Around the body, hoplites(foot soldiers) mounted on dolphins
This procession of identically dressed foot soldiers seems to advance with military precision. A number of other dolphin-riding hoplites appear on vases of this period. All are accompanied by a flute player, suggesting that this scene illustrates a dramatic chorus, probably from a contemporary play. The six dolphins would have seemed to leap and dive as the psykter bobbed in the ice water inside a large krater.
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 psykter (vase for cooling wine)
Artist:Attributed to Oltos
Period:Archaic
Date:ca. 520–510 BCE
Culture:Greek, Attic
Medium:Terracotta; red-figure
Dimensions:H. 11 7/8 in. (30.20 cm)
Classification:Vases
Credit Line:Gift of Norbert Schimmel Trust, 1989
Accession Number:1989.281.69
Inscription: Inscribed after each figure: EPIDELPHINOS, "upon the dolphin"
By 1961, on the art market, Geneva, Switzerland (Beazley 1961, p. 63); by 1965, collection of Norbert Schimmel; acquired in 1989, gift of the Norbert Schimmel Trust.
Beazley, John D. 1961. "An Amphora by the Berlin Painter." Antike Kunst, 4(2): p. 63.
Beazley, John D. 1963[1942]. Attic Red-figure Vase-painters, Vols. 1 and 2, 2nd ed. pp. 1622–3, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Greifenhagen, Adolf. 1965. "Delphinreiter auf einem Psykter des Oltos." Pantheon, 23: pp. 1–7, figs. 1-7.
Muscarella, Oscar White. 1974. Ancient Art: The Norbert Schimmel Collection no. 57, Mainz am Rhein: Verlag Philipp von Zabern.
Greifenhagen, Adolf. 1974. "Red-Figured Psykter with Dolphin Riders by Oltos." Ancient Art: The Norbert Schimmel Collection, Oscar White Muscarella, ed. no. 57
, Mainz am Rhein: Verlag Philipp von Zabern.
Ägyptisches Museum und Papyrussammlung, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. 1978. Von Troja bis Amarna: the Norbert Schimmel Collection, New York, Jürgen Settgast, ed. no. 76, Mainz: Verlag Philipp von Zabern.
Milleker, Elizabeth J. 1992. "Ancient Art: Gifts from The Norbert Schimmel Collection: Greek and Roman." Bulletin of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 49(4): p. 46.
Valavanis, Panos and Dimitris Kourkoumelis. 1996. Drinking Vessels. pp. 72–73, Athens: The Hatzimichalis Estate.
Mastrodonato, Valentina. 1999-2000. "Una residenza imperiale nel suburbio di Roma: la villa di Lucio Vero in località Acquatraversa." Archeologia Classica, 51: pp. 261, 263, fig. 24.
Steinhart, Matthias. 2004. Die Kunst der Nachahmung : Darstellungen mimetischer Vorführungen in der greiechischen Bildkunst archaischer und klassischer Zeit. pl. 8, 2, Mainz am Rhein: Verlag Philipp von Zabern.
Picón, Carlos A. 2007. Art of the Classical World in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Greece, Cyprus, Etruria, Rome no. 106, pp. 100, 427, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Lezzi-Hafter, Adrienne. 2009. "Wheel without Chariot – A Motif in Attic Vase-Painting." Athenian Potters and Painters, Vol. 2, John H. Oakley and Olga Palagia, eds. p. 155 n 13, Oxford: Oxbow Books.
Mitchell, Alexandre G. 2009. Greek Vase-painting and the Origins of Visual Humour. pp. 207 n. 256, 291, 294, New York: Cambridge University Press.
Hart, Mary Louise. 2010. "Choral Dance in Archaic Athens." The Art of Ancient Greek Theater. p. 25, pl. 9, Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum.
Caltabiano, Maria Caccamo. 2012. "Dea e Nymphe. L'ideologia della Personificazione della Città nell'Iconografia Monetale." IIl significato delle immagini : numismatica, arte, filologia, storia : atti del secondo incontro internazionale di studio del "Lexicon Iconographicum Numismaticae" (Genova, 10-12 novembre 2005), Serta Antiqua et Mediaevalia XIV. Scienze documentarie II, Rossella Pera, ed. p. 32, pl. 2d ii, Rome: Università degli Studi di Genova.
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.
