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Plate with Herakles pulling Kerberos
Greek
Archaic Period
about 520–510 B.C.
Place of Manufacture: Greece, Attica, Athens
Medium/Technique
Ceramic, Red Figure
Dimensions
Height: 1.9 cm (3/4 in.); diameter: 18.8 cm (7 3/8 in.)
Credit Line
Henry Lillie Pierce Fund
Accession Number01.8025
CollectionsAncient Greece and Rome
ClassificationsVessels
Catalogue Raisonné
Caskey-Beazley, Attic Vase Paintings (MFA), no. 001.
DescriptionHerakles drags the three-headed dog (two heads are shown here) Kerberos out of Hades. Hermes is also present, wearing a pointed cap and carrying his herald's wand (kerycheion). Herakles wears his normal costume, the skin of the Nemean Lion, and carries his bow, but in unusual fashion is depicted as a beardless youth. The group stands on a ground line. In the exergue is an elaborate palmette and lotus design.
Condition: Repaired with some restorations.
Condition: Repaired with some restorations.
ProvenanceProbably from Chiusi [see note 1]. By 1901, Alfred Bourguignon, Naples; by 1901, sold by Alfred Bourguignon to Edward Perry Warren (b. 1860 - d. 1928), London [note 2]; 1901, sold by Edward Perry Warren to the MFA. (Accession Date: December 1901)
NOTES:
[1] According to Edward Perry Warren's records and L. D. Caskey and J. D. Beazley, Attic Vase Paintings in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (1931), no. 1. This is probably the plate (one of five related plates discovered by Alessandro François in Chuisi) with "Ercole con Cerbero" mentioned in Bullettino dell' Instituto di Corrispondenza Archeologica 1851, p. 171.
[2] According to Edward Perry Warren's records.
NOTES:
[1] According to Edward Perry Warren's records and L. D. Caskey and J. D. Beazley, Attic Vase Paintings in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (1931), no. 1. This is probably the plate (one of five related plates discovered by Alessandro François in Chuisi) with "Ercole con Cerbero" mentioned in Bullettino dell' Instituto di Corrispondenza Archeologica 1851, p. 171.
[2] According to Edward Perry Warren's records.