Polychrome terracotta head vase
Not on view
The vase in the form of a woman's head and neck with two smaller female heads protruding from acanthus leaves at the top. Once, a tall statuette of a woman, now lost, was fixed between the two heads, and backed by a tall ribbed handle whose lower attachment is still visible at the back. Substantial traces of polychrome paint (white, red, green, pink, etc.), applied after firing, are still visible. Such terracotta head-vases are typical of the Hellenistic pottery production in Canosa, an ancient Daunian (native Italic) town of Apulia in southern Italy. The typology derives from successive transformations of the Greek (Attic) wine jug (oinochoe), resulting in a totally non-functional object (no bottom, no neck or spout) designed for elite local graves where they were found in great quantities. This head vase once belonged to the abundant material found in two adjacent hypogeum-graves, discovered near Canosa in 1895, and documented before being dispersed worldwide. The head was part of a woman’s grave good, together with two funnel vases in the Met collection (06.1021.246a, b and .248a, b). The other tomb was probably destined to three male warriors. The Met exhibits several objects from the latter context: two splendid red-figure oinochoai (06.1021.209, .211), a red-figure kantharos (.233), two ceremonial vases (louthrophoroi) in polychrome technique (.245, .249), a large pyxis (box) in the same technique (.253a, b), and a very large red-figure dish (lekanis) with Eos driving her chariot with four beautiful white horses (69.11.8).
