Greek Vase Analysis

In the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a Greek vase depicts the moment of Demeter seeing her daughter, Persephone, returning from the underworld every half year. According to the painted figures, the vase was made in 440 B.C., which defined as classical period. Classical period is ranged from 480 B.C. to 323 B.C. The paintings on vases, during this time, are characterized by their more emotional descriptions of bodies, while, in the earlier Geometric period (1200/1000-750/700 B.C.), the torso of figures is geometrical and made of rigid patterns. Between Geometric period and Classical period is Archaic period. During this age, the painted figures on the vase are shifting from statistic patterns to vivid descriptions. This painting on the vase can

The first one is black-figure which means the figures are depicted in black color. The second one is white-ground refers to the figural depiction made on the white ground, rather than other colors. The vase is made of terracotta, which is 41 cm high and 45.5 cm wide. This artifact is credited to Mr. Fletcher Fund in 1928, and its accession number is 28.57.23. There are two sides of the vase. Side A depicts the story of Persephone, including Hermes, Hecate, Demeter, and Persephone herself from left to right, while side B consists of three figures. There are two similar men on each side of the painting, and a woman holds a pot with hair pinned up. Based on the figural depiction on side B, it is a little bit difficult to recognize their identifications because of ambiguous

He holds a kerykeion which is assigned for heralds in general, and points toward the ground. The petasus, the traveler’s hat, is another significant attribute of Hermes. Different from Persephone’s eye contact with the two goddesses on the right, Hermes looks directly at the viewer. There is a goddess stands not far away from Hermes. The image of her does not provide much useful information to affirm her identification. She holds two torches in each hand, leading Persephone emerged from the underworld toward her mother. According to the myth, this goddess is likely to be Hecate because she later becomes the attendant of Persephone. Hecate is usually shown in triple form, while Hecate, in this image, does not picture her characteristics. Hecate is positioned at the center of the painting with her torso facing the viewers and head looking back at Persephone, who stands at the left. The goddess on the far right with her eyes on Persephone is Demeter, the mother of Persephone. Based on the pictured figure, it is uncertain to affirm whether the goddess is Demeter or not because she does not have her representative symbols of a stalk of wheat or torch. In this scenario, she is holding a scepter, waiting for her daughter ascending from the