Description:
A lovely krater from southern Italy, Apulia, probably Peucetia.
On the A-side a scene of a draped woman and a satyr, both walking to the left. She is wearing a chiton fastened below her breasts by a belt which is adorned with dots, which is typical for depictions of women by the Ganymede Painter. Above the belt, the garment is bloused to form a kolpos. Her left leg shows through the fabric. Her hair is covered by a kekryphalos. She is holding a bunch of grapes in her left hand, and has a casket or cista and a fillet in her raised right hand. The casket is crossed diagonally, with solid triangles in the four quarters, and has a row of dots above the lid; these are other features of which the Ganymede Painter was particularly fond (Trendall 1982, p. 794). It has been suggested that the Dionysiac context indicates that the woman is a maenad.
The satyr behind her is holding a wreath in his left hand and a fan in his right hand, while a fillet is hanging over his right arm. His stephane and hairband are fastened by fluttering ribbons.
The B-side shows two facing draped youths in conversation. One of them is holding a staff.
Both scenes are framed by a band of meaders below and by a band of laurel leaves above. There are palmettes below the handles. and the handles are framed by tongues and rays. There are also ivy leaves and a branch as filling ornaments. The wreaths, grapes and the rich use of fillets wound around wreaths or draped over the arms are also typical attributes.
Background information:
The Ganymede Painter (ca. 340-320 B.C.) was an Apulian red-figure vase-painter. His real name is not known, but he is named after one of his works, a volute krater on the neck of which he painted the image of Ganymede, being carried off by Zeus in the shape of a swan.
He was a close colleague of the Patera Painter. Both decorated large (volute kraters, amphorae, loutrophoroi) as well as small vases, and there was a similarity between their two styles and their decorative pattern-work. "At the latter the Ganymede Painter particularly excels, his female heads amid flowers on the necks of his volute-kraters being among the best of their kind in Apulian" (Trendall 1982, p. 793). Many of the vases by the Ganymede Painter showed funerary subjects.
The Ganymede workshop was probably located in Peucetia, more specifically in Ruvo (Robinson, 1990).
Literature:
Arthur Dale Trendall - Alexander Cambitoglou, The Red-Figured Vases of Apulia, Volume II: Late Apulian (Oxford Monographs on Classical Archaeology) (Oxford, 1982), p. 793-803; pls. 294-298;
Arthur Dale Trendall - Alexander Cambitoglou, First Supplement to The Red-Figured Vases of Apulia (Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies, Bulletin Supplement No. 42) (London, 1983), p. 137-138;
Arthur Dale Trendall, Red Figure Vases of South Italy and Sicily. A Handbook (London, 1989), p. 95-96;
Arthur Dale Trendall, Art Bulletin of Victoria (1970-1), p. 2-5;
Margot Schmidt, Arthur Dale Trendall, Alexander Cambitoglou, Eine Gruppe Apulischer Grabvasen in Basel. Studien zu Gehalt und Form der unteritalischen Sepulkralkunst (Veröffentlichungen des Antikenmuseums Basel) (Mainz am Rhein, Von Zabern, 1976), p. 3-50;
Edward G.D. Robinson, "Workshops of Apulian Red-Figure Outside Taranto" in Jean-Paul Descoeudres (ed.), Eumousia. Ceramic and Iconographic Studies in Honour of Alexander Cambitoglou (Mediterranean Archaeology Supplement, 1) (Sydney, Meditarch, 1990), p. 179-193.
Dating:
Circa 340-320 B.C.
Size:
Height circa 30 cm.
Provenance:
Swiss private collection of Geertruida Granelli de Croon, 1930-1950.
Condition:
Body unbroken; foot repaired and reattached; some surface wear, minor damage and encrustation as shown.
SOLD
Stock number:
C0801