Mycenaean kraters depicting chariot scenes are known primarily from Cyprus, where this vase was discovered. Recent excavations and scientific analysis, however, suggest that such vessels were made in the Argolid, a region of the Peloponnese, for export to the island. Found almost exclusively in tombs, they may have been used in rituals before burial. The female figure behind the chariot has been interpreted as a mourner, a goddess, or even a cult statue of a deity.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Terracotta chariot krater
Period:Late Helladic IIIB
Date:ca. 1300–1230 BCE
Culture:Helladic, Mycenaean
Medium:Terracotta
Dimensions:H. 16 3/8 in. (41.6 cm) diameter 12 1/8 in. (30.8 cm)
Classification:Vases
Credit Line:The Cesnola Collection, Purchased by subscription, 1874–76
Object Number:74.51.966
Excavated by Luigi Palma di Cesnola in Hagia Paraskeve, near Alambra, Cyprus (Cesnola, Atlas II, nos. 851, 852)
Before 1874, excavated by Luigi Palma di Cesnola on Cyprus; until 1874, collection of L.P. di Cesnola; acquired in 1874, purchased from L.P. di Cesnola.
Cesnola, Luigi Palma di. 1894. A Descriptive Atlas of the Cesnola Collection of Cypriote Antiquities in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Vol. 2. pls. C.851, CI.852, Boston: James R. Osgood and Company.
Myres, John L. 1914. Handbook of the Cesnola Collection of Antiquities from Cyprus. no. 437, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1953. Handbook of the Greek Collection. p. 164, pl. 4g, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Slenczka, Eberhard. 1974. Figürlich bemalte mykenische Keramik aus Tiryns, Tiryns : Forschungen und Berichte, Vol. 7. pl. 43.4, Mainz am Rhein: Verlag Philipp von Zabern.
Karageorghis, Vassos, Joan Mertens, and Marice E. Rose. 2000. Ancient Art from Cyprus: The Cesnola Collection in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. no. 71, pp. 49–50, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Karageorghis, Vassos. 2002. "The Greeks in Cyprus." The Greeks beyond the Aegean : from Marseilles to Bactria : papers presented at an international symposium held at the Onassis Cultural Center, New York, 12th October, 2002, Vassos Karageorghis, ed. pp. 7–8, fig. 1, Nicosia: Kailas Printers and Lithographers Ltd.
Picón, Carlos A. 2007. Art of the Classical World in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Greece, Cyprus, Etruria, Rome no. 26, pp. 42, 412, 459, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Mertens, Joan R. 2010. How to Read Greek Vases. no. 3, pp. 11, 40–43, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Koehl, Robert. 2023. "The Lady of Pottery
Ceramic Studies Presented to Penelope A. Mountjoy in Acknowledgement of Her Outstanding Scholarship : A Cult Statue Rendered on a Mycenaean Vase from Cyprus." Studi Micenei ed Egeo-Anatolici, n.s. vol. 3: pp. 91–104, fig.1a–d.
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The Museum's collection of Greek and Roman art comprises more than 30,000 works ranging in date from the Neolithic period to the time of the Roman emperor Constantine's conversion to Christianity in A.D. 312.
