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Siren with a Kithara from a Grave Monument
(Ancient Greece )
This expressive figure of a mournful siren playing the kithara, a musical instrument like a lyre, originally crowned a funerary monument. Sirens were mythical creatures that were part-woman, part-bird, who, while best known as temptresses, also used their powers of song to praise men of great fame, and thus appear frequently on funerary monuments of the 4th century BCE.
Provenance
Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object. Learn more about provenance at the Walters.
Moise Emanuelides, Athens, 1923 [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Joseph Brummer, New York, 1923, by purchase [Brummer inv. no. P793]; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1924, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.
Exhibitions
| 2018-2019 | Underworld: Imagining the Afterlife. Getty Villa, Pacific Palisades. |
| 2009-2011 | Heroes: Mortals and Myths in Ancient Greece. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore; Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville; San Diego Museum Of Art, San Diego; Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation (USA), New York. |
| 2009 | Things With Wings: Mythological Figures in Ancient Greek Art. Ward Museum, Salisbury. |
| 2005-2006 | Things With Wings: Mythological Figures in Ancient Greek Art. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. |
| 1999-2000 | Ulysses, Myth and Memory. Haus der Kunst, Munich. |
| 1996 | Ulisse: Il mito e la memoria (Ulysses: The Myth and Memory). Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome. |
| 1991-1992 | The Odyssey and Ancient Art. Edith C. Blum Art Institute, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson. |
Conservation
| Date | Description | Narrative |
|---|---|---|
| 10/4/1990 | Loan Consideration | examined for loan |
| 6/1/1995 | Loan Consideration | examined for loan |
| 1/18/1996 | Treatment | cleaned |
| 4/3/1998 | Loan Consideration | examined for loan |
Geographies
Greece, Athens
(Place of Origin)
Greece, Pendéli Oros (Source of Materials)
Measurements
H: 8 1/2 x W: 6 7/8 x D: 2 1/4 in. (21.6 x 17.5 x 5.7 cm); Mount H: 4 7/16 x W: 3 3/4 x D: 3 3/4 in. (11.3 x 9.5 x 9.5 cm); H including base: 13 5/16 in. (33.8 cm)
Credit Line
Acquired by Henry Walters, 1924
Location in Museum
Accession Number
In libraries, galleries, museums, and archives, an accession number is a unique identifier assigned to each object in the collection.
In libraries, galleries, museums, and archives, an accession number is a unique identifier assigned to each object in the collection.
23.3