Red-Figure Column Krater (Mixing Vessel): Apollo and Goddesses with Chariot (A); Komos (Revel) (B) Greek, Attic

Red-Figure Column Krater (Mixing Vessel): Apollo and Goddesses with Chariot (A); Komos (Revel) (B)

c. 470–460 BCE

attributed to Cleveland Painter

(name vase; Greek, Attic, active c. 470–460 BCE)

Greek, Attic

ceramic

Overall: 56.5 cm (22 1/4 in.)

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1930.104

Location: 102B Greek

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Did You Know?

The revelers on this vessel dance to the music of the barbiton, a stringed instrument associated with leisure and luxury.

Description

Since this column-krater is the most important of 12 vases painted by a Greek artist whose name is unknown, the great English vase expert, Sir John D. Beazley, named him (or her) the Cleveland Painter, after our city. Other vases by the Cleveland Painter are now in New York, Vienna, Paris, and Copenhagen, as well as museums in Greece and Italy. The chariot scene on the main side of the vessel is a divine one, as indicated by the presence of Apollo, identified by his lyre and laurel wreath. With him are three goddesses, probably his sister Artemis (facing him), together with Hera (wearing a crown and holding a scepter and libation dish), and Hebe, the daughter of Zeus and Hera, on her way to meet her future husband, Herakles.