The workshop of the Meidias Painter was the major source of large pots during the last two decades of the fifth century B.C. This masterpiece exemplifies his ability to accommodate delicate, elaborate compositions to large, sturdy shapes. Musaios, a mythical musician, is characterized here as Thracian by his long-sleeved tunic and high fur boots. Below him, to the left, appear his wife, Deiope, and his son, Eumolpos. Aphrodite, the goddess of love, is shown with Peitho, the personification of persuasion, in addition to five muses. The idyllic quality of the scene continues on the reverse where Deianeira, the wife of Herakles, reveals herself to her husband. The emphasis is on respite and glory rather than the toils of Herakles' life.
No image available
Open Access
As part of the Met's Open Access policy, you can freely copy, modify and distribute this image, even for commercial purposes.
API
Public domain data for this object can also be accessed using the Met's Open Access API.
Due to rights restrictions, this image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.
Artwork Details
Use your arrow keys to navigate the tabs below, and your tab key to choose an item
Title:Terracotta pelike (jar)
Artist:Attributed to the Meidias Painter
Period:Classical
Date:ca. 420–410 BCE
Culture:Greek, Attic
Medium:Terracotta; red-figure
Dimensions:H. 18 7/8 in. (48 cm); diameter 13 11/16 in. (34.8 cm)
Classification:Vases
Credit Line:Samuel D. Lee Fund, 1937
Accession Number:37.11.23
Inscription: The names of the figures are inscribed.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1938. "A New Vase by the Meidias Painter." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 33(12): pp. 262–65, fig. 1–3.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1944, 1949. Greek Painting: The Development of Pictoral Representation from Archaic to Graeco-Roman Times. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1946. Attic Red-Figured Vases: A Survey. p. 147, fig. 114, New Haven: Yale University Press.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1953. Handbook of the Greek Collection. pp. 102, 242, pl. 82d, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1958[1946]. Attic Red-Figured Vases: A Survey, Revised Edition, 2nd edn. p. 147, fig. 114, New Haven: Yale University Press.
Beazley, John D. 1963[1942]. Attic Red-figure Vase-painters, Vols. 1 and 2, 2nd ed. p. 1313, no. 7, 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. 477, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Knigge, Ursula. 1975. "Aison, der Meidiasmaler? Zu einer rotfigurigen Oinochoe aus dem Kerameikos." Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Athenische Abteilung, 90: p. 135 n. 35.
Queyrel, Anne. 1984. "Scènes apolliniennes et dionysiaques du Peintre de Pothos." Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique, 108(1): pp. 140 n. 14, 144 n. 20, 147 n. 37, 151 n. 52.
Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC). 1988. Vol. 4: Eros-Herakles. "Eumolpos," p. 56, no. 1, pl. 25; "Harmonia," p. 413, no. 13, pl. 241; "Herakles," p.835, no.1681, pl. 559, Zürich: Artemis Verlag.
Philippaki, Barbara. 1988. "Apollonos Echilasmos." Studies in Honor of T. B. L. Webster, John H. Betts, J. T. Hooker, and John Richard Green, eds. p. 92 n. 30–1, Bristol: Bristol Classical Press.
Maas, Martha and Jane McIntosh Snyder. 1989. Stringed Instruments of Ancient Greece. pp. 145, 152, 160, 164, figs. 10, 16, New Haven: Yale University Press.
Shapiro, Harvey Alan. 1993. Personifications in Greek Art: The Representation of Abstract Concepts, 600-400 B.C.. pp. 62, 106–8, 122, 203–4, 240–41, fig. 48, Zürich: Akanthus.
Bonamici, Marisa. 1993. "Le muse in Etruria." Prospettiva, 70: pp. 11–2, 17, fig. 32.
Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC). 1994. Vol. 7: Oidipous-Theseus. "Peitho," p. 246, no. 30, pl. 180; "Pothos I," p. 501, no. 3, pl. 394, Zürich: Artemis Verlag.
Raftopoulou, Eliana G. 2000. "A Fine Example of Toreutic Art from Epirus." From the Parts to the Whole: Acta of the 13th International Bronze Congress held at Cambridge, Massachusetts, May 28 - June 1, 1996, Carol Mattusch, Amy Brauer, and Sandra E. Knudsen, eds. p. 160 n. 21, Portsmith, R.I.: Journal of Roman Archaeology.
Tsiafakis, Despoina S. 2000. "The Allure and Repulsion of Thracians in the Art of Classical Athens." Not the Classical Ideal: Athens and the Construction of the Other in Greek Art, Beth Cohen, ed. p. 379 n. 67, Leiden: Brill.
Bundrick, Sheramy. 2005. Music and Image in Fifth-century Athens. fig. 32, Cambridge: 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. 150, Zürich: Akanthus Verlag für Archäologie.
The Met's Libraries and Research Centers provide unparalleled resources for research and welcome an international community of students and scholars.
The Met Collection API is where all makers, creators, researchers, and dreamers can connect to the most up-to-date data and public domain images for The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.
Feedback
We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.
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.
