Janus-headed faience aryballos, depicting the sculpted face of a Kore on one side and a lion on the other. Details are applied in black and blue. The cosmetic vessel stands on a flat, oval base. The female head, likely that of a kore, has curly hair parted in the middle, falling behind the ears at the sides. A painted blue hairband separates the smooth locks at the top of the head from the dense, tight curls that extend from the temples to the shoulders. At the centre of the rows of curls appears a painted black hair ring. The face has delicate, late-Archaic features. Eyes, brows, and earrings are highlighted in blue. Above the kore’s head sits the short ribbon handle, decorated with a black palmette like a crown. On the reverse, the highly plastic head of a lion is masterfully rendered with jaws thrown wide open. Its long fangs are carefully accentuated in detail. The ears, outlined in black, sit high at the sides of the head. The eyes and eyebrows are highlighted in blue, the nose and beard in black. The mane emerges in relief. Blue lines form the lower border. The spout is flower-shaped with engraved leaves. The outer rim is decorated with a dotted ornament. The aryballos comes from Naukratis, a Greek trading city in the western Nile Delta famous for its faience cosmetic vessels. For closely related plastic aryballoi from Naukratis, see the examples in the Metropolitan Museum of Art with the object numbers 1992.11.59 and 2008.546.