Harvard 1960.343

Harvard 1960.343 (Vase)

Side A: Dionysos with satyr and maenad. Side B: Death of Orpheus.

ID:: aa_4349
Beazley Number:: 213539
Type:: Vase
Date:: ca. -440 — ca. -430
Period:: Classical
Painter:: Attributed to the Curti Painter
Condition:: Unbroken; minor scratches and abrasions.
Dimensions:: H. 0.30 m.; Diam. 0.25.2 m.
Ware:: Attic Red Figure
Shape:: Bell krater

Shape Description

Bell-krater: tall disk foot with groove near the top; lower body tapering to a broad stem; handles tilted upward; torus rim.

Decoration Description

Side A: Dionysos stands between a seated satyr, playing the double flutes (auloi), and a maenad beating a tympanum, a type of large tambourine. The god stands with his torso and left leg frontal, his right leg in profile to the left, and his head turned toward the maenad at right. He wears an ivy wreath with berries in added white, a himation, and a chiton, the upper half of which is speckled with dots of dilute glaze. His beard is long and pointed, and his long hair falls in ringlets on his shoulders. In his right hand he holds a thyrsos, with white berries among the ivy leaves, and with his left hand pours a libation from a kantharos, the stream of wine rendered in added white. The thyrsos is drawn as though it were a continuous branch, but as ivy does not grow so straight, it may be the usual stalk of fennel with some ivy leaves stuck on the end. The satyr sits with his right leg crossed over the left. His seat is a rock or hummock, drawn with a single line of added white. He is balding, but has curly hair in back; his beard is short and stringy. He wears an ivy wreath like that of Dionysos. The maenad is dancing as she plays the tympanum, which has two rectangular handles on either side, like a bronze laver. She looks down, avoiding the god's eyes, as she steps forward with her right leg. She wears a belted peplos and, around her head, a "fillet" of two snakes mottled with dots of dilute glaze. The white fillet above her head is attached to one of the tympanum handles, so that it whips around as she dances.

Side B: Orpheus is being killed by two Thracian women, who resented the fact that his music so bemused their husbands that they lost interest in their wives. They cut off his head and flung it in the sea, whereupon it floated to Lesbos, singing all the way, and became an oracle. Orpheus falls to the right, but looks back at the woman at left, who plunges a spear into his breast. He is nude except for a fillet and a cloak wrapped around his left arm and over his right shoulder. With his left knee and hand he supports himself on the sketchy groundline, drawn with added white, and with his right hand raises his lyre over his head. The instrument has one too many strings drawn with relief lines eight and a sound box made from a tortoiseshell. The maenad at right clutches one arm of the lyre with her left hand, and with the other hand wields a harp, a short, curved sword like the one Perseus used to decapitate Medusa. Both women wear peploi, sphendones, and radiate fillets. The woman at left also wears a cloak pinned at the right shoulder by a black brooch. The cloak looks like a Greek chlamys, but may be intended to suggest a Thracian cloak. Otherwise, none of the characters wears Thracian costume, nor do the women have tattoos or other features to indicate they are barbarians.

A laurel wreath circles the vase below the lip. On either side, the rather broad and poorly executed groundline consists of groups of three maeanders to right alternating with saltire-squares. Bands of egg-pattern nearly circle the handle roots. The space between the handles roots is reserved, as is the side of the foot. An incised groove separates foot and body. Reserved stripes circle the inside of the rim and the top of the body inside.

Notes

The composition of the Orpheus scene is standard for this subject, with the singer falling to the right, his lyre raised over his head. Sometimes more women are present and the singer is dressed as a Thracian, in a cap of wildcat or fox skin (alopekis); e.g. Ferrara 30.11.28 (2795) (ARV2, 541, 1; Para., 385). For Orpheus, see M. Schmidt, "Ein neues Zeugnis zum Mythos vom Orpheushaupt," AntK 15 (1972) 128-37; M. Schmidt, "Der Tod des Orpheus in Vasendarstellungen aus Schweizer Sammlungen," Zur griechischen Kunst: Festschrift H. Bloesch, AntK Beiheft 9 (Bern 1973) 95-105; A. Lezzi-Hafter, "Der Tod des Orpheus auf einer Kanne des Schuwalow-Malers," AntK 29 (1986) 90-94; F. Schoeller, Darstellungen des Orpheus in der Antike (Freiburg 1979); R. Bhme, Orpheus: Der Snger und seiner Zeit (Bern 1970); and J. Warden, Orpheus: The Metamorphosis of a Myth (Toronto 1982). For Thracians, see the comments on Harvard 1960.342, above.

The Curti Painter is named after a stamnos at Harvard found at Curti, near Capua; Harvard 1925.30.40 (ARV2, 1042, 1). He was associated with the Coghill Painter and the painters of the Peleus Group, all within the larger following of Polynotos.