Terracotta krater
Trachones Workshop
An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art
Oversize kraters were used as tomb markers and receptacles for ritual offerings. This one is decorated with a well-known and appropriate subject: the funeral of an Athenian aristocrat. The main scene shows a prothesis—the laying out of the deceased surrounded by mourners, who lift their arms to their heads. In this work, the deceased is shown with a long braid or pigtail issuing from his head; the same detail appears on the warriors standing to the right, suggesting that it is either his braided hair or the crest of his helmet. Also noteworthy is the little creature that seems to be attending to the warrior's head. Below the dead man sits a row of female mourners, who can be identified by the thin, lateral triangles projecting from their chests. Of the two subordinate zones, the upper one shows chariots drawn by two horses; the lower one shows a single horse per chariot. Foot soldiers are at a minimum. Of special interest is the charioteer positioned under the bier scene, who is accompanied by a seated child, perhaps the deceased’s son. This krater, like others of its type, was intentionally built with a hole pierced in the bottom of the body so that libations—liquid offerings—could flow directly through the earth and reach the deceased.
Greek and Roman Art
An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Museum's collection of Greek and Roman art comprises more than thirty thousand works ranging in date from the Neolithic period (ca. 4500 B.C.) to the time of the Roman emperor Constantine's conversion to Christianity in A.D. 312. It includes the art of many cultures and is among the most comprehensive in North America. The geographic regions represented are Greece and Italy, but not as delimited by modern political frontiers: Greek colonies were established around the Mediterranean basin and on the shores of the Black Sea, and Cyprus became increasingly Hellenized. For Roman art, the geographical limits coincide with the expansion of the Roman Empire. The department also exhibits the art of prehistoric Greece (Helladic, Cycladic, and Minoan) and pre-Roman art of Italic peoples, notably the Etruscans.