Archaeological Museum of Bologna

This type of vases, very rare outside Attica, are a special category both to technique and destination.
In fact, from the second quarter of the 5th century BC the white background lekythoi are produced as vases to exclusively funeral destination. This function is confirmed both by the depictions on the vases, that in most of the cases relate to the afterlife or offering and farewell scenes at a tomb, and by the fact that on some vases the lekythos is depicted on the steps of the funeral steles.
The bottom of the vase was covered with a white "ingobbiatura", formed by milk of lime and the decoration made with colors produced from colored clays (red in various shades, black, yellow), first used to define the contours of the figures and gradually extended to all the important details; thus the depicted scenes assume a great effect chromatic, which clearly shows the influence of the great contemporary Greek painting.
The production of white background lekythoi ceases in the last decades of the 5th century BC: at this phase belongs the exemplary, work of the Canneto painter, prolific author, although quite repetitive in the scheme of composition, favoring representations with two characters, a young man and a woman, to the sides of a funerary stele.

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