The prothesis scene—the laying out of the deceased—in the central metope, or square panel, on each side of this monumental krater shows that it was meant for a funerary purpose, a grave marker. The scenes below narrate either a specific event that took place during the deceased’s lifetime, or a tale about an ancestral heroic expedition, as the warriors’ hourglass-shaped shields belong to the preceding Late Bronze Age. A continuous frieze shows battle scenes on two warships and two processions of armed warriors. A figure, interpreted as a captive woman, is tied to the deck under one ship’s sail. A warrior climbs onto the ram of the other ship to attack an archer with his spear. Sword duels take place in the stern of both vessels.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Terracotta krater
Artist:Attributed to the Workshop of New York MMA 34.11.2
Period:Middle Geometric II
Date:ca. 775 BCE
Culture:Greek, Attic
Medium:Terracotta
Dimensions:H. 39 in. (99.1 cm) diameter 37 in. (94 cm)
Classification:Vases
Credit Line:Fletcher Fund, 1934
Object Number:34.11.2
Said to have been found at Anavyso, Attica
Ca. 1932, found in Anavyso, Attica; [until 1934, with Charles Theodore Seltman]; acquired in 1934, purchased from Charles T. Seltman.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1934. "A Colossal Dipylon Vase." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 29(10): pp. 169–72, figs. 1–3.
Alexander, Christine. 1939. Early Greek Art: A Picture Book. p. 124, fig. 66, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Schadewaldt, Wolfgang. 1942. "Homer und sein Jahrhundert." Das Neue Bild der Antike, Vol. 1 Hellas, Helmut Berve, ed. p. 82, fig. 17, Leipzig: Koehler & Amelang.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1953. Handbook of the Greek Collection. pp. 25, 174, pls. 14d, 14f, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Kübler, Karl. 1954. "Die Nekropole des 10. bis 8. Jahrhunderts." Kerameikos: Ergebnisse der Ausgrabungen, Vol. 5.1. pp. 158, 178, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter & Co.
Shefton, Brian. 1954. "Three Laconian Vase-painters." Annual of the British School at Athens, 49:
Boardman, John. 1955. "Painted Funerary Plaques and Some Remarks on Prothesis." Annual of the British School at Athens, 50: p. 55 n. 23.
Brann, Eva T. H. 1961. "Late Geometric Well Groups from the Athenian Agora." Hesperia, 30(2): p. 97 n. 13.
Oakeshott, Noel R. 1966. "Horned-head Vase Handles." The Journal of Hellenic Studies, 86: pp. 122–23.
Boardman, John, José Dörig, Prof. Werner Fuchs, and M. Hirmer. 1967. The Art and Architecture of Ancient Greece. London: Thames and Hudson Inc.
Hood, R. G. 1967. "A Geometric Oenochoe with Ship Scene in Hobart." American Journal of Archaeology, 71(1): pp. 85–86.
Coldstream, John Nicolas. 1968. Greek Geometric Pottery: A Survey of Ten Local Styles and Their Chronology. pp. 23 n. 7, 26–8, 349 n. 10, London: Methuen.
Morrison, John S. and Roderick T. Williams. 1968. Greek Oared Ships, 900-322 B.C.. pp. 30–2, pls. 5-6.a-b, London: Cambridge University Press.
Kyrieleis, Helmut. 1969. "Throne und Klinen." Jahrbuch des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, 24: p. 102 n. 432.
Ahlberg-Cornell, Gudrun. 1971. Prothesis and Ekphora in Greek Geometric Art, Studies in Mediterranean Archaeology. fig. 1, Göteborg: Paul Aströms Förlag.
Kaufmann-Samaras, A. 1973. Archaiologikon Deltion, 28: p. 218 n. 15.
Hurwit, Jeffrey M. 1977. "Image and Frame in Greek Art." American Journal of Archaeology, 81(1): p. 20.
Brooklyn, Jerrie Pike. 1981. "Attic Black-figure Funerary Plaques. Ph.D. diss." Ph.D. Diss. p. 99. University of Iowa.
Schäfer, Jörg. 1983. "Steps Toward Representational Art in 8th Century Vase Painting. General Discussion on Art and Literature." The Greek Renaissance of the Eighth Century B.C.: Tradition and Innovation: Proceedings of the Second International Symposium at the Swedish Institute in Athens, 1-5 June, 1981, Robin Hägg, ed. p. 77, fig. 3, Stockholm: Svenska Institutet i Athen.
Hurwit, Jeffrey M. 1985. The Art and Culture of Early Greece, 1100-480 B.C.. p. 96, fig. 38, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Ahlberg-Cornell, Gudrun. 1987. "Games, Play and Performance in Greek Geometric Art: The Kantharos Copenhagen NM 727 Reconsidered." Acta archaeologica, 58: p. 61, fig. 10.
Langdon, Susan. 1993. From Pasture to Polis: Art in the Age of Homer p. 45, fig. 10, Columbia, Missouri: University of Missouri.
Isler-Kerényi, Cornelia. 1997. "Der François-Krater Zwischen Athen und Chiusi." Athenian Potters and Painters: The Conference Proceedings, William Coulson and Dr. Olga Palagia, eds. p. 528, fig. 5, Oxford: Oxbow Books.
Weber, Martha. 1999. "Die bildsprache des Hirschfeldkraters." Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Athenische Abteilung, 114: p. 30 n. 8.
Reber, Karl. 1999. "Apobaten auf einem geometrischer Amphorenhals." Antike Kunst, 42(2): p. 133 n. 25.
Moore, Mary B. 2000. "Ships on a 'Wine-Dark Sea' in the Age of Homer." Metropolitan Museum Journal, 35: pp. 13–38, figs. 1–14.
Mertens, Joan R. 2010. How to Read Greek Vases. no. 5, pp. 24, 30, 46–52, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Aruz, Joan, Sarah B. Graff, and Yelena Rakic. 2014. Assyria to Iberia at the Dawn of the Classical Age pp. 21–22, fig. 1.8, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Saunders, David and Megan E. O'Neil. 2024. Picture Worlds : Storytelling on Greek, Moche, and Maya pottery pp. 102–3, fig. 57, Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum.
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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.
