Summary

This red-figured hydria (a vessel type used for water) is thought to have been made in Campania, Italy, at the end of the 4th century BCE based on its style. This was a time when the rising Roman Republic flexed its might against neighbours such as the Samnites and Etruscans. The red-figured style was developed in ancient Greece and then taken up by makers based in what is today Italy.

What do you think the main image depicts?

Our museum undertakes research with legacy collections from Australia and the world to better understand the provenance of objects - who made them, where, and the paths travelled to arrive here. This hydria came to our collection in 1990 from the estate of Nicholas Hayes Dashwood, a high-born Englishman who lived in Melbourne's East. It is not yet known how he obtained this and a companion piece (X 88724).

Selected sources:
AB Trendall, 'The Red-Figured Vases of Lucania, Campania and Sicily (Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, 1967).

Physical Description

A red-figured pottery with three handles (two attached to the body of the vessel and one to the neck) depicting a woman who holds what appears to be a tray of pyramid cakes and an unidentified object. She faces what could be an altar or plinth. The hydria is also decorated with motifs including chevrons, waves, palmettes and florals.

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