Red-figure hydria (water jar)

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Artist/Maker Unknown artist, Greek (Ancient)

Datec. 350-325 BCE

MediumTerracotta with slip and pigment

DimensionsOverall: 19 1/2 × 9 7/16 × 9 7/16 in. (49.5 × 24 × 24 cm) Diameter (base): 5 5/16 in. (13.5 cm) Diameter (shoulder): 9 7/16 in. (24 cm) Diameter (rim): 5 11/16 in. (14.4 cm)

Credit LineBequest of Edward S. Burgess, Class of 1879, H1904

Object number1929.44

On view

DescriptionThe vessels seen here are two of nearly sixty that were bequeathed to the College in 1928 upon the death of Edward S. Burgess, Class of 1879, H1904. At Hamilton, where Burgess studied classics, he was one of the organizers of the Emerson Literary Society and was named class poet in the year he graduated. After graduating, he held a fellowship in Greek at the Johns Hopkins University and taught botany and other natural history subjects at several schools before earning a doctorate in botany from Columbia University in 1899. Burgess taught at Normal College (later known as Hunter College) in Manhattan from 1895 until 1925 and served as director of the New York Botanical Garden in 1912–13. In addition to antiquities, he collected rare medieval manuscripts and incunabula (primarily in Latin), which are now in the special collections of the University of Oregon. The vases bequeathed by Burgess are ideal for teaching, and the collection must have been intentionally formed for that purpose, as it includes representative vases in a variety of shapes from all major periods of development and major sites of ancient Greek and Roman production from the seventh to the third century BCE. Together, the vases demonstrate the migration of the art form with the territorial expansion of the ancient Greeks from their mainland to southern Italy during the second half of the fourth century BCE. On account of that influx, the area became known as Magna Graecia (Greater Greece). Ceramic manufacturing centers arose in the Campania and Apulia regions of southern Italy, where distinctive iconographies developed over time. Illustrated here are two examples of this expansion: a vessel used for mixing wine with water created in the city-state of Athens and a water jar made around the same time in Campania. Both are decorated in the red-figure technique, in which the artisan used slip (liquid clay) that turned black during firing to fill in the background and the details within figures, while the figures themselves, left exposed, retained the color of the clay. Both also demonstrate the addition of white slip to highlight certain figures and objects within the composition. (SOURCE: Alcauskas, INNOVATIVE APPROACHES, HONORED TRADITIONS, 2017) Standing youth, Ionic stele, woman with seated youth above.

Collections

Additional Details

Alternate Titles Campanian red-figure hydria
Water jar depicting a woman presenting offerings at a monument

Exhibition History 2017
Clinton, NY (Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art, Hamilton College). "Innovative Approaches, Honored Traditions: The Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Five Years, Highlights from the Permanent Collection," September 9 - December 10, 2017 (cat. no. 3, illust.);

2014
Clinton, NY. Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art, Hamilton College. "Find and Seek," September 2014 - August 28, 2015 (no catalog).

2012
Clinton, NY. Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art, Hamilton College. "Archive Hall: Art and Artifacts," October 6, 2012 - September 2014 (no catalog).

2011
Clinton, NY. Fred L. Emerson Gallery, Hamilton College. "Learning to Look: Hamilton's Cabinets, Galleries and Museums Past, Present and Future," September 15 - December 16, 2011 (no cat.).

2005
Clinton, NY. Fred L. Emerson Gallery, Hamilton College. Hamilton Collects, "A Century of Curiosities: The Story of the Hamilton College Collection," September 29 - December 30, 2005 (unnumbered cat.).

1987
Clinton, NY. Fred L. Emerson Gallery, Hamilton College. "Ancient Vases: The Hamilton College Collection," March 14 - May 11, 1987 (cat. no. 45, illus. 37).

Provenance 1929: Hamilton College, by bequest of Edward S. Burgess.

Markings None noted.

Published References Katherine D. Alcauskas, INNOVATIVE APPROACHES, HONORED TRADITIONS: THE RUTH AND ELMER WELLIN MUSEUM OF ART AT FIVE YEARS, HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE PERMANENT COLLECTION (Clinton, NY: Wellin Museum of Art, 2017), p. 64;

ANCIENT VASES FROM THE HAMILTON COLLEGE COLLECTION AND THE J. PAUL GETTY MUSEUM (exh. cat. Clinton, NY: Fred L. Emerson Gallery, 1987), 37.

Signature Not signed.

Inscribed None noted.