Obverse, the ascension of Persephone from the underworld Reverse, libation scene
Persephone, the daughter of the goddess Demeter, was condemned to spend half of each year with Hades, the ruler of the underworld. In this grandiose representation, Persephone ascends to earth through a rocky outcrop. She is guided by Hermes, the divine messenger, and Hekate, a goddess of fertility, magic, and dark things who typically carries torches. At the far right stands the regal Demeter, waiting to receive her daughter and the renewal of life that her return engendered.
#1050. Terracotta bell-krater (bowl for mixing wine and water), Part 1
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1050. Terracotta bell-krater (bowl for mixing wine and water), Part 1
2202. Terracotta bell-krater (bowl for mixing wine and water), Part 2
2224. Terracotta bell-krater (bowl for mixing wine and water), Part 3
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Artwork Details
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Title:Terracotta bell-krater (bowl for mixing wine and water)
Artist:Attributed to the Persephone Painter
Period:Classical
Date:ca. 440 BCE
Culture:Greek, Attic
Medium:Terracotta; red-figure
Dimensions:H. 16 1/8 in. (41 cm); diameter of mouth 17 7/8 in. (45.4 cm)
Classification:Vases
Credit Line:Fletcher Fund, 1928
Object Number:28.57.23
Said to have been found at Montesarchio, Apulia (Visconti 1820, p. 40, note 1)
By 1820 and at least until 1923, collection of Marchese del Vasto, Naples; [until 1928, with Fausto Benedetti]; acquired in 1928, purchased from Fausto Benedetti.
Albizzati, Carlo. 1930. "Analecta." Athenaeum, n.s.v. 8: p. 519.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1931. "An Athenian Vase with the Return of Persephone." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 26(10): pp. 245–48, figs. 1–3.
Kourouniotis, K. 1933–1935. "Kores anodas." Archaiologikon Deltion, : p. 4, fig. 3.
Richter, Gisela M. A. and Lindsley F. Hall. 1936. Red-Figured Athenian Vases in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. no. 124, pp. 156–58, pls. 123, 124, 171, New Haven: Yale University Press.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1946. Attic Red-Figured Vases: A Survey. pp. 116, 123, figs. 33b, 33f,*, New Haven: Yale University Press.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1953. Handbook of the Greek Collection. p. 240, pl. 80c, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1958[1946]. Attic Red-Figured Vases: A Survey, Revised Edition, 2nd edn. pp. 116, 123, figs. 33b, 33f, New Haven: Yale University Press.
Beazley, John D. 1963[1942]. Attic Red-figure Vase-painters, Vols. 1 and 2, 2nd ed. p. 1012, no. 1, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Beazley, John D. 1971. Paralipomena: Additions to Attic Black-Figure Vase-Painters and to Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters [2nd edition]. p. 440, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Peschlow-Bindokat, Anneliese. 1972. "Demeter und Persephone in der Attischen Kunst des 6. bus 4. Jahrhunderts." Jahrbuch des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, 87: p. 95, fig. 31.
Robertson, Martin and Cambridge University Press. 1975. A History of Greek Art, Vols. 1 and 2. p. 408, pl. 106a, Cambridge, England.
Edwards, Charles M. 1986. "The Running Maiden from Eleusis and the Early Classical Image of Hekate." American Journal of Archaeology, 90(3): p. 308 n. 8, fig. 9, pl. 21.
Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC). 1988. Vol. 4: Eros-Herakles. "Ge," p. 176; "Demeter," p. 872, no. 328, Zürich: Artemis Verlag.
Boardman, John. 1989. Athenian Red Figure Vases: The Classical Period, a Handbook. fig. 121, London: Thames and Hudson.
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. pp. 289–91, fig. 85, Baltimore: Walters Art Gallery.
Rendeli, Marco. 1996. "Anagoghe." Prospettiva, 83-84: p. 23, fig. 27.
Avagianou, Aphrodite. 2002. Latreies stēn 'periphereia' tou archaiou Hellēnikou kosmou. p. 87, fig. 10, Athens: Ethniko Hidryma Ereunōn.
Foley, Helene, Lesley A. Beaumont, and H. Alan Shapiro. 2003. "Mothers and Daughters." Coming of Age in Ancient Greece: Images of Childhood from the Classical Past, Jenifer Neils, John H. Oakley, and Katherine Hart, eds. p. 125, fig. 13, New Haven: Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College.
Picón, Carlos A. 2007. Art of the Classical World in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Greece, Cyprus, Etruria, Rome no. 124, pp. 114, 430, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Mertens, Joan R. 2010. How to Read Greek Vases. no. 27, pp. 64, 136–139, 150, 154, 159, 170, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Bowden, Hugh. 2010. Mystery Cults in the Ancient World. p. 27, fig. 13, London: Thames and Hudson.
Marconi, Clemente. 2011. "L'identificazione della 'Dea' di Morgantina." Prospettiva, 141-142: pp. 10, 24, fig. 39.
Stampolidis, Professor Nicholas Chr. and Stavroula Oikonomou. 2014. Beyond: Death and Afterlife in Ancient Greece. no. 68, p. 144, Athens: Museum of Cycladic Art.
Heuer, Keely Elizabeth. 2015. "Vases with Faces: Isolated Heads in South Italian Vase Painting." Metropolitan Museum Journal, 50: pp. 70–71, fig. 16.
Metropolitan Museum of Art. 2020. ART = Discovering Infinite Connections in Art History. p. 165, New York: Phaidon Press.
Simon, Erika and Fritz Graf. 2021. The Gods of the Greeks, Prof. H. Alan Shapiro, ed. pp. 106–7, fig. 98, Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
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