Detail of a Terracotta Amphora Signed by Taleides in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, March 2018

Terracotta amphora (jar),ca. 540–530 B.C.

Signed by Taleides

Obverse, Theseus slaying the Minotaur
Reverse, men weighing merchandise


Object Details

Signed by Taleides as potter

Attributed to the Taleides Painter

Period: Archaic

Date: ca. 540–530 B.C.

Culture: Greek, Attic

Medium: Terracotta; black-figure

Dimensions: H. 11 5/8 in. (29.5 cm)

Classification: Vases

Credit Line: Purchase, Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, 1947

Accession Number: 47.11.5


Discovered at Agrigento in Sicily before 1801, this may be the first Greek vase with a potter's signature to have been published in modern Europe. Besides the signature, there is an inscription praising a youth, Klitarchos, as handsome. After Herakles, Theseus is the major hero in Athenian iconography. He was credited with uniting the principalities of Attica and with numerous exploits. Here he kills the Minotaur (part-man, part-bull) in the palace of King Minos on Crete. The reverse shows a large scale with containers on each pan and a man bringing them into balance.


Text from: www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/254578