Red-Figure Lekythos (Oil Vessel): Warrior Cutting Hair (c. 480–470 BCE): Art, History and Details

Red-Figure Lekythos (Oil Vessel): Warrior Cutting Hair (c. 480–470 BCE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Oionokles Painter (Greek, Attic, active c. 480–460 BCE).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Whether cutting his hair or combing it, this solitary warrior seems to be contemplating his fate. If mythological, he may be Parthenopaios or another of the ill-fated Seven Against Thebes, a band of warriors tasked with overthrowing that central Greek city. The Seven left mementos for their loved ones before departing, and he may be cutting a lock of hair for this reason. The same motive might apply to historical soldiers as well, and he may represent one of the many Greeks who battled the Persians around the time this vase was made. Unfortunately, the inscriptions painted on either side of the figure seem to be nonsense—actual Greek letters that do not spell out recognizable names or words.

Object facts

• Title: Red-Figure Lekythos (Oil Vessel): Warrior Cutting Hair
• Date: c. 480–470 BCE
• Creator attribution: Oionokles Painter (Greek, Attic, active c. 480–460 BCE)
• Culture: Greek, Attic
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: ceramic
• Dimensions: Overall: 43.5 x 16.5 cm (17 1/8 x 6 1/2 in.)
• Collection: GR - Greek
• Department: Greek and Roman Art
• Accession number: 1928.660

A detail from the museum

The painter lavished great detail on this warrior’s armor, even including a lion on his helmet’s cheekpiece!

Collection credit

The Charles W. Harkness Endowment Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Beazley Archive. n.d. Beazley Archive Pottery Database. Oxford: Beazley Archive.
• Carter, Martha L. Classical Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1961.
• Beazley, J. D. Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1963.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.