Silver Funerary Urn (Kalpis or Hydria)

Place of OriginGreece, reportedly from Thessaloniki

Date300-200 BCE

DimensionsH: 14 5/8 in. (37.2 cm); Diam (mouth flange): 5 3/8 in. (13.7 cm); Max Diam (body): 10 7/16 in. (26.5 cm)

MediumSilver

ClassificationMetalwork

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

Object number

1979.1

On View

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

DescriptionThis vessel is a kalpis, a variant of the hydria (three-handled water jar) characterized by a continuous, curving profile from the shoulder to the neck without a sharp offset. The body and foot were raised (cold-hammered) from a single circular blank of silver. The three handles—two horizontal for lifting and one vertical for pouring—were cast over lead cores and attached to the body with silver rivets (four at each join). The rim flange is cold-worked.

Label TextItems are usually regarded as luxurious either because of the cost of their materials or the amount of labor required to make them. This silver water jar meets both criteria. The silver would have come from melting down silver coins. It weighs 595 Attic drachme—an immense sum, equivalent to almost two years’ wages for a laborer. But an immense amount of labor went into creating this vessel as well. The main part and the foot were raised, or cold-hammered, from blanks of silver, and then attached together. The handles were cast from silver, then riveted onto the vessel. Only a very wealthy person could have afforded such a luxurious item. The shape of this vessel is one associated with water jars (or hydriai). However, the vessel was also most certainly used as a funerary object, as a container for the bones and ashes of a deceased person. A note in the curatorial files remarks that the object's vendor claimed to still possess a bone fragment reported to have been found inside this vessel.Published References"1979 Annual Report," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, vol. 21, no. 4, 1979, p. 78, repr. Gill, David W. J., “Inscribed Silver Plate from Tomb II at Vergina: Chronological Implications,” Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, vol. 77, no. 2, 2008, pp. 339.

Sowder, Amy Ann, Greek Bronze Hydriai, PhD diss., Emory University, Laney Graduate School, Department of Art History, 2009, pp. 407, 793–794.

Exhibition HistoryChicago, Art Institute, The Search for Alexander, 1981, no. S-9, repr.