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Terracotta calyx-krater (bowl for mixing wine and water), Calyx-krater, ca. 515 B.C.; Archaic
Signed by Euxitheos, as potter; Signed by Euphronios, as painter
Greek, Attic
Terracotta; H. 18 in. (45.7 cm), Diam. 21 11/16 in. (55.1 cm)
Lent by the Republic of Italy (L.2006.10)
The Bothmer Gallery II
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The red-figured calyx krater before you is by all standards easily the finest Attic vase in the collection. Potted by Euxitheos and painted by Euphronios, it is a masterpiece of collaboration and has, for once, come down to us with no damage to the surface. Though found in pieces, the only losses are minor splinters that do not affect the splendid compositions which the painter—in collaboration with the potter—planned with meticulous care. On the rim an uninterrupted band of upright palmettes encircles the entire vase. The separate scenes are kept apart by palmette configurations above the handles which, at the zone of their roots, provide a broad floral band as a solid base for the two different subjects. The more important obverse is marked as such by the festoon of addorsed palmettes alternating with lotuses, while you will notice on the other side six bigger palmettes are horizontal, linked to each other by connective tendrils.
The Lycian prince Sarpedon, son of Zeus and Europa (or Laodameia as Homer has it) was killed at Troy by Patroklos, the friend of Achilles, and Zeus was stricken by grief. To assure a decent burial, Zeus ordered Sleep and Death, the winged twin sons of Night to carry him to his homeland for a hero's funeral. We see him here being gently lifted off the ground directed by Hermes, the messenger of the gods who also came to be the psychopompos, the conductor of the souls. That the body is being moved to the right is indicated by the diagonals of the blood that still runs from the three wounds. Imposing even in death, Sarpedon is bigger than the other figures and we remember that Vergil, the Latin poet, drew attention to his height.
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