Tuesday 5 November 2019

Female Harper

#whiteground #greekceramics #harper

Female Harper

There's a lot of fading but fortunately a lot of useful remaining detail.

It's possible the girl or young woman shown may be a hetairia a "Companion" given her transparent dress however she also has her middle covered so maybe its simply a summer dress of extremely translucent linen with a outer robe lowered to cushion her harp.


You can clearly see the girl has reddish brown hair and I say girl because she has her hair down.

Musicians will find the details of the fingering on the strings of interest.

A quietly beautiful and very classical work showing a mastery of line and color.

It is generally presumed painters were male including the painters who worked on ceramics but given the Athenians had small family workshops I wonder if the painter could have been a woman as if this is a portrait a woman painter might have been allowed inside the women's rooms of a house to sketch a beloved daughter or young wife playing her harp?






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