Terracotta group: scene of punishment

Terracotta group: scene of punishment

Description:

Six figures are represented in a narrative situation; five should probably be thought of as seated. The main personage in the center holds a staff in his right hand and wears a conical headdress. A figure to his right holds a small animal, while one to his left has a shield and scabbard. In front of the cluster of onlookers there is someone lying face down and being beaten with a stick by another person. The subject has prompted considerable discussion and been interpreted as a scene of punishment, partly by analogy with the detail on the Shield of Achilles described by Homer.


H. 3 3/4 in. (9.6 cm)

Period:

Archaic II

Date:

599 - 500 BC

Collection:

Metropolitan Museum of Art

Provenance:

References:

Cesnola, Luigi Palma di. 1894. A Descriptive Atlas of the Cesnola Collection of Cypriote Antiquities in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Vol. 2. pl. X.76, Boston: James R. Osgood and Company.Myres, John L. 1914. Handbook of the Cesnola Collection of Antiquities from Cyprus. no. 2116, p. 346, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.Karageorghis, Vassos. 1995. The Coroplastic Art of Ancient Cyprus, Vol. 4. no. III(iv)1, pp. 140-41, pl. LXXXI.2, Nicosia: Foundation Anastasios G. Leventis.Karageorghis, Vassos, Joan Mertens, and Marice E. Rose. 2000. Ancient Art from Cyprus: The Cesnola Collection in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. no. 259, pp. 160-61, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.Lightfoot, Christopher S. 2000. "The New Cypriot Galleries at The Metropolitan Museum of Art." Minerva, 11(3): p. 23, fig. 24.Karageorghis, Vassos. 2006. Aspects of Everyday Life in Cyprus: Iconographic Representations. no. 206, pp. 207-8, Nicosia: Foundation Anastasios G. Leventis.Picón, Carlos A. 2007. Art of the Classical World in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Greece, Cyprus, Etruria, Rome no. 288, pp. 247, 462-63, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.Karageorghis, Vassos, Gloria Merker, and Joan R. Mertens. 2016. The Cesnola Collection of Cypriot Art : Terracottas. no. 119, p. 72, Online Publication, [CD-Rom 2004], New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Accession Number:

74.51.1440