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View: Side B
Bell krater
Painter: Python
Greek, South Italian
Late Classical Period
350–335 B.C.
Place of Manufacture: Italy, Paestum
Medium/Technique
Ceramic, Red Figure
Dimensions
32 cm (12 5/8 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. George Washington Wales
Accession Number95.835
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsEurope, Ancient Greece and Rome
ClassificationsVessels
Catalogue Raisonné
Vase-Painting in Italy (MFA), no. 099.
DescriptionDionysos and Maenad; repaired and somewhat restored.
ITALIAN VASE PAINTING in ITALY, #99 (95.835)
Bell-Krater
Attributed to Python
350-335 B.C.
A: Dionysos stands to the right facing a maenad or Ariadne, who offers him a yellow egg (?) held in her right hand. Both carry yellow thyrsoi and wear shoes (tinted with dilute glaze), bordered himatia, and bandoleers with yellow beads. Both wear yellow, beaded fillets, the maenad's over a sphendone. She is nude from the waist up and wears a necklace, earring, and bracelet, all yellow. Dionysos lowers a yellow phiale in his extended right hand, apparently pouring a libation.
B: A satyr runs to the right but looks back to the left, a white fillet and a dish of white offerings in his extended right hand and a yellow torch with white flame in his left. He wears a white wreath, shoes tinted with dilute glaze, and a bandoleer with white beads. A leopard skin tinted with dilute glaze hangs from his left arm. An altar with offerings on top is beside his left foot, and by his right foot is a short stele or altar.
The subsidiary ornaments - laurel wreath, wave-pattern, handle and framing palmettes - are identical to those on the vase's companion piece, cat. no. 98.
ITALIAN VASE PAINTING in ITALY, #99 (95.835)
Bell-Krater
Attributed to Python
350-335 B.C.
A: Dionysos stands to the right facing a maenad or Ariadne, who offers him a yellow egg (?) held in her right hand. Both carry yellow thyrsoi and wear shoes (tinted with dilute glaze), bordered himatia, and bandoleers with yellow beads. Both wear yellow, beaded fillets, the maenad's over a sphendone. She is nude from the waist up and wears a necklace, earring, and bracelet, all yellow. Dionysos lowers a yellow phiale in his extended right hand, apparently pouring a libation.
B: A satyr runs to the right but looks back to the left, a white fillet and a dish of white offerings in his extended right hand and a yellow torch with white flame in his left. He wears a white wreath, shoes tinted with dilute glaze, and a bandoleer with white beads. A leopard skin tinted with dilute glaze hangs from his left arm. An altar with offerings on top is beside his left foot, and by his right foot is a short stele or altar.
The subsidiary ornaments - laurel wreath, wave-pattern, handle and framing palmettes - are identical to those on the vase's companion piece, cat. no. 98.
ProvenanceBy date unknown: Mr. and Mrs. George Washington Wales Collection (according to MFA file card: bought with 95.834 in Naples for $20.00); dates unknown: on loan to MFA (Robinson catalogue, no. 494); gift of Mr. and Mrs. George Washington Wales to MFA, March 28, 1895