Vase with a Beautiful Medusa in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, May 2007

Terracotta two-handled vase

Period: Early Hellenistic Date: late 4th–early 3rd century B.C.

Culture: Greek, South Italian, Apulian, Canosan

Medium: Terracotta

Dimensions: H. 30 3/4 in. (78.1 cm) diameter 17 5/16 in. (44 cm)

Classification: Vases

Credit Line: Rogers Fund, 1906

Accession Number: 06.1021.246a, b

This vase is a variant of the funnel-jar with relief plaques 06.1021.248. The underlying shape is comparable. The decoration here is even more sculptural, with the two handles in the form of Erotes; plaster copies replace the originals, which are lost. The magnificently tactile Medusa on the front of the body may well fulfill her time-honored function of guardian and averter of evil. A statuette once stood on the ledge between her wings.
Four such vases were in the burial. This one belongs with the same group as the loutrophoroi 06.1021.245 and 06.1021.249; the pyxis 06.1021.253a, b; and the funnel-jar 06.1021.248a, b.

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/1300...