Hydria with Chariot Scene

Artist The Leagros Group, Painter S (Greek)

Place of OriginAthens, Greece; reportedly found in Vulci, Italy

Dateabout 510 BCE

Dimensions18 1/2 × 15 × 13 × 9 1/8 × 11 3/4 × 6 3/8 in. (47 × 38.1 × 33 × 23.2 × 29.8 × 16.2 cm)

MediumBlack-figure, wheel-thrown, slip-decorated earthenware with incised details.

ClassificationCeramics

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1950.261

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 02, Classic

DescriptionAttic black-figure hydria with a chariot scene, Herakles and Cerberus, and animal motifs. The shoulder panel depicts Herakles leading Cerberus, flanked by Athena and Hermes. The central register shows a four-horse chariot with warriors. The predella features a lion and boars. The vase has a tongue-pattern decoration on the lip (rare for hydriae). Graffito on the foot, partially obscured by accretions. The glaze is mottled, with areas of iridescence. Previously broken and repaired, with some misaligned joins.

Published References

Dubois, Notice d’une collection de vases antiques en terre peinte provenant des fouilles en Etrurie par feu M. le Prince de Canino, Paris, April 4, 1843, p. 25, lot no. 86.

Catalogue des objets d'art et de haute curiosité... composant la collection de feu M. le vicomte de Janzé, Vente Hôtel Drouot, Paris, April 16, 1866.

Art Digest, May 15, 1951, p. 12.

American Journal of Archaeology, vol. 58, 1954, p. 64 ("Florence market").

Brommer, F., Vasenlisten zur griechischen Heldensage, 1956, p. 53, no. 54.

Brommer, F., Vasenlisten zur griechischen Heldensage, 2nd ed., 1960, p. 73, no. 54.

Washington, S., "Greek Vase Painting," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, vol. 5, no. 4, 1962, p. 80. repr..

Riefstahl, Rudolph M., "Greek Vases," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, vol. 11, no. 2, 1968, p. 36.

Brommer, F., Vasenlisten zur griechischen Heldensage, 3rd ed., 1973, p. 93, no. 12.

Boulter, Cedric G., and Kurt T. Luckner, Corpus vasorum antiquorum: Toledo Museum of Art, U.S.A. fasc. 17, Toledo, 1976, p. 14-15, repr. pl. 20,2 and 22.

Lexicon iconographicum mythologiae classicae, Zurich, 1988, v. IV, pt. 1, p. 386, no. 140, repr. v. IV, pt. 2, pl. 222, v. V, pt. 1, no. p. 90, no. 2593, vol. VIII, pt. 1, p. 971, no. 264.

Exhibition History

Chicago, Art Institute, Greek Vase-Painting in Midwestern Collections, 1979-1980, no. 48, p. 80-81, repr.