This red-figure lebes on a tall conical stem, with two bowed handles and a lid with a pinecone-like finial, was produced in the late 5th century B.C. by a remarkable master of vase-painting named Midia. The Greeks gave such vases as wedding gifts as well as using them for displaying flowers. Midia was a passionate admirer of female beauty and particularly fond of extolling Aphrodite and depicting gynaecea. In Roma and Byzantium the term gynaeceum was used for the rooms in which concubines and female servants lived. The same word was used for scenes of dressing, bathing or preparing for festivities that appear in the decoration of ancient vessels used by women in their daily lives. The scene of preparation for a marriage presented on the Hermitage lebes is filled with the atmosphere of voluptuous luxury in conveying which the Greek mannerist vase-painter was an unrivalled master. The bride enthroned in an armchair and the women around her are depicted wearing clothes with embroidered patterns. The artist covered all the details with gilding, turning the pattern into a glittering resemblance of lacework.