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View: Side A

Two-handled jar (amphora)

Greek
Early Classical Period
about 470 B.C.
Place of Manufacture: Greece, Attica, Athens

Medium/Technique Ceramic, Red Figure
Dimensions Height: 28.4 cm (11 3/16 in.)
Credit Line Henry Lillie Pierce Fund
Accession Number01.8028
ClassificationsVessels

Catalogue Raisonné Caskey-Beazley, Attic Vase Paintings (MFA), no. 086.
DescriptionSide A: Maenad (a female devotee of Dionysus, the god of wine) dances while a balding satyr plays the double-pipes. She wears a chiton and a panther-skin. She is doing the "wing-dance", in which the maenad holds the inside of her sleeves and twirls like a dervish. The satyr is nude and he has human feet. Both wear wreaths of ivy.
Side B: A balding satyr dances with krotala (wooden clappers akin to castenets).

ProvenanceSaid to have been found near Santa Maria di Capua Vetere [see note]. 1901, sold by Alfred Bourguignon, Naples to Edward Perry Warren (b. 1860 -d . 1928), London; 1901, sold by Edward Perry Warren to the MFA. (Accession Date: December 1, 1901)

NOTE: According to information from Warren, provided to him by Bourguignon.