- Museum number
- 1867,0508.1139
- Description
-
Pottery: red-figured hydria.
Two athletes exercising, paidotribes, and flute-player. The two athletes form a central group: on the right the discobolos is in the act of hurling the disk to the right; with left leg crossed behind his right and head slightly bent to left he swings the disk upwards behind him, using as a support his left arm raised and bent. In the background and slightly to the left of this figure an athlete is seated on the ground, en face, his right leg bent under him, his left knee raised and foreshortened; he looks to the left and is occupied in binding a cord round the shaft of a hurling-rod which he holds in his left horizontally against his body. Both these figures are wreathed, and have slight brown hair on the cheek (ϊουλος). On the ground beside them on the right lies a pair of halteres (jumping weights), and beside one of these in the foreground a pick-axe (scapane) stands with one point in the ground, the handle in a horizontal position to the left. On the right a bearded paidotribes in an himation and fillet stands to left, holding out in his right the usual (forked ?) switch. On the left a flute-player wreathed, in a long dotted untied chiton, with a vertical embattled pattern down the side, moves with short steps to the right, playing on the flutes, which are attached to a phorbeia with both vertical and horizontal bands. He has a short stubbly beard (see above). In the field, HOΠAIΣ KAΛΟΣ, ό παίς καλός, twice repeated, arranged so as to fill the empty space of the design and to form a suggestion of a border at the top and sides. On the bottom of the foot an incised character.
The design is on the shoulder; below it, a band of fine drawn running palmettes laid horizontally to right. Purple wreaths, fillet cord, vertical band of phorbeia, and inscriptions. Brown inner markings profusely and sometimes incorrectly distributed: e.g., in a series of curved lines on the breasts, also for the nostril of the discobolos, and for the knuckles of the flute-player's hand, and the hair on the cheek. The drapery is treated freely, but as quite transparent (cf. ibid). The eye is very large in proportion; the pupil is of two forms: a large disc, or a dotted ring. The attitude of the figure on the ground is very much the same as that of a cup by Phintias. The beard of the flute-player is rendered by a few short black lines on a wash of brown. The other beard is of the long wedge-shaped type.
- Production date
- 500BC (circa)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 37.20 centimetres
-
Weight: 2.50 kilograms (approx)
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Width: 37.50 centimetres
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Depth: 30.50 centimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- BM Cat. Vases
The tension in the attitude of the discobolos is well rendered in the curve and strain of the muscles, the contraction of the left hand, and the swing of the whole body to right: it is almost identical with the type of a coin of Kos (Gardner, Types of Greek Coins, pl. iv, no. 28, p. 116; cf. Six in Gaz. Arch. 1888, pl. 29, fig. Η; the figure on a kylix, Hartwig, loc. cit. pl. 63, 2, shows a succeeding stage in the action).
For a similar scene, see Gerhard, A. V. iv, pl. 260, Arch. Anzeiger, 1892, p. 165, fig. 31; for the action of the seated athlete, cf. Arch. Zeit. 1878, p. 70, note 21, and Hartwig, loc. cit. p. 557.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
Exhibited:
1980 5 Jun- 26 Oct, London, BM, The Ancient Olympic Games
2008 1 May-12 Jul, Shanghai, The Ancient Olympic Games
2008 2 Aug-31 Sep, Hong Kong, The Ancient Olympic Games
2009 2 Apr-13 Oct, Alicante, The Body Beautiful in Ancient Greek Art and Thought
2010 30 Apr-30 Aug, Seoul, National Museum of Korea, The Body Beautiful in Ancient Greek Art and Thought
Exhibited:
2009 2 Apr-13 Oct, Alicante, The Body Beautiful in Ancient Greek Art and Thought
2010 30 Apr-30 Aug, Seoul, National Museum of Korea, The Body Beautiful in Ancient Greek Art and Thought
2010-2011 15 Oct-07 Feb, Taipei, The National Palace Museum, The Body Beautiful in Ancient Greek Art and Thought
2010-2011, 11 Mar-12 Jun, Kobe City Museum, The Body Beautiful in Ancient Greek Art and Thought
2011, 4 July-25 Sept, Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, The Body Beautiful in Ancient Greek Art and Thought
2011-2012, 25 Oct-12 Feb, Mexico City, National Anthropological Museum, The Body Beautiful in Ancient Greek Art and Thought
2012-2013 6 Oct-6 Jan, Portland Art Museum, The Body Beautiful in Ancient Greek Art and Thought
2013, 6 May–6 Oct, Dallas Museum of Art, The Body Beautiful in Ancient Greek Art and Thought
2014, 21 Feb-9 Jun, Fondation Pierre Gianadda, The Body Beautiful in Ancient Greek Art and Thought
2014, 2 Aug–9 Nov, Bendigo Art Gallery, Victoria, Australia, The Body Beautiful in Greek Art and Thought
2017-2018, Sep-Jan Barcelona, La Caxia, Ancient Greeks
2018, Feb-May, Madrid, La Caxia, Ancient Greeks
2018, Jun-Oct, Sevilla, La Caxia, Ancient Greeks
2018-2019, Nov-Feb, Palma, La Caxia, Ancient Greeks
2019, Mar-Jun, Zaragoza, La Caxia, Ancient Greeks
2017-2018, Sep-Jan Barcelona, La Caxia, Ancient Greeks
- Condition
- Much broken; small portions of the lower part of the left side missing.
- Acquisition date
- 1867
- Department
- Greek and Roman
- Registration number
- 1867,0508.1139
