Black-figure Hydria: Herakles Playing the Kithara, c. 510 BC
Vessel
Greek
, 6th century BC
Archaic period, c.700-480 BC
Creation Place:
Attica
Terracotta
with handles: 41 x Diam. 32 cm (16 1/8 x 12 5/8 in.)
Beazley Archive Database #44158
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of the Florence Gould Foundation, Dr. and Mrs. Jerome M. Eisenberg and William Collins Kohler, Purchase from the Alpheus Hyatt Purchasing Fund, Anonymous Fund in memory of Henry Berg, Henry George Berg Bequest, Gift in Gratitude to John Coolidge, Gift of Leslie Cheek, Jr., Director's Discretionary Fund
, 1994.121
Department of Ancient and Byzantine Art & Numismatics
, Description
Herakles plays the kithara before a helmeted Athena who wears an aegis and holds a spear in her left hand. On the right, Hermes holds the herald's staff (kerykeion) wears winged boots, chlamys and a pointed cap with a long brim at the front. On the left, a woman wearing a long shawl over her peplos. Her left hand is muffled in drapery and in her right, she holds a branch (of olive or ivy?). She may be Hebe, the wife of Herakles. Three pairs of combatant warriors on the shoulder.
Provenance
Found at Vulci. Campanari Collection (1833). Durand Collection (1833-1836) sold; to Claude Camille Rollin, Paris, (1836). Purchase (1993) Jerome Eisenberg, Royal Athena Galleries, New York, [Nanterre Sale], sold; Harvard University Art Museums.