Obverse, the ascension of Persephone from the underworld Reverse, libation scene
Persephone, the daughter of the goddess Demeter, was condemned to spend half of each year with Hades, the ruler of the underworld. In this grandiose representation, Persephone ascends to earth through a rocky outcrop. She is guided by Hermes, the divine messenger, and Hekate, a goddess of fertility, magic, and dark things who typically carries torches. At the far right stands the regal Demeter, waiting to receive her daughter and the renewal of life that her return engendered.
#1050. Terracotta bell-krater (bowl for mixing wine and water), Part 1
0:00
0:00
Playlist
1050. Terracotta bell-krater (bowl for mixing wine and water), Part 1
2202. Terracotta bell-krater (bowl for mixing wine and water), Part 2
2224. Terracotta bell-krater (bowl for mixing wine and water), Part 3
This artwork is meant to be viewed from right to left. Scroll left to view more.
Artwork Details
Use your arrow keys to navigate the tabs below, and your tab key to choose an item
Title:Terracotta bell-krater (bowl for mixing wine and water)
Artist:Attributed to the Persephone Painter
Period:Classical
Date:ca. 440 BCE
Culture:Greek, Attic
Medium:Terracotta; red-figure
Dimensions:H. 16 1/8 in. (41 cm); diameter of mouth 17 7/8 in. (45.4 cm)
Classification:Vases
Credit Line:Fletcher Fund, 1928
Accession Number:28.57.23
Said to have been found at Montesarchio, Apulia (Visconti 1820, p. 40, note 1)
By 1820 and at least until 1923, collection of Marchese del Vasto, Naples; [until 1928, with Fausto Benedetti]; acquired in 1928, purchased from Fausto Benedetti.
Albizzati, Carlo. 1930. "Analecta." Athenaeum, n.s.v. 8: p. 519.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1931. "An Athenian Vase with the Return of Persephone." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 26(10): pp. 245–48, figs. 1–3.
Kourouniotis, K. 1933–1935. "Kores anodas." Archaiologikon Deltion, : p. 4, fig. 3.
Richter, Gisela M. A. and Lindsley F. Hall. 1936. Red-Figured Athenian Vases in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. no. 124, pp. 156–58, pls. 123, 124, 171, New Haven: Yale University Press.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1946. Attic Red-Figured Vases: A Survey. pp. 116, 123, figs. 33b, 33f,*, New Haven: Yale University Press.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1953. Handbook of the Greek Collection. p. 240, pl. 80c, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1958[1946]. Attic Red-Figured Vases: A Survey, Revised Edition, 2nd edn. pp. 116, 123, figs. 33b, 33f, New Haven: Yale University Press.
Beazley, John D. 1963[1942]. Attic Red-figure Vase-painters, Vols. 1 and 2, 2nd ed. p. 1012, no. 1, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Beazley, John D. 1971. Paralipomena: Additions to Attic Black-Figure Vase-Painters and to Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters [2nd edition]. p. 440, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Peschlow-Bindokat, Anneliese. 1972. "Demeter und Persephone in der Attischen Kunst des 6. bus 4. Jahrhunderts." Jahrbuch des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, 87: p. 95, fig. 31.
Robertson, Martin and Cambridge University Press. 1975. A History of Greek Art, Vols. 1 and 2. p. 408, pl. 106a, Cambridge, England.
Edwards, Charles M. 1986. "The Running Maiden from Eleusis and the Early Classical Image of Hekate." American Journal of Archaeology, 90(3): p. 308 n. 8, fig. 9, pl. 21.
Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC). 1988. Vol. 4: Eros-Herakles. "Ge," p. 176; "Demeter," p. 872, no. 328, Zürich: Artemis Verlag.
Boardman, John. 1989. Athenian Red Figure Vases: The Classical Period, a Handbook. fig. 121, London: Thames and Hudson.
Reeder, Ellen D., Sally Humphreys, Prof. Mary R. Lefkowitz, Francois Lissarrague, Prof. Margot Schmidt, Prof. H. Alan Shapiro, Christianne Sourvinou-Inwood, Prof. Andrew F. Stewart, Froma Zeitlin, Carol Benson, and Brunilde Sismondo Ridgway. 1995. "Women in Classical Greece." Pandora: Women in Classical Greece. pp. 289–91, fig. 85, Baltimore: Walters Art Gallery.
Rendeli, Marco. 1996. "Anagoghe." Prospettiva, 83-84: p. 23, fig. 27.
Avagianou, Aphrodite. 2002. Latreies stēn 'periphereia' tou archaiou Hellēnikou kosmou. p. 87, fig. 10, Athens: Ethniko Hidryma Ereunōn.
Foley, Helene, Lesley A. Beaumont, and H. Alan Shapiro. 2003. "Mothers and Daughters." Coming of Age in Ancient Greece: Images of Childhood from the Classical Past, Jenifer Neils, John H. Oakley, and Katherine Hart, eds. p. 125, fig. 13, New Haven: Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College.
Picón, Carlos A. 2007. Art of the Classical World in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Greece, Cyprus, Etruria, Rome no. 124, pp. 114, 430, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Mertens, Joan R. 2010. How to Read Greek Vases. no. 27, pp. 64, 136–139, 150, 154, 159, 170, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Bowden, Hugh. 2010. Mystery Cults in the Ancient World. p. 27, fig. 13, London: Thames and Hudson.
Marconi, Clemente. 2011. "L'identificazione della 'Dea' di Morgantina." Prospettiva, 141-142: pp. 10, 24, fig. 39.
Stampolidis, Professor Nicholas Chr. and Stavroula Oikonomou. 2014. Beyond: Death and Afterlife in Ancient Greece. no. 68, p. 144, Athens: Museum of Cycladic Art.
Heuer, Keely Elizabeth. 2015. "Vases with Faces: Isolated Heads in South Italian Vase Painting." Metropolitan Museum Journal, 50: pp. 70–71, fig. 16.
Metropolitan Museum of Art. 2020. ART = Discovering Infinite Connections in Art History. p. 165, New York: Phaidon Press.
Simon, Erika and Fritz Graf. 2021. The Gods of the Greeks, Prof. H. Alan Shapiro, ed. pp. 106–7, fig. 98, Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
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.
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.
