Pyxide en forme de hutte

Hut-shaped pyxis, lid missing

This complex ensemble, finely executed, consists in two flattened cone recipients sculpted on an eight-shaped stand with protruding edges, joined together on the side by parallel partitions adorned with deep flutes, creating a smaller third cavity. Richly adorned with chevrons, the pyxides themselves take us back to the Early Cycladic I pottery. The horizontally striated feet, each pair of which is linked to the back of the stand with relief struts, have been introduced in the Early Cycladic II and appear on other complex vessels.

The entire surface of the Barbier-Mueller example is adorned with straight patterns. We assume that the missing lid was too. A few similar vessels were executed in marble but they were adorned with simple circular parallel grooves. With its brittle crystalline structure, marble was not suited for motif sculpture – at least with ancient tools, and without using a gauge necessary to start the grooves. Conversely, green schist, of a grey or dark green color, is a tender compact stone, in which one could easily carve curved patterns.

I tend to believe that the first vessels executed in chlorite were adorned with straight motifs, while more elaborate ones, decorated with fine spiral interlace, appeared a little later. I also like the idea that a great many of these vessels, and all the finest specimens, including the Barbier-Mueller piece, are the work of the same talented, patient, dynamic and meticulous sculptor.

The indicated provenance of the double pyxis – Keros – is probably accurate, and I believe it was executed in Naxos. A simple pyxis sitting on the same kind of elongated stand, with a lid probably similar to the one missing on the double pyxis, was found in Naxos. A lid with a similar shape and few remains of the body of a similar pyxis were also excavated in Naxos. On the enigmatic Keros site, archaeologists found few fragments of one or several chlorite vessels, and the same art dealer that provided the Barbier-Mueller double pyxis gave a similar fragment to the Louvre Museum. The site suggested for the Louvre Museum fragment was also Keros [1].

Published in: Zimmermann 1993, p. 61 and 138 (n° 13).

[1] About the green schist vessels, see Getz-Gentle 1996, p. 185, 190-204. About Keros and the objects supposedly found there, see Getz-Gentle, AJA, III, n°2, 2008 (to be published).