Attic red-figure pottery
5th c. BC
Empúries (L’Escala – Alt Empordà)
Among the various types of vessel intended for wine consumption during the banquets and symposia that would have been held in Greek Emporion (krater, oenochoe, rhyton, cylix, etc.), we find this oenochoe, a small jug for serving wine with a trilobed lip and handle. It represents a female head. It is an artistic vessel that by itself depicts a human or animal figure.
The part that represents the face was made in a mould, while the neck with the lip was wheel-thrown. The vertical handle was applied to the whole. The clay-coloured face stands out against the background of black varnish. The details of the hairstyle and physiognomy, very faded in our case, were overpainted. It is an Attic production dated to the second half of the 5th century BC. Three vessels of this type are known from Empúries, two of which are preserved in our museum. A fourth, which is now missing, is known only from an early-19th-century drawing.
Like many other pieces in the Empúries collection, this oenochoe has had a very eventful life. It was purchased for our museum on 25 June 1907. On 13 February 1939, it arrived in Geneva, under the protection of the League of Nations, as part of the artistic and archaeological collections evacuated by the Government of the Spanish Republic. It returned in September 1939, but was taken to Barcelona, where it remained in the Archaeological Museum.
After a long tug-of-war and thanks to the tireless determination of Dr Miquel Oliva i Prat, the oenochoe and all the other objects from Emporium, which had not yet returned to Girona, were brought back in compliance with a ministerial resolution signed by the Director General of Fine Arts, Gratiniano Nieto, on 31 July 1967.
