Louvre G 416 (Vase)
Death of Orpheus
- ID:
- aa_5182
- Beazley Number:
- 205400
- Type:
- Vase
- Date:
- ca. -470 — -450
- Period:
- Early Classical
- Context:
- Nola
- Region:
- Campania
- Painter:
- Attributed to Hermonax
- Dimensions:
- H 0.32 m
- Ware:
- Attic Red Figure
- Shape:
- Stamnos
Decoration Description
Side A: Thracian women, with characteristic tattoos on their arms, and dressed in chitons, run toward Orpheus with a variety of weapons. The left figure is armed with a rock and drapes her himation over her arm, the central one deals the death blow to Orpheus with a spear. The hero falls, holding his lyre up, his himation slipping off and wound bleeding (in added purple). The woman at right is about to hurl a large rock at him.
Side B: A woman runs left with one arm covered by a himation the other wielding a spear. Her hair is bound up with a fillet. Two others run right, one with a curved knife or sickle, the other with an axe and arm draped with a himation. Her hair is up and tied with a fillet. All of the figures run continuously without interruption by the handles around the vase. The rim ornament is an egg and dart band, at the base of the neck is a tongue pattern, and the ground line is a band of two stopt maeanders (alternating directions) alternating with upper/lower dotted X's.
The artist is a follower of the Berlin Painter and mainly a painter of large vases. He fills space with figures with spread drapery leaving little background free, and likes to do pursuit scenes.
- Collection:
- Paris, Muse du Louvre Campana 965
