- Museum number
- 1904,0601.1
- Description
-
Fragmentary East Greek krater, Clazomenian style. Neck, ivy branch with white dots. Body, A, ?, male figure balancing a phiale (presumably a satyr), krater, satyr, maenad; B, two riders on horses, behind the left-hand rider tail and wing of a bird (the corresponding part on the right is missing), beneath each horse a flower: lion (?), youth, lion, goat, ? (the space is probably enough for a youth but not for an animal). All lines of inner detail are drawn in white and not incised. Purple for fillet of satyr, his satchel, the neck and two bands round the belly of the krater in front of him, the central part of the bird's wing, the hooves of the horses, the rounded petals of the flower, the fillet of the youth among the animals, the side-whiskers and belly stripe of the lion.
- Production date
- 500BC (circa)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 29.90 centimetres (as restored)
- Curator's comments
- CVA British Museum 8
The style of this isolated piece is in general East Greek, but related with any closeness only to the Clazomenian sarcophagi. This relation is probably one of dependence, as A. Rumpf has observed (JdI 1933, 67); not only does the series of sarcophagi lead further back, but also their coarse clay offered a technical justification for rendering linear detail by white paint instead of the incision that is normal in the black figure style. Where the krater was made is not evident; probably it was somewhere near Clazomenae or even at Clazomenae itself, since the sarcophagi show that by 500 B.C. the local style illustrated on the preceding plates had passed away.
The main scene shows a revel, in which the complete male figure must, because of his tail, be called a satyr and not a comast. His human feet have been cited as evidence of a change in the Ionian view of the satyr, though since the creature has human ears as well the tail may be only an afterthought. F. Dümmler (RM iii, 161) and R. Zahn (AM xxiii, 74) thought that the satyr shows his back in three-quarter view; alternatively a twist may intended, but of his front. For the satyr's hairstyle compare figures on Clazomenian sarcophagi (e.g. Pl. GB 610). The overfall of the maenad's chiton at the waist is familiar in Attic from about 525 B.C.; early examples are on the Athena of Endoios and the east frieze of the Siphnian Treasury. The object suspended from the satyr's forearm is, most probably, a leather bag rather than an alabastron in a cradle. For the riders, horses, and flower compare again Clazomenian sarcophagi (there are some parallels on Pl. GB 610). For the bird behind the rider compare Pl GB 585, 2; but the conjunction is frequent enough in archaic East Greek art. The bristly lion is another favourite of the sarcophagi (cf., for example, Pl. GB 611).
RM iii, pl. 6. E. Buschor, Griechische Vasenmalerei, fig. 76. G. Perrot and E. Chipiez, Histoire de l'Art ix, fig. 200. P. Ducati, Storia della Ceramica Greca i, fig. 138. BSA xlvii, 140-F.d.
- Location
- Not on display
- Condition
- Missing lip, handles (there is the edge of a base of one behind the woman on A), foot, and also much of neck and body.
- Acquisition date
- 1904
- Department
- Greek and Roman
- Registration number
- 1904,0601.1