A special sympathy exists here between form and decoration. The hydria features a decorative band of women at a fountain house engaged in the very activity for which this vessel was designed - collecting water. Many of the women are shown balancing their hydriae on their heads. Running vertically between the women are lines of letters, which don't translate to recognisable ancient Greek words or names but instead convey the flowing chatter of the group. Hidden among them is a single kalos (meaning 'beauty') inscription, an amorous declaration from the potter to a certain Sime.

I love the details in this scene. Notice how attention is paid to the women's postures, hairstyles and clothing, with slight variations differentiating each individual. Look for the woman at the far left, who fills her hydria with water from an ornate lion-headed waterspout, while other women wait their turn. See how those leaving the fountain house expertly balance hydriae on their heads upright, presumably full of water, while those arriving carry their empty vessel horizontally. This scene provides an insight into a domestic task which is otherwise only rarely seen in ancient Greek art.

The identity of the women - whether citizens or slaves - is unknown. What we do know is that this type of scene became relatively popular on hydriae produced in the last quarter of the sixth century BCE, with around 75 examples surviving. Perhaps they fed a taste for glimpses of real life and the scene reflects the Enneakrounos, a famous Athenian bathhouse whose name refers to a fountain fed by nine springs. However, there are also other interpretations of the scene. Some have interpreted such imagery to represent a ritual which took place during the spring festival of the Anthesteria which celebrated Dionysos, the god of wine. Still others identify such scenes to reflect purification rituals preceding marriage ceremonies. Ideally, we would take the archaeological context of the vase into consideration when attempting to untangle its meaning, but in this case such information is unavailable. Yet there is an interesting story behind the discovery of this hydria.

The hydria was found in April 1829 during excavations overseen by Lucien Bonaparte, the radical younger brother of Napoleon I of France, and his wife Alexandrine, who lived together in exile in Italy. Their exile was partly due to Lucien's political activities in France, but also because their secret marriage had taken place against the Bonaparte family's wishes. While in Italy, Alexandrine and Lucien excavated much of their newly purchased estate in Canino, near Viterbo. This site overlay an Etruscan necropolis in Vulci, a region which had maintained strong trade connections to the Greek mainland in antiquity and where some of the most spectacular examples of Attic black and red figure ware known today were discovered. From 1828 to 1829, Alexandrine and Lucien oversaw the discovery of approximately 2000 Attic vases.

While Lucien considered himself an archaeologist, his increasingly cash-strapped circumstances made him more interested in discovering objects of high value than in systematic excavation. His published catalogues provide frustratingly little information about this hydria and its archaeological context beyond the approximate date and location of its discovery. In contrast to her husband, who favoured more intellectual approaches to material culture, Alexandrine became a savvy dealer and amassed a network of contacts across England and Europe. After Lucien's death in 1840, Alexandrine sold the collection throughout Europe, enabling the British Museum to purchase this hydria in 1843.