Greek Libation Vessel, Lamp and Patera with the Wedding of Penelope, 1842

An original antique lithograph, partially hand colored, from the Galleria Universale di Tutti i Popoli del Mondo (Venice, Giuseppe Antonelli, 1842). The upper image, uncolored, shows antique objects: a twisted support topped by three snake heads, a jug with a high handle decorated with birds, a round dish with a rosette, a pair of long snuffers, and at right a hanging lamp, a shallow bowl with two bird heads suspended on chains. The lower image is colored. A bearded man in a red cap and red tunic sits on a couch under a fringed parasol, offering a cup to a woman beside him who wears a diadem, a magenta dress and a yellow mantle and leans on a green cushion. Behind them a young woman in white holds a pink ribbon, and at left a kneeling servant pours water from a jug and washes a foot in a basin. The couch ends in a winged figure.

The lettering reads "Tav 144" at upper left, "GRECIA" in the center and "Tom IV" at upper right. Within the upper image the support is lettered "Sostegno del Tripode T. 142" (Support of the tripod, see plate 142) and the snuffers "Smoccolatojo" (Snuffers). The captions read "Vaso per libazioni lampada e patera" (Vessel for libations, lamp and patera) and "Nozze di Penelope e di Ulisse" (Wedding of Penelope and Ulysses).

A libation was an offering of wine or oil poured out to the gods, and the patera was the shallow dish used to pour it. Penelope, the faithful wife of Ulysses, is the heroine of Homer's Odyssey.

A good piece for a classicist's study, pairing household objects with a scene from Greek legend.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed.