Pyxis (Container for Personal Objects)

Arts of Greece, Rome, and Byzantium

430-420 BCE

Greek; Athens

Nine women are depicted in the figured scene that runs right around the vase. The women are presumably in the gynaikeion or women’s quarters, and include a seated woman with a book roll, a woman holding wreath, a woman with a mirror, a woman with an alabastron, a woman with a sash, a woman with a lyre, a woman with a mirror, a girl standing stiff and straight to the right, who might be the bride-to-be, and a woman with an alabastron.

Vessels of this type were probably used to hold personal effects like cosmetics, jewelry, or other trinkets and were often given as wedding gifts.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Arts of Greece, Rome, and Byzantium

Culture: Ancient Greek
Title: Pyxis (Container for Personal Objects)
Place: Athens (Object made in:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 430 BCE–420 BCE
Medium: terracotta, red-figure
Dimensions: 13.3 × 10.5 cm (5 1/4 × 4 1/8 in.); Diam.: 10.5 cm (4 1/8 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of Charles L. Hutchinson
Reference Number: 1892.126a-b
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/616/manifest.json

Sally Rutherford Roberts, The Attic Pyxis (Chicago: Ares Publishers, 1978), p. 125, no. 3.
Karen B. Alexander, “From Plaster to Stone: Ancient Art at the Art Institute of Chicago,” in Karen Manchester, Recasting the Past: Collecting and Presenting Antiquities at the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago; New Haven: Yale University Press, 2012), p. 22, fig. 6.

Art Institute of Chicago, Of Gods and Glamour: The Mary and Michael Jaharis Galleries of Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Art, Gallery 151, November 11, 2012 - present.

Jean P. Lambros (1843-1909), Athens, Greece; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1892; price reimbursed by Charles L. Hutchinson.

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.