On the body of the vase is a representation of a shield decorated with the head of the gorgon Medusa. The white slip and polychrome painting were probably added when the hydria was re-used as a cinerary urn, with the shield serving to protect the remains of the deceased. Unlike the other Hadra hydria displayed here, this vase was probably of local manufacture.
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Title:Terracotta Hadra hydria (water jar)
Period:Hellenistic
Date:3rd century BCE
Culture:Greek, Ptolemaic, Egyptian
Medium:Terracotta
Dimensions:H. 15 15/16 in. (40.5 cm) diameter 10 15/16 in. (27.8 cm)
Classification:Vases
Credit Line:Purchase, 1890
Object Number:90.9.67
Said to be from the Hadra cemetery of Alexandria, Egypt
Merriam, Augustus C. 1885. "Inscribed Sepulchral Vases from Alexandria." American Journal of Archaeology and of the History of the Fine Arts, 1(1): p. 19, pl. I.
Six, J. 1891. Antike Denkmäler, Vol. 3: p. 34, pl. 34a.
Fürtwangler, Adolf. 1905. "Neue Denkmäler antiker Kunst III: Antiken in den Museen von Amerika." Sitzungsberichte der Philosophisch-Philologischen und Historischen Classe der Kgl. Bayer. Akademie der Wissenschaften zu München
, Vol. 2. p. 276, fig. 10, Munich: Verlag der K.B. Akademie der Wissenschaften.
Pagenstecher, Rudolf. 1912. "Grabgemaelde aus Guathia." Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archaeologischen Instituts, Roemische Abteilung, : p. 119, fig. 3.
Pagenstecher, Rudolf. 1913. Veröffentlichungen der Ernst von Sieglin Expedition in Ägypten, II, 3. pp. 49–50, fig. 55a–b, Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1917. Handbook of the Classical Collection. pp. 169–70, fig. 107, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1927. Handbook of the Classical Collection. pp. 205–6, fig. 142, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Swindler, Mary Hamilton. 1929. Ancient Painting, from the Earliest Times to the Period of Christian Art. p. 255, fig. 563, New Haven, London: Yale University Press.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1930. Handbook of the Classical Collection. pp. 205–6, fig. 142, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Lunsingh-Scheurleer D.F. 1936. Grieksche Ceramiek. p. 147, Rotterdam: Nijgh en van Ditmar.
Buschor, Ernst. 1940. Griechische Vasen. pp. 261, 264, fig. 282, Munich: R. Piper & Co.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1953. Handbook of the Greek Collection. pp. 130, 270, pl. 110a, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Brown, Blanche R. 1957. Ptolemaic Paintings and Mosaics and the Alexandrian Style. no. 41, p. 61, pl. 33, Cambridge, Mass.
Buschor, Ernst. 1958. Medusa Rondanini. p. 35, pl. 53.3, Stuttgart: W. Kohlhammer Verlag.
Zwierlein-Diehl, Erika. 1964. Die Hydria : Formgeschichte und Verwendung im Kult des Altertums. p. 160 n. 261, Mainz am Rhein: P. von Zabern.
Cook, Brian. 1966. Inscribed Hadra Vases in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Papers of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Vol. 12. p. 9 n. 10, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC). 1988. Vol. 4: Eros-Herakles. "Gorgo, Gorgones," p. 302, no. 187, pl. 175, Zürich: Artemis Verlag.
Gazda, Elaine K. 2000. The Villa of the Mysteries in Pompeii: Ancient Ritual, Modern Muse no. 97, pp. 229–30, Ann Arbor: Kelsey Museum of Archaeology.
Gazda, Elaine K. 2000. The Villa of the Mysteries in Pompeii : Ancient Ritual, Modern Muse no. 97, pp. 229–30, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Museum of Art.
Picón, Carlos A. 2007. Art of the Classical World in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Greece, Cyprus, Etruria, Rome no. 219, pp. 189, 448, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Karoglou, Kyriaki. 2018. "Dangerous Beauty : Medusa in Classical Art." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 75(3): pp. 16–17, fig. 21.
Zanker, Paul. 2022. Afterlives : Ancient Greek Funerary Monuments in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. fig. 46, pp. 168–69, New York: Scala Publishers.
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