Obverse, scene from a phlyax play. Reverse, three youths
The representation shows a stage structure at the far right and the characters of a phlyax play, a type of farce favored in Southern Italy. A recent interpretation characterizes the two male figures in the center as accomplices about to steal the hag's goose and kid or to defy her threats to turn them in. Written in Attic Greek, the inscriptions indicate that the farce originated in mainland Greece but do not explain the story. Formerly attributed to the Tarporley Painter, a major Apulian master, the vase is now recognized as Lucanian under Apulian influence.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Terracotta calyx-krater (mixing bowl)
Artist:Attributed to the Dolon Painter
Period:Late Classical
Date:ca. 400–390 BCE
Culture:Greek, South Italian, Lucanian
Medium:Terracotta; red-figure
Dimensions:H. 12 1/16 in. (30.6 cm) diameter 12 1/2 in. (31.8 cm)
Classification:Vases
Credit Line:Fletcher Fund, 1924
Object Number:24.97.104
Said to have been found in a tomb in Taranto, Italy (letter from Barone Antonio Palumbo, December 4, 1924)
[Until 1924, with Pietro Affaitati, Naples, Italy]; November 19, 1924, purchased from Pietro Affaitati.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1927. "Two Theater Vases." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 22(2): pp. 56–58, figs. 1, 3.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1930. Handbook of the Classical Collection. pp. 183, 186, fig. 125, 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. p. 20, fig. 23, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Bieber, Margarete. 1939. The History of the Greek and Roman Theater. pp. 281–3, fig. 381, Princeton: Princeton University Press.
McClees, Helen and Christine Alexander. 1941. The Daily Life of the Greeks and Romans: As Illustrated in the Classical Collections, 6th ed. p. 20, fig. 23, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1953. Handbook of the Greek Collection. pp. 116, 256, pl. 96b, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Bandinelli, Ranuccio Bianchi. 1958. Enciclopedia dell'Arte Antica, Classica e Orientale, Vol. 3. pp. 706–7, figs. 864-65, Rome: Instituto della Enciclopedia Italiana.
Borda, Maurizio. 1966. Ceramiche Apule. pp. 40, 42, 99, fig. 30, Bergamo: Istituto Italiano d'arti grafiche.
Mayo, Margaret Ellen and Kenneth Hamma. 1982. The Art of South Italy: Vases from Magna Graecia no. 13, pp. 19, 33, 78, 82–83, 309, Richmond: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.
Courtois, Catherine. 1989. "Le Bâtiment de Scène des Théâtres d'Italie et de Sicile: Étude Chronologique et Typologique. Ph.D. diss." Ph.D. Diss. pp. 21–2. Université Catholique de Louvain.
Cohen, Beth and University of Chicago Press. 1991. "The Literate Potter: A Tradition of Incised Signatures on Attic Vases." Metropolitan Museum Journal, 26: p. 85, fig. 64.
Söldner, Magdalene. 1993. "Statuenbasen?." Jahrbuch des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, 108: p. 270 n.106.
Csapo, Eric and William J. Slater. 1994. The Context of Ancient Drama. pp. 66–7, pl. 6A, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Schmidt, Margot. 1998. "Komische Arme Teufel und Andere hesellen auf der griechischen Komödienbühne." Antike Kunst, 41(1): pp. 24–28, pl. 5.2.
Boegehold, Alan L. 1999. When a Gesture Was Expected. p. 22, fig. 13, Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Cohen, Beth. 2000. Not the Classical Ideal: Athens and the Construction of the Other in Greek Art p. 281, fig. 11.3, Leiden: Brill.
Picón, Carlos A. 2007. Art of the Classical World in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Greece, Cyprus, Etruria, Rome no. 179, pp. 158, 438, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Denoyelle, Martine. 2010. "Comedy Vases from Magna Graecia." The Art of Ancient Greek Theater, Dr. Mary Louise Hart, ed. p. 112, pl. 50, Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum.
Denoyelle, Martine and Francesca Silvestrelli. 2013. "From Tarporley to Dolon: The Reattribution of the Early South Italian "New York Goose Vase." Metropolitan Museum Journal, 48: pp. 59–71.
Trendall, Arthur Dale. 2016. Myth, Drama and Style in South Italian Vase-Painting: Selected Papers by A.D. Trendall, Ian Mcphee, ed. pp. 92, 115, 120, 123–4, 133, Uppsala: Paul Aströms Förlag.
Oakley, John H. 2016. "Inscriptions on Apulian Red-Figure Vases : A Survey." Epigraphy of Art : Ancient Greek Vase-Inscriptions and Vase-Painting, Dimitrios Yatromanolakis, ed. pp. 128–29, fig 7, Oxford: Archaeopress.
Yatromanolakis, Dimitrios. 2016. Epigraphy of Art : Ancient Greek Vase-Inscriptions and Vase-Paintings pp. 128–29, fig. 7, Oxford: Archaeopress.
Chiarini, Sara. 2018. The So-called Nonsense Inscriptions on Ancient Greek Vases : Between Paideia and Paidiá. pp. 416–17, Leiden/ Boston: Brill.
Metropolitan Museum of Art. 2020. ART = Discovering Infinite Connections in Art History. p. 217, New York: Phaidon Press.
Hemingway, Seán. 2021. How to Read Greek Sculpture. p. 106, fig. 43, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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