calyx-krater
- Museum number
- 1867,0508.1328
- Description
-
Pottery: red-figured calyx-krater (wine-bowl).
Designs red on black ground, with white accessories; Etruscan style. Below the designs, palmettos.
(a) Suicide of Ajax (Aivas): Ajax, nude and bearded, wearing a wreath, is fallen on his knees to left over his sword, which comes out through his body by his left shoulder; blood is visible round the wound and the handle of the sword. On the left is his shield; above, a garment with border of dots suspended on two pegs. On the right are a large sheath suspended by a white band, a tree-stump, and a garment suspended on two pegs. The scene takes place in Ajax's tent; the ground is indicated below. Above Ajax is painted a retrograde inscription in white.
(b) Actaeon devoured by his hounds: Actaeon is nude and bearded, with wreath and white endromides; he moves away to right, turning back and endeavouring to drive back the hounds with a crook held in right hand; two attack him on either side, and one seizes his right thigh in his teeth. Below him is inscribed as before, in Etruscan characters: NVIATA, ‘Α(κ)ταίων.
- Production date
- 400BC-350BC (circa)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 39.37 centimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- BM Cat. Vases
El. Cer. ii. pl. 102; Inghirami, Vasi Fitt. iv. pl 396; Overbeck, Her. Bildw. pl. xxiv. 2, p. 568; Mon. dell’ Inst. ii. pl. 8; Muller-Wieseler, Denkm. d. a. Kunst, ii. 17, 185; Ann. dell’ Inst. 1834, p. 264 ff., cf. ibid. 1836, p. 26; Arch. Zeit. 1871, p. 61; Birch, Ancient Pottery, p. 460; Baumeister, p. 2005.
A similar representation (but early Greek) in Arch. Anzeig. 1891, p. 116, fig. 5. For the subject, cf. Bull. Arch. Nap. N. S. i. pl. 10; Mon. dell’ Inst. xi. pl. 42; Roscher, i. p. 130.
- Location
- On display (G69/dc41)
- Exhibition history
-
Exhibited:
2019-2020 21 Nov-8 Mar, London, BM, SEG, Troy
- Condition
- Slightly injured.
- Acquisition date
- 1867
- Department
- Greek and Roman
- Registration number
- 1867,0508.1328
