Ergotimos and Kleitias signed a large volute-krater, now in the Archaeological Museum, Florence, that is a veritable compendium of Greek mythology, particularly relating to Achilles. This stand is the only other preserved work with their signatures. The three Gorgons were so horrible-looking that whoever saw them turned to stone. In Archaic art, the face is a frequent motif, partly because it fits well into a circular format.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Terracotta stand
Artist:Signed by Ergotimos as potter
Artist: Signed by Kleitias as painter
Period:Archaic
Date:ca. 570 BCE
Culture:Greek, Attic
Medium:Terracotta; black-figure
Dimensions:H. 2 1/4 in. (5.7 cm) diameter 3 9/16 in. (9 cm)
Classification:Vases
Credit Line:Fletcher Fund, 1931
Accession Number:31.11.4
Signature: Signed by Ergotimos as potter and Kleitias as painter
Inscription: Inscribed: "Ergotimos made it" and "Kleitias painted it"
Said to be from Attica
[Until 1931, with Charles T. Seltman, England]; acquired in 1931, purchased from C.T. Seltman.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1931. "A Stand by Kleitias and an Athenian Jug." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 26(12): pp. 289–91, figs. 1–3.
Richter, Gisela M. A. and Marjorie J. Milne. 1935. Shapes and Names of Athenian Vases. pp. 31–32, fig. 189, New York: Plantin Press.
Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1936[1934]. A Guide to the Collections, Part 1: Ancient and Oriental Art, 2nd edn. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1953. Handbook of the Greek Collection. pp. 57, 197, pl. 37c, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Richter, Gisela M. A., Grace Crowfoot, and Donald Benjamin Harden. 1956. "Part I: Ceramics from c. 700 B.C. to the Fall of the Roman Empire." A History of Technology: The Mediterranean Civilizations and the Middle Ages, c. 700 B.C. to c. A.D. 1500, Vol. 2, Charles Singer, Eric John Holmyard, Alfred Rupert Hall, and Trevor Williams, eds. p. 265, pl. 18b, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Beazley, John D. 1956. Attic Black-figure Vase-painters. pp. 78, 682, no. 12, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1970. "The Department of Greek and Roman Art: Triumphs and Tribulations." Metropolitan Museum Journal, 3: pp. 82, 85, fig. 24.
Beazley, John D. 1971. Paralipomena: Additions to Attic Black-Figure Vase-Painters and to Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters [2nd edition]. p. 30, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
von Bothmer, Dietrich. 1972. Greek Vase Painting: An Introduction. no. 8, pp. 18, 69, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
von Bothmer, Dietrich. 1972. "Greek Vase Painting." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 31(1): no. 6, pp. 4, 19, 67.
Robertson, Martin and Cambridge University Press. 1975. A History of Greek Art, Vols. 1 and 2. pp. 49, 128, pl. 12c, Cambridge, England.
von Bothmer, Dietrich and Alan L. Boegehold. 1985. The Amasis Painter and His World: Vase-Painting in Sixth-Century B.C. Athens. pp. 151–52, fig. 93, Malibu: J. Paul Getty Museum.
Beazley, John D. 1986. The Development of Attic Black Figure, Vol. 24, 2nd ed.. p. 98 [p. 33 n. 31], pl. 30, 3–4, Berkeley: University of California Press.
Brijder, Herman A. G. 1991. Siana Cups II: The Heidelberg Painter, Allard Pierson Series: Studies in Ancient Civilization, Vol. 8. p. 362, fig. 96, Amsterdam: Allard Pierson Museum.
Cohen, Beth and University of Chicago Press. 1991. "The Literate Potter: A Tradition of Incised Signatures on Attic Vases." Metropolitan Museum Journal, 26: pp. 52–53, fig. 3.
Cohen, Beth. 2006. "Outline as Special Technique in Black- and Red-Figure Vase-painting." The Colors of Clay: Special Techniques in Athenian Vases, Beth Cohen, ed. pp. 153, 159 n. 20, fig. 3, Malibu: J. Paul Getty Trust.
Picón, Carlos A. 2007. Art of the Classical World in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Greece, Cyprus, Etruria, Rome no. 84, pp. 83, 422, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Shapiro, H.A., Mario Iozzo, and Adrienne Lezzi-Hafter. 2013. The François Vase: New Perspectives, Vol. 1. pp. 79–80 n. 44, figs. 16–18, Zurich: Akanthus.
Hedreen, Guy Michael. 2016. The Image of the Artist in Archaic and Classical Greece: Art, Poetry, and Subjectivity. pp. 126–27, fig. 24, New York: Cambridge University Press.
Lezzi-Hafter, Adrienne, Cécile Jubier-Galinier, Leslie Threatte, Jan-Matthias Müller, and Kristine Gex. 2016. Potters - Painters - Scribes : Inscriptions on Attic Vases, Rudolf Wachter, ed. p. 103, Zürich: Akanthus Verlag für Archäologie.
Hedreen, Guy Michael. 2017. "The Frontal Face in Athenian Vase-Painting." The Frame in Classical Art : A Cultural History, Verity Platt and Michael Squire, eds. pp. 177–78, fig. 3.11, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Platt, Verity. 2017. "Introduction." The Frame in Classical Art : A Cultural History, Michael Squire, ed. pp. 177–79, fig. 3.11, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Karoglou, Kyriaki. 2018. "Dangerous Beauty : Medusa in Classical Art." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 75(3): pp. 7–8, fig. 3.
In this interview, exhibition curator Kiki Karoglou shares provocative insights into the contemporary relevance of mythological hybrid beings and offers a behind-the-scenes look into the making of the exhibition.
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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.
