Great Crathera, Attic, 5th C BC

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Lot: 113

Great Crathera, Attic, 5th C BC

Large columned crater, Attica, 5th century BC, attributed to the Florence Painter (c.465-440 BC), which appears decorated with scenes on each of its faces. The obverse, with a symposium scene in which three reclining shoulders appear receiving the attentions of a young servant who carries an oinochoe to serve wine and a servant girl playing the aulos (double flute). The central figure of the bearded man appears playing a chelys (Greek 8-string instrument). At the bottom you can see tables with kylix to drink wine on them.

The scene on the reverse shows three men, dressed in cloaks, having a conversation. Two carry sticks on which they lean and between two of them appears a strigilum that seems to be hanging on the wall.

The scenes are framed by double vertical bands decorated with dots. The mouthpiece presents the same type of decoration but with horizontal bands. The neck of the obverse presents a wide band decorated with ovals arranged vertically and vertical black bands that intersect at the bottom.

The piece presents restorations on fracture lines and some areas reconstructed with repainting, normal in this type of large pieces. Both the piece and the drawings are in a very good state of preservation.

The symposium was an event common to all the ancient Greeks, who really liked the joy of banquets on the occasion of family festivals, the city or another event worthy of celebration: various successes in poets or athletes contests, arrival or departure of a friend, etc. Banquets (symposia) even gave rise to a literary genre, as shown among others by Plato''s Banquet and Xenophon''s and much later Plutarch''s Table Talks (symposiac). The word symposium literally means "gathering of drinkers".

The krater was a type of Greek ceramics intended to contain a mixture of water and wine with which the glasses were filled. It was moved to the place of the meal and deposited on a platform or sometimes on the ground and the cupbearer administered the liquid with a spoon or kyathos, filling the glasses of the diners.

A certificate of thermoluminescence from QED Laboratoire is attached. 51x45cm

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Object

great krater of columns

Material

Pottery

Measures

51x45cm

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