The bathhouse depicts a scene of mourning in front of a tomb. Five women in various postures and expressions of pain frame a burial column established on a four-tiered platform. In the upper tier an undiagnosed inscription. In the main view of the vase, three women are heading to the right, where the tomb is depicted. The first one from the left is kept in fragments. The second has his arms raised in a standing position and the third holds a bath-amphora that he will place on the tomb. On the back, to the right of the column, two women are mourning. The first has raised arms, like the middle of the aforementioned. The second one pulls her hair with both hands. At the neck of the vessel, a woman faces down and a man in profile to the right. A stick may be seen behind his back. The show is based on a film of double series of black moments that are joined in a zigzag line. The base of the neck is adorned with a belt of clockwise meanders. On the shoulder tongue jewelry. Radial jewelry on the lower part of the body, above the base.
ΠερισσότεραThe bathrobe was a vase, which was used for the bride’s bath before the wedding. Equally common, however, was its burial use, as it was offered in tombs of unmarried young people. This particular bath bearer is a bath-bearer amphora, a vessel that was deposited in the graves of unmarried men, in contrast to the bath-bearer which was associated with the burials of unmarried women. The depiction on the neck of the bath of a woman and a man, a possible hint of a couple, could possibly be related to the unfulfilled marriage of the young man who left prematurely.
The theme of the visit to the tomb, although often found in the iconography of white lekythos, is rarely depicted in red-figure pottery. Common occasions for such visits were funerals, such as Genesis or Nekysia, during which relatives of the deceased visited the tomb and offered ribbons, wreaths and vases. The vast majority were women, including professional mourners in formal mourning gestures. In the bathhouse of the Kanellopoulos Museum, all the figures are female, and their performance is characterized by a short hair, which symbolizes their heavy mourning (mourning haircut).
A. Zarkadas
