| Collection: | Cambridge, Harvard University Art Museums |
| Summary: | Three mourning women |
| Ware: | Attic Red Figure |
| Painter: | Attributed to the Painter of the Berlin Hydria |
| Context: | From Vari |
| Date: | ca. 460 BC - ca. 450 BC |
| Dimensions: | H. 0.399 m.; Diam. 0.306 m. |
| Primary Citation: | |
| Shape: | Hydria-kalpis |
| Beazley Number: | 207134 |
| Region: | Attica |
| Period: | Early Classical |
Condition:
Broken and repaired, with discolored in-painting of cracks and some restoration.
Decoration Description:
Three female mourners wearing chitons and himations are standing around a kalpis hydria, which sits on the ground. The woman at left stands frontally, her head turned to the right. She is pulling her hair with her right hand and touching (or beating) her breast with her left. The woman at right, whose himation hangs open in front, pulls her hair with her left hand and extends right hand in an emphatic gesture. The woman in the center stands in profile to the right, carrying a broad, shallow basket filled with small lekythoi, two wreaths in added white, and at least one fillet in added red. The short, unadorned hair of the women might indicate that they are slaves, but because they have been pulling their hair, the artist may have been trying to portray the dishevelment of grief. Robinson and Pottier believed the scene might depict Electra, her sister Chrysothemis, and a servant, but there is nothing to indicate a mythological rather than generic meaning; see
The ground line is a band of dotted egg-pattern; a similar pattern circles the rim. Bands of black tongues circle the roots of all three handles. Above the figures, at the base of the neck, is a band of enclosed palmettes alternating with lotuses.
Shape Description:
Kalpis hydria (cf. 1960.340, above) with cyma foot.
Collection History:
Said to have been found in a grave at Vari with two other hydriae:
Sources Used:
CVA, Robinson 2.
Other Bibliography: