A terracotta jar, wider at the top with a narrow neck and small handles, decorated in black, featuring human figures against red. One wrestles at center with a merman, creating a mass of tangled limbs, the creature's tail dominating the left portion of the scene.

Hydria (Water Jar)

Museum collection

Museum work by Ancient Greek

Art Institute of Chicago

Thread 28670

Love & Harmony

Where the original lives

Art Institute of Chicago

The original is held by the Art Institute of Chicago and is not for sale. This piece is shown for reference — no edition of it is offered.

See the work in the Art Institute of Chicago collection

Curator’s note

Ancient Greek (about 515-500 BCE) from Athens. Held in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago and released into the public domain, offered here as a museum-quality edition within the love thread.

Details

Artist: Attributed to a painter of the Leagros group
Date: about 515-500 BCE
Medium: terracotta, black-figure
Dimensions: 50.1 × 35 cm · 19.7 × 13.8 in
Origin: Athens
Collection: Gift of Philip D. Armour and Charles L. Hutchinson

Placing a love & harmony work

Works in this thread tend to come in twos — two figures, two birds, a pair of forms leaning toward each other — or in the warm end of the spectrum, roses and garden light and skin. Traditionally hung in pairs rather than singly, and never so high that the figures look away from the room.

Direction: South-west — the quarter of partnership
Rooms: Bedrooms · Dining rooms · Shared studies · Guest rooms

See the whole thread

Provenance & rights

Source collection: Art Institute of Chicago. Gift of Philip D. Armour and Charles L. Hutchinson. Public domain (CC0). Shown here for reference, with full attribution to the artist and holding institution. No edition of this work is offered.