- Museum number
- 1873,0820.373
- Description
-
Pottery: red-figured volute-krater.
1. In a frieze round the body, Gigantomachia. The composition divides into six pairs of combatants; the action proceeds from left to right. First on the left is Dionysos, bearded, with long hair wreathed with ivy, sleeved chiton decorated with stars reaching to calf, high boots with flaps, and panther-skin knotted over chest; in left hand he holds forward a vine; with the butt-end of his thyrsos in right he strikes a bearded Giant who has fallen on his knees to right and looks round, while the panther of Dionysos bites him in the biceps of his spear-arm; he has a helmet with raised cheek-pieces and decorated with honeysuckle, a cuirass decorated on shoulder-piece with star and snake and a square plaque with a cross on the centre of his chest, and scale pattern round the body. His figure is partly hidden by that of Athene, who, wearing a similar helmet, extends her aegis as a shield, and with couched spear attacks her oppopnent; she wears a long sleeved chiton, a fringed diplois decorated with stars, with an apoptygma; the aegis is fringed with snakes, and has a central medallion also fringed with snakes, and containing the Gorgoneion. Her opponent has fallen on his knees to right, and with shield on left arm (seen in perspective) and sword (copis) brandished over his head, turns en face, striking at Athene. He is armed and dressed as the last; his helmet has the cheek-pieces lowered, and on the crown a Pegasos springing upwards towards an inverted palmette (silhouette); at the back are two palmettes at the side of the crest; his cuirass has on the body a central square of scale pattern, and on the chest a square of pattern like courses of masonry; his shield is black outside and inside, with a rim of red. Behind this figure, Zeus strides forward with his eagle on his outstretched left hand, and brandishing aloft in his right his thunderbolt; he is bearded, with long hair looped up and wreathed, short chiton with apoptygma decorated with borders and fringe and pattern of stars, and a mantle hangs from his left arm. His opponent falls to right, but turns in back view, protecting himself with his shield (device, a snake, seen in perspective), and thrusting at Zeus with his spear; he is dressed and armed like the last, but his helmet has, in place of Pegasos, a Centaur galloping with club or tree uplifted in both hands; his cuirass has a central panel of ashlar pattern. Next on right is Hera with radiated stephane, long fringed chiton, over which is a diplois with apoptygma; she holds forward in her left a scabbard (?), and in her right upraised a sword, of which only the handle is shown, terminating in a knob. The Giant at whom she aims the blow falls on his left knee to the right and looks up at Hera; though his sword is drawn from the scabbard in his left, the point is averted from her, and he seems to make no resistance; he alone of the Giants is beardless, and has a broad fillet round his long hair, a short chiton, and cuirass with eight-rayed star in panel on chest, central square of scale pattern on body, and palmette on each shoulder-piece. Behind him Apollo strides forward, holding bow in left drawn back, and striking with sword uplifted in his right; he is beardless, wreathed with laurel, and wears a short starred chiton with mantle over shoulders and quiver at back. Of his opponent, only the crest of his helmet, his right forearm, and part of his legs are preserved; he is in the act of falling backwards to right, and with right arm bent across his face thrusts feebly with his spear at Apollo. Between this group and the figure of Dionysos there is space for two figures; of these are preserved the upper part of a left hand grasping a bow, and the lower part of a right foot with drapery, evidently belonging to a figure of Artemis; and, beside Dionysos, the left foot of a Giant, bent, with the toes resting on the ground, who must have been striding forward.
2. (a) On the neck, above the obverse, The sending of Triptolemos. In the centre, Triptolemos, with long hair, wreathed, long chiton with sleeves and himation, is seated to right in the winged chariot, holding in his left ears of corn and sceptre upright, and with his right pouring wine from a phiale. The seat is supported by two oblique stays, which rest in a V-form on the axletree, and terminate above in a volute. On the right Persephone stands en face, looking to left and pouring wine upon the ground from an oinochoe; in her left she holds a torch over her shoulder; her hair is looped up with a fillet. Behind her, Demeter stands to left, holding a torch horizontally at her side in her left, and extending ears of corn in her right; her hair hangs loose from a radiated stephane. Behind her is a bearded man with hair looped up with a fillet, resting his right on a knotted staff. Behind Triptolemos is a woman in a saccos, holding a torch at her side horizontally in her left, and extending her right towards Triptolemos. On the left a bearded man, wreathed, leaning forward against a staff. Behind him, a fluted Ionic column with entablature; behind it, a diphros half-seen, cut off by the border. All the figures wear long sleeved chiton and himation Persephone has a chiton with apoptygma and diplois, all bordered and fringed and covered with V-shaped marks.
(b) Victorious Kitharoedos. In the centre is a thymele of three steps, on which a bearded kitharist stands to right, in a long foldless chiton and with fillet bound round his long hair, playing on a large kithara. Beside the foot of the thymele on the right a boy stands to left, wrapped closely in his himation, perhaps the singer. On each side a Nike flies with a taenia in both hands towards the kitharist; the one on left has a dress like that of Persephone in (a), and long hair with a fillet; the other has a long sleeved chiton undertied, and hair looped up with fillet. On the left a bearded draped man leaning on a knotted staff, and at each end of the scene a similar figure holding a staff upright, look on. On the extreme right is a fluted column reaching to the upper border.
Purple wine, taeniae, flames of thunderbolt and torches, stalks of corn and ivy-leaves. Brown inner markings and wash for parts (e.g. wings of chariot). Bold foreshortening occurs in the drawing of the legs of giants in a. Eye in profile. Below in band, sets of three maeanders separated by red cross squares; round the shoulders, tongue pattern; above the neck, on a moulding, over b, ivy pattern; over c, a wreath of laurel ending in a central knot. Above these, a broad pattern of alternate palmette and flower, upright; round the lip, egg pattern.
- Production date
- 470BC-450BC (circa)
- Dimensions
-
Diameter: 51.40 centimetres
-
Height: 69.85 centimetres
- Curator's comments
- BM Cat. Vases
Heydemann, Gigantomachie (6th Hall. Progr), gives a only; Bull. dell’ Inst. 1869 p. 245; Mayer, Giganten, p. 302, no. b; p. 311, no a*; p. 323, no. g*; p. 328, no. f*; p. 333 no. e*. Part of the body is broken away. Large style (cf. the similar vase in Mon. dell’ Inst. xi. pl. 14, and Ann. dell’ Inst. 1880, p. 48).
The figure here described as Hera has also been called Artemis (Trendelenburg, Gigant. des perg. Altars, p. 54; Baumeister, s.v. Pergamon, p. 1263); the object in her right hand is there named a plectrum.
For scene 2b cf. a vase in Bologna, 3rd Hall. Progr. p. 52, no. 7, where the two Nikae and the boy recur.
- Location
- On display (G20a/dc5)
- Acquisition date
- 1873
- Department
- Greek and Roman
- Registration number
- 1873,0820.373