As a result of the agreement negotiated by Philippe de Montebello, Director of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali, the Republic of Italy is lending the Metropolitan Museum three outstanding ancient Greek vases for a period of four years. Supplementing the Laconian drinking cup already on loan (since November 2006 and lent by the Museo Nazionale in Ceveteri), the three additional pieces – a jug in the shape of a young woman's head (end of sixth century B.C.); a cup signed by the potter Euxitheos and the painter Oltos, depicting the assembly of gods on Mount Olympos (515-510 B.C.); and a vase of the fourth century B.C. showing Oedipus solving the riddle of the sphinx – will go on view among related works in the Museum's Greek and Roman Galleries on Wednesday, January 16, 2008. These loans come to the Met in exchange for the return of the Euphronios krater to Italy. The krater will remain on view at the Metropolitan Museum through Sunday, January 13, 2008.
"The long and fruitful history of collaborations between the Ministry and museums of Italy, on the one hand, and the Metropolitan Museum continues with these extraordinary new loans," stated Mr. de Montebello. "Once again – as with the recent showing of panels from Ghiberti's magnificent 'Gates of Paradise' – our shared commitment to displaying works of art of the highest level continues. The Euphronios krater introduced the world to a great ancient master, and the current loans illuminate the superb achievements of his contemporaries. As they join our own renowned collection for the next four years, these masterpieces will expand significantly our visitors' experience of classical art."
Three Loans from Italy
The exquisite terracotta drinking vessel in the shape of a young woman's head was made in Athens at the turn of the 6th to 5th century B.C., and is signed by the potter Charinos. The vase was lent by the Museo Nazionale in Tarquinia.
(The painter Euphronios decorated such a head vase as well, and Charinos may have been part of his workshop.) In this work, the basically utilitarian medium of fired clay is elevated to the standard of contemporary sculpture in the more expensive medium of marble. The woman's hair is gathered in an elaborately decorated snood with a meticulously executed frieze of animals, real and mythological, that is meant to be understood as woven in. Her physiognomy and highly ornamented snood suggest a person of some standing. Vessels like this would have been used in symposia, the gatherings of Athenian men that included wine, music, and women who were professional entertainers.
The cup signed by the potter Euxitheos and the painter Oltos, and dated about 515-510 B.C., is a virtuoso achievement. It also was lent by the Museo Nazionale, Tarquinia. Euxitheos is known chiefly for his collaboration with Euphronios as painter. (Oltos was a prolific artist one of whose finest works, a psykter or wine cooler, has been in the Museum's collection for nearly a century.) The cup's unusually large size - 52 cm in diameter – occurs in a number of works exported from Athens to the Italian peninsula in the Archaic and Classical periods. The large, relatively flat surfaces on the outside of the cup lend themselves to expansive compositions, such as the remarkable assembly of the gods on Mount Olympos. We know the identity of the painted figures because virtually every one is named. The number of inscriptions indicates a real interest in making clear who is who, including the artists responsible. A long graffito in Etruscan letters on the underside of the cup's foot indicates that the work was dedicated to the sons of Zeus, Castor and Pollux. Because of its large scale, the cup would have been unwieldy for use in a symposium. It may have been created to be a magnificent offering.
The bell-krater from the south Italian region of Paestum and dated to the third quarter of the fourth century B.C. is attributed to Python, one of the leading painters of this regional school. The vase was lent by the Museo Archeologico in Naples. The work is an important example of the so-called phlyax vases, named after a type of farce that parodied the weighty themes and traditional personages of mythology and drama, and shows one of the most serious and dramatic episodes in classical Greek drama: Oedipus solving the riddle of the sphinx. (The riddle is: what has four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, and three legs in the evening? The answer is: man, for he crawls on all fours as an infant, walks on two legs as an adult, and walks with a cane in old age.) The sphinx sits on her rock, with a snake at its base. A satyr in full comic garb with a fleecy suit and accessories appears to be interrogating the sphinx while he extends a bird towards her. Since snakes and birds were credited with oracular powers in antiquity, this interpretation overturns the established story.
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January 18, 2008
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