Il cratere del Pittore dei Niobidi al Museo Archeologico di Agrigento: dalla Gela post-tirannica alla Sicilia post-unitaria

Abstract

The paper considers the monumental crater of the Niobid Painter found in Gela in 1889 and preserved in the Archaeological Museum of Agrigento. It depicts an Amazonomachy all round its body, the myth of Herakles and Pholos along with a Centauromachy on the two sides of its neck. The first part of the contribution traces the history of the vase from its discovery to the musealization; the symbolical meaning taken up by this object and this type of precious vases in the post-united Sicily is reconstructed. In the second part of the paper, the crater (a cinerarium) with its images are analyzed in their ancient context of use. This study is an attempt to reconstruct the physiognomy of the Geloan buried in this prestigious urn, through the associations of meaning underlying the figuration. The profile of a character belonging to the jeunesse dorée of the post tyranny Gela emerges. This character tells about his heroic and otherworldly expectations while appropriating the mythical Athenian models and entrusting his identity and, perhaps, the identity of the group or ‘clan’ to which he must have belonged, to the images depicted on the crater.