Fragment with the Triumph of Dionysos and the Labors of Herakles
Not on view
In the central medallion, Dionysos and his wife, Ariadne, ride in a chariot driven by a putto and drawn by panthers. Herakles, carrying a club, accompanies the couple. The ancient hero appears again in the frame, where his Twelve Labors are depicted. Although five of the framing scenes are lost, an identical square preserved in the collection of the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, allows this fragment to be reconstructed. Several of the labors are easily identifiable: Herakles capturing the Cretan bull, traveling to the underworld and returning with the three-headed dog Kerberos, taming the mares of Diomedes, and slaying the Lernaean hydra. Herakles is included among the bacchanalian thiase (followers of Dionysos), and, like Dionysos, he appears frequently in late Roman and early Byzantine art, particularly on textiles, silver, and ivory.
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Title:Fragment with the Triumph of Dionysos and the Labors of Herakles
Date:4th–6th century
Geography:Made in Egypt
Medium:Wool, linen; plain weave, tapestry weave
Dimensions:Max. H. 12 5/8 in. (32 cm) Max. W. 11 13/16 in. (30 cm)
Classification:Textiles
Credit Line:Purchase by subscription, 1889
Accession Number:89.18.244
Textile Fragment
Probably from a blanket or cover, this scene is an abbreviated version of the triumphal procession of the Greek god Dionysus, which often included figures of the hero Heracles. Heracles 's twelve labors are depicted as a compact and uninterrupted figural frieze, starting clockwise from top left: killing the Nemean lion, the golden apples of the Hesperides, the Erymanthean boar, cleaning of Augeas's stables, capture of the Cretan bull, killing of Kyknos, Cerberus, Diomedes's mares, shooting of the Stymphalian birds, the Larnaean hydra, capture of the Cerynean hide, and Hippolyte the Queen of the Amazons. Heracles, both bearded and beardless, is portrayed performing his tasks in a short-hand but intelligible manner in accord with the estblished inconographic tradition. For example, in the cleaning of Augeas's stables (top right), he is shown wielding a two-pronged hoe as in the floor mosaic from Volubilis. And he is armed with a bow in the shooting of the Stymphalian birds (bottom center left) with birds falling around him, as on another floor mosaic from Liria in Spain (now in Madrid). The considerable stylization of the figures in the frieze as well as in the central medallion may be due either to work shop copying or to the use of a more abstract model from another artistic medium. Whichever is the case, the appearance of the panels agrees with a 6th century stylistic phase of Early Byzantine art.
This panel and its companion piece in Leningrad (Hermitage, inv. 11377) could have been used as tunic ornaments, but more likely were applied to a domestic textile, such as a blanket or a cover. Similar Herculean imagery was employed on floors, walls, and household objects such as furniture and tableware throughout the Early Byzantine period. It is another example of the popularity of mythological themes as decoration in the sphere of domestic art at this time.
Although not documented, the panels must have been found in Akhmim since their early owners, Theodore Graf in Vienna and Wladimir Bock in Leningrad, had considerable holdings of Akhmim textiles.
Anna Gonosova in [Friedman 1989]
[ Theodor Graf, Vienna, Austria, by 1887–89; sold to R.W. Eltzner for MMA]
Providence, RI. Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design. "Beyond the Pharaohs: Egypt and the Copts in the 2nd to 7th Centuries A.D.," February 10, 1989–April 16, 1989, no. 46.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Textiles of Late Antiquity," December 14, 1995–April 7, 1996, no. 11.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Late Antique Taste and Clasical Themes," November 1, 2008–November 1, 2009.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Classical Imagery in the Early Byzantine Period," November 18, 2008–January 18, 2009.
Friedman, Florence D. "Egypt and the Copts in the 2nd to 7th Centuries AD." In Beyond the Pharaohs. Providence, R.I.: Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, 1989. no. 46, p. 137, ill.
Stauffer, Annmarie. Textiles of Late Antiquity. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1995. no. 11, p. 44, ill. (b/w).
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