British Museum lends ancient Greek water vase – 12/05/2023 – Science
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The British Museum has loaned, for the first time in 250 years, an ancient Greek water vessel — the hydria of Meidias — to the Acropolis Museum in Athens for an exhibition starting this week and lasting until April.
The loan comes amid a dispute between Greece and the United Kingdom over the permanent return of sculptures from the Parthenon, currently in the British Museum, to Athens, which led to the cancellation of a meeting between the countries’ leaders in London last week .
Signed by Athenian potter Meidias, the 2,500-year-old hydria is decorated with red figures that reflect humans’ mythical encounters with ancient Greek gods, among them the half-mortal Hercules, the love goddess Aphrodite and Zeus.
The water jug was made between 440 and 420 BC. Meidias is the name of the potter, but the painter of the vase is unknown.
The artifact was excavated in Italy, probably from a tomb, although it is not known how it got there, and was acquired in the 1760s by British diplomat Sir William Hamilton, who sold it to the British Museum in 1772. Since then, the object has been in storage. display in the museum’s galleries dedicated to ancient Greece and has never been loaned.
The director of the Acropolis Museum, Nikolaos Stampolidis, said that exactly this type of vase was represented in the Parthenon’s marble frieze and that it was very important “not only to have the image of the hydria… but also the piece itself.”
The hydria will be part of the Acropolis museum’s “NoHMATA” (Meanings) exhibition from December 4 to April 14, which features a mix of artworks including the 400 BC bronze Chimera of Arezzo from the Archaeological Museum of Florence and a painting by Rubens representing Saturn devouring his son, from the Prado Museum.
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