Attic Red-figured Column Krater of the Orpheus Painter

Culture: Greek/Attic

Period: 450-440 B.C.

Material: Terracotta

Dimensions: 38.4 cm high

Price: 36 000 Euro

Ref: 2507

Provenance: From an English collection from the 1970s to 1980s. With an old collection photograph.

Condition: Except for the ancient perforation intact.

Description: Magnificent, large column krater from the attic workshop of the Orpheus Painter. The vase in the red-figured style depicting on the main side the coronation of a youthful athlete by the goddess Nike in the gymnasium. The little, unclothed youth looking to another unclothed athlete, who is older and taller and who looks back at him. Between them stands a mature, bearded man with a cape thrown over his shoulder and a staff. He is crowned with a laurel wreath and looks at the goddess Nike who floats into the image area from the right. Nike wears a long, finely drawn gown with an embroidered hem and elaborate pleats. She has her right leg put forward and the left one back. A filet keeps her chignon up. The arms are raised to crown the little athlete. Above the persons strigilis, balls and weights. The emotional scene depicts the same person in three life phases: the youth after his first victory, the grown-up man who has become a successful athlete, and finally the multi-decorated winner at a mature age, who looks back at himself as a youth. So the krater depicts the life of an athlete and was possibly the funerary vase of this man. On the back three young men, two with a staff and one with a filet and a cap. Both image scenes are framed by columns with two dotted rows. On the shoulder tongue motives. On the neck and on top of the rim a frieze of finely painted linked lotus buds. On the protruding handles are palmettes. At the bottom of the rim two dotted rows. On the set off, profiled foot encircling ray decoration. The bottom of the crater was pierced in antiquity to make the vessel for mixing wine and water unusable and to protect it from grave robbery.