Obverse, King Akrisios watching his daughter Danae and her son Perseus who stand in a chest about to be set adrift Reverse, Danae's seated mother, a standing servant with basket, and a carpenter holding a hammer
When King Akrisios of Argos was informed by an oracle that his grandson would kill him, he locked away his daughter Danaë. Nevertheless, Zeus came to her as a shower of gold and Perseus was born. The king had Danaë and Perseus put into a wooden chest and set adrift to die at sea. After many adventures, including his beheading of Medusa the Gorgon, Perseus returned to Argos and fulfilled the prophecy. Here in a quiet but tense moment, Danaë and the baby react with horror and pleading before the chest is closed.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Terracotta stamnos with cover (jar)
Artist:Attributed to the Deepdene Painter
Period:Classical
Date:ca. 470–460 BCE
Culture:Greek, Attic
Medium:Terracotta; red-figure
Dimensions:Overall: 15 x 15 3/8in. (38.1 x 39cm); diameter 12 3/8in. (31.4cm)
Classification:Vases
Credit Line:Rogers Fund, 1917
Accession Number:17.230.37a, b
Inscription: Names of Perseus and Akrisios inscribed
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1926. Ancient Furniture: A History of Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Furniture. p. 92, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Richter, Gisela M. A. and Lindsley F. Hall. 1936. Red-Figured Athenian Vases in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. no. 82, pp. 112–14, pls. 85, 86, 173, New Haven: Yale University Press.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1946. Attic Red-Figured Vases: A Survey. p. 92, fig. 32b, New Haven: Yale University Press.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1953. Handbook of the Greek Collection. p. 87, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Bandinelli, Ranuccio Bianchi. 1958. Enciclopedia dell'Arte Antica, Classica e Orientale, Vol. 3. p. 19, fig. 23, Rome: Instituto della Enciclopedia Italiana.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1958[1946]. Attic Red-Figured Vases: A Survey, Revised Edition, 2nd edn. p. 92, fig. 32b, New Haven: Yale University Press.
Beazley, John D. 1963[1942]. Attic Red-figure Vase-painters, Vols. 1 and 2, 2nd ed. pp. 498, 1656, no. 1, Add. 1, pp. 498–501, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1970. Perspective in Greek and Roman Art. p. 25, n. 4, fig. 103, New York and London: Phaidon Press.
Beazley, John D. 1971. Paralipomena: Additions to Attic Black-Figure Vase-Painters and to Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters [2nd edition]. p. 381, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC). 1981. Vol. 1: Aara-Aphlad. "Akrisios," p. 451, no. 6, pl. 343, Zürich: Artemis Verlag.
Reeder, Ellen D., Sally Humphreys, Prof. Mary R. Lefkowitz, Francois Lissarrague, Prof. Margot Schmidt, Prof. H. Alan Shapiro, Christianne Sourvinou-Inwood, Prof. Andrew F. Stewart, Froma Zeitlin, Carol Benson, and Brunilde Sismondo Ridgway. 1995. "Women in Classical Greece." Pandora: Women in Classical Greece. p. 272, fig. 76, Detail p. 107, Fig. 8, Baltimore: Walters Art Gallery.
Mitchell, Alexandre G. 2009. Greek Vase-painting and the Origins of Visual Humour. pp. x, 70–71, 288, fig. 23, New York: Cambridge University Press.
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