One side, Hephaistos on a donkey accompanied by satyrs and maenads Under one handle, satyrs filling a krater, satyrs and maenads Under the opposite handle, satyr filling a vase at a volute-krater, maenad with wineskin Below, Herakles driving the cattle of Geryon
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is exceptionally fortunate in being able to juxtapose two monumental depictions of the same subject, on the same shape, by the same superlative artist. The complete column-krater 31.11.11 presents the two protagonists, Hephaistos and Dionysos, as focal points on opposite sides. The gods are thoroughly integrated, however, into the line of satyrs and maenads who advance at a deliberate pace; one can almost hear their heavy steps. While every figure is characterized by his pose and painstakingly articulated, there are no identifying inscriptions. And although there is the paraphernalia of drinking—wineskins and drinking horns—everyone is sober. The fragmentary krater 1997.388a–eee offers a decidedly more vivacious interpretation. However incomplete, the sections below the handles make clear that wine is being liberally dispensed, and the central portion with Hephaistos depicts some of the consequences. Moreover, there are numerous inscriptions giving the names of the figures and identifying the donkey. The well-preserved surface shows not only the fine incision but also the liberal application of red and white color. The zone of cattle that circumambulate the krater below the main scene might appear to be simply the continuation of an earlier tradition. Through the addition of Herakles, however, the subject has been transformed into one of the hero's labors. Herakles journeyed to the distant home of the three-bodied Geryon and killed him in order to obtain his herd of cattle.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Fragmentary terracotta column-krater (bowl for mixing wine and water)
Artist:Attributed to Lydos
Period:Archaic
Date:ca. 560 BCE
Culture:Greek, Attic
Medium:Terracotta; black-figure
Dimensions:Height (height of main composition): 11 7/16 in., 25.8 mm (29 × 257.5 cm) Height (height of frieze below): 3 3/4 in. (9.5 cm)
Classification:Vases
Credit Line:Purchase, Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, and Dietrich von Bothmer, Christos G. Bastis, The Charles Engelhard Foundation, and Mrs. Charles Wrightsman Gifts, 1997 (1997.388a-eee) Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Jonathan P. Rosen, 1996 (1996.56a,b) Gift of Dietrich von Bothmer, 1997 (1997.493)
Object Number:1997.388a–eee
[From before 1987 to 1997, with Robin Symes, London, England]; acquired in 1997, purchased from Robin Symes.
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Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1998. "One Hundred Twenty-eighth Annual Report of the Trustees for the Fiscal Year July 1, 1997 through June 30, 1998." Annual Report of the Trustees of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 128: p. 16.
Padgett, J. Michael. 2000. "The Stable Hands of Dionysos: Satyrs and Donkeys as Symbols of Social Marginalization in Attic Vase Painting." Not the Classical Ideal: Athens and the Construction of the Other in Greek Art, Beth Cohen, ed. p. 47 n. 14, Leiden: Brill.
Lawall, Mark. 2001. "Notes from the Tins: Research in the Stoa of Attalos, Summer 1999." Hesperia, 70(2): p. 171 n. 42.
Hedreen, Guy Michael. 2004. "The Return of Hephaistos, Dionysiac Processional Ritual, and the Creation of a Visual Narrative." The Journal of Hellenic Studies, 124: p. 41 n. 13.
Moore, Mary B. 2006. "Hoplites, Horses, and a Comic Chorus." Metropolitan Museum Journal, 41: p. 46.
Mcphee, Ian. 2006. "Point and Counterpoint: Painted Vases on Attic Painted Vases." Antike Kunst, 49: pp. 32–33, pl. 7.
Kreuzer, Bettina. 2009. "Warum heute noch Malerzuschreibungen? Das Beispiel Lydos." Hermeneutik der Bilder. Beiträge zur Ikonographie und Interpretation griechischer Vasenmalerei [Beihefte zum Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, vol. 4], Stefan Schmidt and Dr. John H. Oakley, eds. p. 148, fig. 5, München: C. H. Beck.
Clark, Andrew. 2009. "Some Practical Aspects of Attic Black-figured Olpai and Oinochoai." Shapes and Uses of Greek Vases (7th - 4th centuries B.C.): Proceedings of the Symposium held at the Université libre de Bruxelles 27-29 April 2006, Athéna Tsingarida, ed. pp. 90–1, 104, fig. 3, Bruxelles: Centre de Recherches en Archéologie et Patrimoine.
Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC). 2009. Supplementum: Abellio-Zeus. "Hephaistos," p. 242, no. add.2,, pl. 124; Hermothales," p. 281, no. 1; "Kratai[---]," p. 314, no. 1, Düsseldorf: Artemis Verlag.
Moore, Mary B. 2010. "Hephaistos Goes Home: An Attic Black-figured Column-krater in the Metropolitan Museum." Metropolitan Museum Journal, 45: pp. 21–54, figs. 1–5, 11–14, 16, 19, 22–23, 25–34, 36.
Mackay, Anne. 2010. Tradition and Originality: A Study of Exekias. pp. 48–9 n. 5, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Hirayama, Toko. 2010. Kleitias and Attic Black-figure Vases in the Sixth Century B.C.. p. 77, figs. 5i, j, Tokyo: Chūō Kōron Bijutsu Shuppan.
Sparkes, Brian. 2011. Greek Art, 2nd ed. pp. xi, 134–35, 148, fig. 43, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Shapiro, H.A., Mario Iozzo, and Adrienne Lezzi-Hafter. 2013. The François Vase: New Perspectives, Vol. 1. pp. 72–73, 76, Zurich: Akanthus.
Gaunt, Jasper. 2015. "Toward the Derveni Krater: On the Rarity of Large Bronze Vessels of the Archaic and Classical Periods Bearing Large Figural Registers." Artistry in Bronze : The Greeks and Their Legacy : XIXth International Congress on Ancient Bronzes, Jens M. Daehner, Kenneth Lapatin, and Ambra Spinelli, eds. p. 220 [p. 218 n. 39], Los Angeles: Getty Conservation Institute.
Hedreen, Guy Michael. 2016. The Image of the Artist in Archaic and Classical Greece: Art, Poetry, and Subjectivity. pp. 212–17, figs. 37–39, pl. XVI, New York: Cambridge University Press.
Hedreen, Guy Michael. 2016. "So-and-So Kalos." Epigraphy of Art: Ancient Greek Vase-Inscriptions and Vase-Paintings, Dimitrios Yatromanolakis, ed. pp. 67–68, fig. 7, Oxford: Archaeopress.
Yatromanolakis, Dimitrios. 2016. Epigraphy of Art : Ancient Greek Vase-Inscriptions and Vase-Paintings pp. 67–68, fig. 7, Oxford: Archaeopress.
Ebbinghaus, Susanne. 2018. "Creatures of Dionysos? Vessels from Greece and Thrace." Animal-shaped vessels from the ancient world : feasting with gods, heroes, and kings. p. 206, fig. 5.9, Cambridge: Harvard Art Museums.
Attributed to an artist working in the manner of Lydos
ca. 540 BCE
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