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View: Side A
Two-handled jar (pelike) depicting Nike setting up a trophy
Greek
Classical Period
about 450–440 B.C.
Place of Manufacture: Greece, Attica, Athens
Medium/Technique
Ceramic, Red Figure
Dimensions
Height: 35.45 cm (13 15/16 in.)
Credit Line
Bartlett Collection—Museum purchase with funds from the Francis Bartlett Donation of 1912
Accession Number20.187
CollectionsAncient Greece and Rome
ClassificationsVessels
Catalogue Raisonné
Caskey-Beazley, Attic Vase Paintings (MFA), no. 160.
DescriptionA: A winged victory figure (Nike) erects a trophy in the form of a mannequin on this pelike. She attaches the helmet as a finishing touch. A trunk supports this as well as a corselet (over a chiton), a sword, and a spear, angled downward so the point appears next to the leg of victory and the butt is behind the helmet of the mannequin. The shield leaning on the trunk has a huge eye depicted on it indicating the apotropaic quality of shield devices and commenting on the viewer's experience of the vase. Temporary makeshift trophies (tropaia) were erected on the field immediately following conflict and placed at the point where the tide of the battle turned. Trophies often took anthropomorphic form, and were dressed to mark a precise location rather than to sanctify it. Originally these objects did not have religious connotations.
B: Standing youth with the cane of a citizen, probably a viewer of the trophy.
B: Standing youth with the cane of a citizen, probably a viewer of the trophy.
ProvenanceBy date unknown in the 18th century: Sir William Hamilton Collection; 19th century: Hope Collection; purchased at the sale of the Hope Collection (catalogue no. 84A), through E. P. Warren; purchased by MFA, February 5, 1920, for $ 648.88