The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 23, 2024

Black-Figure Hydria (Water Vessel): Frontal Quadriga (Body); Theseus and Minotaur (Shoulder)

Black-Figure Hydria (Water Vessel): Frontal Quadriga (Body); Theseus and Minotaur (Shoulder)

c. 520 BCE

attributed to Antimenes Painter

(Greek, Attic, active c. 530–510 BCE)
Overall: 43.2 cm (17 in.); Diameter of rim: 24.7 cm (9 3/4 in.); Diameter of foot: 15.2 cm (6 in.)
Location: 102B Greek

Did You Know?

This type of water vessel, a hydria, takes its name from hudor, Greek for water (and still familiar in the English root hydro).

Description

Although their subjects differ, the three fields of figured decoration on this vessel relate to one another metaphorically through the theme of victory. Just as Theseus defeats the Minotaur on the shoulder, two lions converge on a deer in the predella (the small, lowermost panel). In the largest panel, victory is still to come, presumably for all three warriors shown: one in the chariot behind his driver, and one on foot on either side. Somewhat unusually, two of the warriors look directly out at the viewer, their frontal faces an interesting complement to the much more common frontal chariot.
  • 1975-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Beazley Archive. n.d. Beazley Archive Pottery Database. Oxford: Beazley Archive. BAPD 5188 www.beazley.ox.ac.uk
    Kathman, Barbara. "A Trio of Late Black-Figure Vase Painters." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 66, no. 2 (1979): 50-66. pp. 50-54, figs. 1, 2, 4. 25159617.
    Boulter, C. G., Jenifer Neils, and Gisela Walberg. Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1971. pp. 29-31, FIGS.2-3, PLS.(1812-1814) 66.1, 67.1-2, 68.1-3
    Das Tier in der Antike: 400 Werke ägyptischer, griechischer, etruskischer und römischer Kunst aus privatem und öffetlichem Besitz. Zürich: Archäologisches Institut der Universität Zürich, 1974. p. 39, no. 225, pl. 38
    Lee, Sherman E. "The Year in Review for 1975." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 63, no. 2 (1976): 31-71. p. 34, fig. 1, 65, no. 1 www.jstor.org
    Gazette des Beaux Arts (March 1976). p. 32, no, 118
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 23 archive.org
    Moon, Warren G. and Louise Berge. Greek Vase-Painting in Midwestern Collections. Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago,1979. Mentioned & reproduced: pp. 106-107, cat. 61 www.perseus.tufts.edu
    Cleveland Museum of Art, and Jenifer Neils. The World of Ceramics: Masterpieces from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: The Museum in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1982. Mentioned: p. 12-13; Reproduced: fig. 14, p. 12, color plate 14 after p. 22
    Korshak, Yvonne. Frontal Faces in Attic Vase Painting of the Archaic Period. Chicago: Ares Publishers, 1987. p. 141, Fig. 89
    Burow, Johannes. Der Antimenesmaler. Mainz/Rhein: Philipp von Zabern, 1989. p. 104, no, 111
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1991. Reproduced: p. 9 archive.org
    Fliegel, Stephen N. Arms and Armor: The Cleveland Museum of Art. [Cleveland, Ohio]: The Museum, 1998. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 24
    Fliegel, Stephen N. Arms & Armor: The Cleveland Museum of Art. [Cleveland, Ohio]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2007. p. 34
    Brody, Lisa R., Matthew Hargraves, and James Arnold Higginbotham. Figures from the Fire: J. Pierpont Morgan's Ancient Bronzes at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art. Wadsworth Athenaeum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT, in association with Paul Holberton Publishing, London. 2023. Discussed p. 24, Fig. 8-9. p. 29.
    Sigalas, Vanessa, Jennifer Tonkovich, and Linda Horvitz Roth. Morgan the Collector: Essays in Honor of Linda Roth's 40th Anniversary at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art. Stuttgart : Arnoldsche, 2023. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 74, no. 5
  • Das Tier in der Antike, Archäologisches Institut der Universität Zürich, Switzerland (9/21/1974 - 11/17/1974).
    The World of Ceramics: Masterpieces from the Cleveland Museum of Art, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (30 June-5 September 1982).
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Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1975.1