Attributed to the Trachones Workshop | Terracotta krater | Greek, Attic | Geometric

Terracotta krater

: Attributed to the Trachones Workshop

Period: Geometric

Date: ca. 725 B.C.

Culture: Greek, Attic

Medium: Terracotta

Dimensions: H. 51 3/8 in. (130.5 cm) diameter of mouth 32 1/2 in. (82.5 cm)

Classification: Vases

Credit Line: Rogers Fund, 1914

Accession Number: 14.130.15

On view in Gallery 151

Description Object Information Related Objects Online Resources Video Audio

Like its counterpart, 14.130.14, this krater served as a funerary monument and shows the same primary subjects, the prothesis—or laying out of the deceased surrounded by mourners—and chariots in procession. In this work, however, the deceased is shown with a long braid or pigtail issuing from his head; the same detail appears on the warriors standing to the right, suggesting that it is either his braided hair or the crest of his helmet. Also noteworthy is the little, almost simian creature that seems to be attending to the warrior's head. Below the dead man sits a row of female mourners. Of the two subordinate zones, the upper one shows chariots drawn by two horses; the lower one shows a single horse per chariot. Foot soldiers are at a minimum. The bowl of the krater rests on a support that is taller and slimmer than that of 14.130.14 and is pierced at the top with square openings; their primary purpose was to prevent the piece from exploding in the kiln.

References

Richter, Gisela M. A. 1917. Handbook of the Classical Collection. p. 43, fig. 22, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Richter, Gisela M. A. 1926. Ancient Furniture: A History of Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Furniture. p. 66, n. 1, fig. 171, Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Richter, Gisela M. A. 1927. Handbook of the Classical Collection. pp. 48, 51, fig. 28, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Richter, Gisela M. A. 1930. Handbook of the Classical Collection. pp. 48, 51, fig. 28, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Richter, Gisela M. A. 1953. Handbook of the Greek Collection. pp. 24, 174, pl. 14a, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.

Richter, Gisela M. A. 1966. The Furniture of the Greeks, Etruscans and Romans. pp. 42, 62, fig. 330, London: Phaidon Press.

Kossatz-Deissmann, Anneleise, Brigitte Servais-Soyez, Fulvio Canciani, Giovannangelo Camporeale, Hans Peter Isler, Ingrid Krauskopf, Odette Touchefeu-Meynier, Marcel Le Glay, and Dr. Jean-Charles Balty. 1981–1999. Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae, Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae, Vols. 1-8. Zürich: Artemis Verlag Zurich und Munchen.

Kossatz-Deissmann, Anneleise, Brigitte Servais-Soyez, Fulvio Canciani, Giovannangelo Camporeale, Hans Peter Isler, Ingrid Krauskopf, Odette Touchefeu-Meynier, Marcel Le Glay, and Dr. Jean-Charles Balty. 1981. Aara-Aphlad, Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae, Vol. 1. Aktorione, no. 4a-c; Amarynkeus, no. 1, Zürich: Artemis Verlag Zurich und Munchen.