One of a striking trio of Italian School Grand Tour lekythoi echoes the Greek black-figure tradition with measured elegance: each slender vessel, elongated neck, and softly swelling body is painted in glossy black slip against warm terracotta, the figures and ornamental bands rendered with economy and confident incision. Classical motifs—draped youths, reclining figures, and stylised palmettes—are composed with balanced symmetry, their silhouettes simplified yet expressive, while added white and red pigments highlight details like garments and hair.
Weathered surfaces and subtle craquelure attest to age and use as collector’s mementos from the 18th- and 19th-century Grand Tour, when leisured travellers sought souvenirs that fused archaeological interest with decorative refinement. Together the three lekythoi form a cohesive ensemble, offering a measured study in how Renaissance and neoclassical sensibilities reinterpreted ancient Athenian pottery for a cultivated European market.
Each sold separately.
31cm tall
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