Monumental grave markers were first introduced during the Geometric period. They were large vases, often decorated with funerary representations. It was only in the Archaic period that stone sculptures were used as funerary monuments. On this magnificent krater, the main scene occupies the widest portion of the vase and shows the deceased laid upon a bier surrounded by members of his household and, at either side, mourners. For optimal clarity, the dead man is shown on his side, and the checkered shroud that would normally cover the body has been raised and regularized into a long rectangle with two projections. The zone below shows a procession of chariots and foot soldiers. The figures may refer to the military exploits of the deceased. Because hourglass shields and chariots played a more limited role at this time than in the earlier Bronze Age, the scene more likely evokes the glorious ancestry and traditions to which the dead man belonged.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Terracotta krater
Artist:Attributed to the Hirschfeld Workshop
Period:Geometric
Date:ca. 750–735 BCE
Culture:Greek, Attic
Medium:Terracotta
Dimensions:H. 42 5/8 in. (108.3 cm) diameter 28 1/2 in. (72.4 cm)
Classification:Vases
Credit Line:Rogers Fund, 1914
Accession Number:14.130.14
Found in Attica (Richter 1915, 71)
[Until 1914, with M.L. Kampanes]; acquired in 1914, purchased from M.L. Kampanes.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1915. "Department of Classical Art Accessions of 1914: Geometric Vases." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 10(4): pp. 70–72, fig. 1.
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Richter, Gisela M. A. 1917. Handbook of the Classical Collection. p. 41, fig. 21, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
McClees, Helen. 1924. The Daily Life of the Greeks and Romans: As Illustrated in the Classical Collections. p. 124, ill p 12, fig. 148, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1926. Ancient Furniture: A History of Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Furniture. p. 23, 67–7, fig. 57, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1927. Handbook of the Classical Collection. pp. 48–49, fig. 27, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1930. Handbook of the Classical Collection. pp. 48–49, fig. 27, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
McClees, Helen and Christine Alexander. 1933. The Daily Life of the Greeks and Romans: As Illustrated in the Classical Collections, 5th ed. pp. 126–27, 129, fig. 155, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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Alexander, Christine. 1939. Early Greek Art: A Picture Book. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
McClees, Helen and Christine Alexander. 1941. The Daily Life of the Greeks and Romans: As Illustrated in the Classical Collections, 6th ed. pp. 126–27, 129, fig. 155, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Villard, François. 1949. "Un nouveau cratère du Dipylon au Musée du Louvre." Mélanges d'archéologie et d'histoire offerts à Charles Picard à l'occasion de son 65e anniversaire, Vol. 2. p. 1071 n. 3, Paris: Presses universitaires de France.
Metzger, Henri. 1951. Les représentations dans la céramique attique du IVe siècle. no. 6, pp. 24, 30, 46, Paris: E. de Boccard.
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Bandinelli, Ranuccio Bianchi. 1958. Enciclopedia dell'Arte Antica, Classica e Orientale, Vol. 1. p. 674, fig. 862, Rome: Instituto della Enciclopedia Italiana.
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Richter, Gisela M. A. 1966. The Furniture of the Greeks, Etruscans and Romans. pp. 19, 50, 55, fig. 293, London: Phaidon Press.
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Richter, Gisela M. A. 1970. "The Department of Greek and Roman Art: Triumphs and Tribulations." Metropolitan Museum Journal, 3: pp. 75, 79, fig. 10.
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Ahlberg-Cornell, Gudrun. 1971. Fighting on Land and Sea in Greek Geometric Art. pp. 61–2, fig. 56, Stockholm: Svenska Institutet i Athen.
Ahlberg-Cornell, Gudrun. 1971. Prothesis and Ekphora in Greek Geometric Art, Studies in Mediterranean Archaeology. fig. 25, Göteborg: Paul Aströms Förlag.
Greenhalgh, Paul. 1973. Early Greek Warfare: Horsemen and Chariots in the Homeric and Archaic Ages. no. 7, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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Mertens, Joan R. 1998. "Some Long Thoughts on Early Cycladic Sculpture." Metropolitan Museum Journal, 33: pp. 14–5, fig. 13.
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Brulé, Pierre. 2017. "Les funérailles : Les rites funéraires dans le monde grec." Rituels Grecs : Une Expérience Sensible, Evelyne Ugaglia and Adeline Grand-Clément, eds. p. 140, Toulouse: Musée Saint-Raymond, Musée des Antiques de Toulouse.
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Zanker, Paul. 2022. Afterlives : Ancient Greek Funerary Monuments in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. pp. 15–17, fig. 1, New York: Scala Publishers.
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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.
