Terracotta lekythos (oil flask)

A cream-ground Greek oil flask with a band of black horses and a chariot scene around its body, painted in black slip with added gold and red accents. Dark horse heads and bodies sit low in the frame beneath a sprig of foliage, and a figure with gold-touched drapery reaches across the center.

Look closer: A small sprig of foliage or rosette motif sits near the upper left of the body, easily overlooked beside the main scene.

Artist

Sappho Painter

Date

ca. 500 BCE

Medium

Terracotta

Source

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Size

2882 × 3842 px

Credit (appreciated, not required for public-domain works): The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rogers Fund, 1941