Attic funerary myth of Kleophantes (Clairmont)

Attic funerary myth of Kleophantes
Greek art, Attica, circa 360 B.C.

Pentelic marble
Visible cracks and gaps, old restorations.
Height preserved: 0.75 m

Provenance: M.M. Collection, Paris
Collection A.T., Paris
Galerie Serres, Paris
Collection Pradel, Limoges
Galerie N. Koutoulakis, Paris, published in Revue du Louvre, 1985/2
Galerie Segredakis, Paris
Artloss Register certificate of October 7, 2014 n. S00093079

This monumental lekythos belongs to the series of factitious vases, mainly lekythos or, more rarely, loutrophores, designed to mark the location of Athenian tombs around the 4th century B.C. These monuments, in similar forms to ceramic vases, had a function identical to that of steles. In most cases, they feature funeral scenes in relief, depicting the deceased whose name is engraved above the composition. The scene depicted is very often the “Dexiosis” or farewell scene, symbolized by a handshake. More rarely, the scene may depict the deceased seated on a klinai in the presence of a relative standing in front of a stele, as can be seen on many white-ground lekythoi from the 5th century.
It is engraved with an inscription in Greek characters on two lines crossed by fractures, which nevertheless allow us to propose an interpretation:
Kléophantès, daughter of Epipeithès
The function of these external monuments easily explains their state of preservation. Indeed, they are often broken and worn by wind erosion. Like their clay counterparts, their high collars have often disappeared.
Comparable lekythoi can be seen at the National Museum in Athens, the Ceramics Cemetery, the Louvre Museum, the Metropolitan Museum in New York, and all the major museums of Greek archaeology.

Bibliography :
ARV2 554,79; The Museum Grows - 1931, Annette Finnigan Collection, Bulletin of Fine Arts, Houston 10,2, 1948; Hoffman (1970) 398-401 Nr. 181
G.H. Edgell, MFA Annual Report, 1938, p.25; L.D. Caskey, ibid. p.32 BMFA 37 (1939), 17; H.N. Fowler, in Robinson Studies, I, pp. 588-589, pl. 54 ;
C. W. Clairmont, Classical Attic Tombsontes, Vol. II, Kilchberg 1993, n. 2.313
Clairmont, Gravestone and Epigram, p.78, note 23; A. Prukakis-Christodulopulos, AM 85 (1970), 65, note 59, 82, 92, note 143; Schumaltz, Lekythen, pp. 9, 23, 27, 39, 55, 57, 85-86, 119, no. A 13: dated 420 to 140 B.C.