Asset number
1240411001
Description
Pottery: red-figured hydria. Perseus looking on at the chaining of Andromeda. In the centre of the scene Andromeda stands en face, a tall slim figure in kidaris and shoes, a jacket and anaxyrides decorated with small brown circles, and a short bordered chiton with a vertical stripe of pattern and a black girdle. Her arms are firmly held by an Ethiopian youth on either side, over whose shoulders they pass: each of these wears a fillet, and a short bordered chiton with a broad brown girdle. They stand en face, but look at each other. On the right is a group of two Ethiopians making a hole in the raised ground for the erection of two posts to which Andromeda is to be fastened. One on the left stoops forward to right, lifting upright with both hands a thick stake, which he drives vertically into the ground: the other, kneeling on hands and knees to the left, delves in the ground with his right arm half buried in a hole: by the side of the hole lies a heap of earth which he has extracted: each figure wears a short tied bordered chiton, and a fillet: the chiton on the left has a broad black vertical stripe: the other has two horizontal zigzag lines in brown. Their movements are directed by a third Ethiopian, an old man with wrinkled forehead and short fringed chiton, who stands en face, holding the second stake upright in his left hand: he looks to left, pointing with his right forefinger to the hole, as if giving directions to the others. Next on the right is Kepheus, a bearded figure in a long chiton, mantle, kidaris, and shoes, who sits on a rocky elevation looking on, and leaning forward with both hands resting on the point of a knotted staff and his forehead resting on them, in an attitude of dejection. Last on the right is Perseus, who seems to have arrived unobserved, and who stands en face looking on and striking his forehead with his right palm in despair: he is a beardless youth, with wavy hair falling to his shoulders, and has a chlamys, the winged petasos (of the archaic form) fastened by a cord under his chin, high boots with ties at the top, and two spears held upright in his left hand. On the left of Andromeda three Ethiopians stand, holding preparations for a toilet. The one on the right looks at her, holding up on his left arm a square box, in his right an alabastron hanging by a cord. The next one looks to the left, holding in his right a mirror, in his left a pyxis with cover, and on his left arm a bordered mantle hangs: like the last, he stands en face, but looks to left towards the third who advances, carrying on his head a diphros with a striped cushion, holding the leg in his left, and with his right holding out a taenia decorated with key pattern. All these three have a fillet, and a short chiton, decorated above the waist with horizontal pairs of wavy lines and dots, and below it with pairs of vertical lines: the one on the left has a fringe at the lower edge. All the chitons, except those of the last three Ethiopians, have a row of dots around the armholes and neck: that of the old Ethiopian has a pattern of zigzags instead of dots. Fine period. Purple fillets, cord, ground-lines, and sand. Brown for various decorations of dresses and inner markings. Eye in profile. Kepheus and Andromeda are of the usual Greek type. The design occupies a broad frieze, covering the entire shoulder of the vase: below it is a broad band of pattern, divided by the side handles: the front band is composed of a strip of alternate palmette and honeysuckle, laid on a strip of the same inverted: at the back is a similar strip, but more conventionalised. Around the neck, a single band of the same pattern: and round the lip and the inse
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