Published Catalogue Text: Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Bronzes at the Harvard Art Museums
This three-handled water jar, or hydria, is of the kalpis type, which has a continuous curving profile and originated c. 500 BCE, perhaps in Athens. The body was hammered out of a single sheet of bronze to which the cast portions—three handles, the foot, and the rim—were joined with solder. The surface of the vessel is largely a greenish gold, which is reminiscent of its original color, although there are extensive areas of a darker greenish gray.
The rim (15.7 cm in diameter) features an overhanging band of egg-and-dart molding. Each egg is surrounded by a single raised ridge. Tiny beads encircle the outside of the flattened rim. The foot (15.5 cm in diameter) displays a concave band of tongues, in between each of which is a narrower convex tongue.
The side handles, decorated with four concave flutes with rounded ends, rise from circular plates decorated with concave tongues. The vertical handle, circular in section, bears five flutes separated by narrow ridges divided by fine grooves. The top rises from a base plate situated beneath the rim, identical with the plates of the side handles.
The base plate is a siren, whose sickle-shaped wings rise up out of her torso and curve inward symmetrically on either side of her head. Each individual feather, rendered in relief, has a fine incised median line, on either side of which are tiny incisions. The siren’s body is also covered with finely incised scales, which have a median line flanked by tiny incisions. The siren’s feet, each bearing three claws, hang vertically from raised edges below the scales and grasp an oval object, from which a seven-petalled palmette, with concave leaves, projects downward.
Above the palmette are two antithetical, concave S-shaped volutes, the smaller ends of which curl under the siren’s wings. The spaces between the volutes, the wings, and the tendrils are left open. The volutes’ centers are filled with small hemispherical oculi, which may be silver (1). Two curls descend in relief, curving symmetrically over the shoulders of the siren.
This hydria belongs to a class of vessels with sirens adorning the base plate of the vertical handles (2). They begin c. 480 BCE and continue throughout the rest of the fifth century, perhaps even into the first quarter of the fourth century. The shape of the Harvard hydria suggests that it dates between 430 and 400 BCE. The only intact Greek bronze vessel in the Harvard Art Museums' collection, this vase was used to carry and pour water, as the name hydria implies. Its funerary significance may be inferred from the presence of the siren at the base of this handle. Such expensive metal vases were given as prizes in athletic contests and often later contained the cremated ashes of their owners. Such use probably explains the unusually fine state of preservation of this hydria. Harvard's hydria represents the highest quality of late Classical Greek metalwork.
NOTES:
1. For other examples of vessels with silver in the volutes, see E. D. Reeder, Scythian Gold: Treasures from Ancient Ukraine, exh. cat., The Walters Art Gallery (Baltimore, 1999) 193-94, no. 82; and J. M. Padgett, The Centaur’s Smile, exh. cat., Princeton University Art Museum (New Haven, 2003) no. 80.
2. For comparison, see D. von Bothmer, “Bronze Hydriai,” Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art 13.6 (1955): 193-200, esp. 197; I. Kouleimanē-Vokotopoulou, Chalkai Korinthiourgeis prochoi: Symvolē eis tēn meletēn tēs archaias Hellēnikēs chalkourgias (Athens, 1975) [in Greek]; ead., “Ē hydria tēs Aineias,” in Amētos: Timētikos tomos gia ton kathēgētē Manolē Andronikos 2, eds. M. A. Tiverios, S. Drougou, and Ch. Saatsoglou-Paliadelē (Thessaloniki, 1987) 157-69, esp. pls. 24-26 [in Greek]; L. I. Marangou, Ancient Greek Art: The N. P. Goulandris Collection (Athens, 1985), 162-63; and M. True and K. Hamma, eds., A Passion for Antiquities: Ancient Art from the Collection of Barbara and Lawrence Fleischman, exh. cat., J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu; Cleveland Museum of Art (Malibu, 1994) 68-70, no. 24.
David G. Mitten
