Excavated in 1797 in Tor Bavacciano, Ostia, the port of Ancient Rome
This puteal (wellhead) is an outstanding example of Roman figural relief sculpture of the second century A.D. It once covered a well in Ostia, the port town of ancient Rome, probably within a sumptuous Roman villa along the Tiber River. The ancient Roman sculptor has transformed a utilitarian object into a luxurious work of art. Carved from a single block of marble, whose form resembles a Hellenistic altar, the drum is decorated with two cautionary tales from Greek mythology that relate to water. The sculptor seamlessly combined the story of Narcissus and Echo, best known from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, with the tale of the handsome hero Hylas being abducted by nymphs in the land of Mysia (western Turkey) as he was fetching water for the Argonauts on their quest to find the Golden Fleece, best known in Greek literature from the Argonautica of Apollonios of Rhodes.
This image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.
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.
This artwork is meant to be viewed from right to left. Scroll left to view more.
This image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.
Shallow relief carving of an olive branch that would have been painted
Artwork Details
Use your arrow keys to navigate the tabs below, and your tab key to choose an item
Title:Puteal (wellhead) with Narcissus and Echo, and Hylas and the Nymphs
Period:Antonine or Severan
Date:2nd century
Culture:Roman
Medium:Marble
Dimensions:Height: 40 15/16 in. (104 cm) Diameter: 26 3/8 in. (67 cm) Height of base: 8 11/16 in. (22 cm)
Classification:Stone Sculpture
Credit Line:Purchase, Lila Acheson Wallace, Howard S. and Nancy Marks, Mr. and Mrs. Ronald S. Lauder, The Jaharis Family Foundation Inc., Philodoroi, Leon Levy Foundation, Renée E. and Robert A. Belfer, Mr. and Mrs. John A. Moran, Mark Fisch and Rachel Davidson, Annette de la Renta, Beatrice Stern, Frederick J. Iseman, The Abner Rosen Foundation Inc., Mr. and Mrs. Richard L. Chilton Jr., Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Barbara G. Fleischman, in memory of Lawrence A. Fleischman, and Malcolm Hewitt Wiener Foundation Gifts; and The Bothmer Purchase and Diane Carol Brandt Funds, 2019
Object Number:2019.7
Excavated in 1797 in Ostia, the port of ancient Rome
Spring 1797, excavated by Robert Fagan near the Bovacciano Tower, Ostia; from 1797, with Robert Fagan (Rome, Naples, England); before 1853, acquired by Francis Wemyss Charteris Douglas, the 8th Earl of Wemyss and March; from before 1853 to 2019, collection of the Earls of Wemyss and March, Gosford House, East Lothian, Scotland; acquired in 2019, purchased from Wemyss Chattels Trust.
Fea, Carlo. 1802. Relazione di un Viaggio ad Ostia e alla Villa di Plinio detta Laurentino. p. 45, Rome: Antonio Fulgoni.
Guattani, Guiseppe Antoinio. 1805. "Parapetto di pozzo con bassorilievo d'Ila e Narciso." Monumenti antichi inediti, ovvero, notizie sulla antichità e belle arti di Roma per l'anno 1805, 8. pp. 39–47, pls. 7–8, Rome.
Nibby, Antonio. 1837. Analisi storico-topografico-antiquaria della carta de'dintorni di Roma. p. 469, Rome: Tip. delle Belle arti.
Wieseler, Friedrich. 1844. Die Nymphe Echo. Eine kunstmythologische Abhandlung. p. 9, Göttingen: Dieterich.
Türk, Gustav. 1895. De Hyla. no. 2, pp. 78–79, Breslau: Verlag von Wilhelm Koebner.
Lanciani, Rodolfo. 1903. "Le antichità del territorio laurentino." Monumenti Antichi, XIII.1: pp. 135–96.
Garrow-Green, G. 1911. "Gosford House. East Lothian. The Seat of the Earl of Wemyss." Country Life. September 2nd, 1911, : p. 344.
Paschetto, Lodovico. 1912. Ostia Colonia Romana : Storia e Monumenti. p. 254, figs. 49–50, Rome: Tipografia Poliglotta Vaticana.
Ashby, Thomas. 1912. "Recent Discoveries at Ostia." The Journal of Roman Studies, 2: p. 162.
Francis Richard Charteris 10th Earl of Wemyss, 6th Earl of March. 1912. Memories 1818–1911. Volume II. pp. 13–14, David Douglas.
Rizzo, Giulio Emanuele. 1929. La Pittura Ellenistico-Romana. pp. 63–64, pl. 130, Milan: Fratelli Treves.
Manino, Luciano. 1952-1953. "Ara funeraria con rilievi mitologici nel museo antichità di Torino." Bollettino della Società Piemontese di Archeologia e di Belle Arti, 1952-1953: pp. 45–46, fig. 8.
Zanker, Paul. 1966. "'Iste Ego Sum' Der naïve und der bewußte Narziß." Bonner Jahtbucher des Rheinischen Landesmuseums Bonn, 166: p. 153, fig. 1.
Brommer, Frank. 1971. Denkmälerlisten zur griechischen Heldensage, I. Herakles. Roman relief no. 4, p. 85, Marburg: N.G. Elwert.
Hartmann, Jürgen, Prof. Dipl.-Ing and Klaus Parlasca. 1979. Antike Motive bei Thorvaldsen : Studien zur Antikenrezeption des Klassizismus. p. 157, pl. 106.1–.3, Tübingen: E. Wasmuth.
Ling, Roger. 1979. "Hylas in Pompeian Art." Melanges de l'Ecole Française de Rome : Antiquité, 91.2: no. 24, p. 806.
Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC). 1986. Vol. 3: Atherion-Eros. "Echo," p. 683, no. 15, pl. 534, Zürich: Artemis Verlag.
Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC). 1990. Vol. 5: Herakles-Kenchrias. "Hylas," p. 576, no. 21, pl. 398, Zürich: Artemis Verlag.
Bignamini, Ilaria. 1995. "I Marmi Fagan in Vaticano. La Vendita del 1804 e altri Acquisizioni." Bollettino - Monumenti, musei e gallerie pontificie, 16: p. 381.
Ricciardi, Maria Antonietta and Valnea Santa Maria Scrinari. 1996. La Civiltà dell' Acqua in Ostia Antica, Vol. 1. p. 16, figs. 3, 3A, Rome: Fratelli Palombi.
Golda, Thomas Matthias. 1997. Puteale und verwandte Monumente : eine Studie zum römischen Ausstattungsluxus. no. 65, p. 110, pl. 71.3, Mainz: Verlag Philipp von Zabern.
Bignamini, Ilaria. 2003. "Ostia, Porto e Isola Sacra : scoperte e scavi dal Medioevo al 1801." Rivista dell'Istituto nazionale d'archeologia e storia dell'arte, 26: pp. 62, 67, figs. 17–18.
Zahle, Jan. 2010. "La collezione di gessi dall'antichità di Bertel Thorvaldsen a Roma (1770–1844)." Gli ateliers degli scultori: atti del secondo Convegno internazionale sulle gipsoteche, Possagno, 24–25 ottobre 2008, Mario Guderzo, ed. pp. 91–100, Possagno: Fondazione Canova.
Bignamini, Ilaria and Clare Hornsby. 2010. Digging and Dealing in Eighteenth-Century Rome, Vol. 1. p. 14, fig. 16, New Haven and London: Yale University Press.
Zahle, Jan. 2012. Thorvaldsens afstøbninger efter antikken og renæssancen : en komplett samling. p. 84, fig. 52, Copenhagen: Thorvaldsens Museum.
Ascani, Karen and Øjvind Andreasen. 2013. Georg Zoëga: Briefs and Documents, III 1791-1797. letter no. 715, pp. 618–621, Denmark: University Press of Southern Denmark.
Zanker, Paul, Seán Hemingway, Christopher S. Lightfoot, and Joan R. Mertens. 2019. Roman Art : A Guide through the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Collection. no. 46, pp. 6, 138–41, 201, New York: Scala Publishers.
Metropolitan Museum of Art. 2020. ART = Discovering Infinite Connections in Art History. p. 032, New York: Phaidon Press.
Hemingway, Seán, Joan R. Mertens, Sarah Lepinski, and Alexis Belis. 2021. "Recent Acquisitions: A Selection 2018–2020." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 78(3): pp. frontispiece, 11–12.
Hemingway, Seán. 2023. "The Gosford Wellhead : An Ancient Roman Masterpiece." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 80(3): pp. 5–45, figs.1, 11, 24, 28, 30–32, 36, 39–41, 49–58.
Hemingway, Seán and Sarah Lepinski. 2025. "Chroma : Ancient Sculpture in Color and Anceint Polychromy at The Met." Chroma : Sculpture in Color from Antiquity to Today, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Symposia, Seán Hemingway, Sarah Lepinski, and Vinzenz Brinkmann, eds. p. 42, n. 52, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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.
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.
