11.

Provenance

By 1977–78, Mr. Theodore Wolfberg (Santa Monica, California); 1978, donated to the J. Paul Getty Museum.

Shape and Ornament

Rim slightly convex on top with a vertical overhang; ovoid body; ogee foot. Top of rim decorated with black dotted chain of lotus buds. Part of a volute of a palmette and an ivy leaf preserved on the handle plate. Overhang of the rim on B decorated with a double row of dots between lines in black glaze; A, totally missing. On neck: A, black dotted chain of pendant lotus buds between two black lines in a reserve panel; B, black. Figural decoration on the body set in panels framed by a double row of dots between black lines along the sides; on top, by a row of short black tongues on the shoulder below the junction with the neck; and by a reserved band below. Zone of rays above the foot. Outside of foot black except at bottom. Resting surface and underside of foot reserved. Inside black.

78.AE.380.36: Body fragment. Inside black.

78.AE.380.58: Body fragment. Exterior preserves red band at the upper end; rest black. Inside black. It probably belongs to side A.

78.AE.380.62: Body fragment. Exterior black, with part of drapery. Inside black.

78.AE.380.67: Body fragment preserving a reserved line. Inside black.

Subject

A. Four youths dressed in himatia, in conversation and standing in pairs. At left a youth (upper body and head missing) leans on his stick to right facing his partner (lower body and feet preserved). Next to him, in the middle of the scene a youth stands to right in a relaxed position, leaning on his short stick, a wreath around his head. His right arm is akimbo, and he gestures with the fingers of his left hand in front of his mouth as if he is talking. Before him a young man with a fillet around his head listens, supporting himself with the staff that he holds in his right hand. His staff, left elbow, and left foot extend into the frame.

Behind the head of the second youth from right: [K] AΛOΣ [3-bar final sigma].

78.AE.380.36: the fragment preserves the lower face, chin, neck, and shoulder of a male figure. It should belong to the youth second from the left.

B. Three draped youths in conversation. At left stands a youth (right arm and lower part of the body missing) facing right, holding a torch in his raised left hand; he wears a fillet around his head. The middle youth, heavily draped, talks to the young man at right. The latter, also with a fillet around his head, holds a flower up between the fingers of his right hand in front of his face. His left hand rests on the staff that he leans upon.

Attribution and Date

Attributed to the Agrigento Painter by J. R. Guy. Circa 470–460 B.C.

Dimensions and Condition

Height 46.7 cm; diam. of rim 37.7 cm; diam. of body 37 cm; diam. of foot 19 cm. Capacity to rim 26.752 litres. Mended from numerous fragments with missing pieces restored in plaster. During reconstruction of the krater, four fragments (78.AE.380.36, 78.AE.380.58, 78.AE.380.62, and 78.AE.380.67) were identified as belonging but were not incorporated. Modern: most of the rim, both handles, large parts of the neck and parts of the body on A and B. Worn in places, especially the lower part of the body on side B. Nicks and scratches. Black pitted in places. Abraded; chips missing. The painter accidentally painted over part of the torch and the himation on the neck of the youth in the middle of side B.

78.AE.380.36: Height 2.6 cm; width 3.1 cm. Surface scratched, with chips missing.

78.AE.380.58: Height 2.7 cm; width 1.7 cm. Surface scratched, with chips missing.

78.AE.380.62: Height 1.4 cm; width 2.1 cm. Interior surface scratched.

78.AE.380.67: Height 1.5 cm; width 1.4 cm. Surface scratched, with chips missing.

Technical Features

Preliminary sketch. Relief contour. Accessory color. Red: inside rim, line around the vase beneath the figured panels, top of zone with black rays, fillets on both sides; side A: inscription, wreath, throwing thongs on the staff; side B: flower in youth’s hand. Black thin in places. Dilute glaze: muscles of second youth from right on side A.

Bibliography

Abbreviation: BAPDBeazley Archive Pottery Database. http://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk 28870; not previously published.

Comparanda

The Agrigento Painter is one of the Earlier Mannerists. For the Agrigento Painter, see Abbreviation: ARV²J. D. Beazley. Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters. 2nd ed. Oxford, 1963 566, 574–79, 586, 1659–60; Abbreviation: ParalipomenaJ. D. Beazley. Paralipomena: Additions to Attic Black-Figure Vase-Painters and to Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters. Oxford, 1971 391–92; Abbreviation: Beazley Addenda²Beazley Addenda: Additional References to ABV, ARV² & Paralipomena. 2nd ed. Compiled by T. H. Carpenter with T. Mannack and M. Mendonça. Oxford, 1989 262; Abbreviation: Robertson, Art of Vase-PaintingM. Robertson, The Art of Vase-Painting in Classical Athens. Cambridge, 1992, p. 149; Abbreviation: Agora 30M. B. Moore. Attic Red-Figured and White-Ground Pottery. The Athenian Agora, vol. 30. Princeton, 1997, pp. 106–7; Abbreviation: Mannack, Late ManneristsT. Mannack. The Late Mannerists in Athenian Vase-Painting. Oxford, 2001, pp. 17–19.

The column-krater is a favorite shape of the painter and a popular shape among the red-figure Mannerists. For the shape of the column-krater used by the Agrigento Painter, see Abbreviation: Mannack, Late ManneristsT. Mannack. The Late Mannerists in Athenian Vase-Painting. Oxford, 2001, p. 52. Cf. another column-krater by the Agrigento Painter in New Haven, Yale University 1933.175 (Abbreviation: ARV²J. D. Beazley. Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters. 2nd ed. Oxford, 1963 576.45; S. M. Burke and J. J. Pollitt, Greek Vases at Yale [New Haven, 1975], pp. 61–63, no. 53; Abbreviation: CVACorpus Vasorum Antiquorum Yale 1 [USA 38], pl. 12–13), with draped figures on both sides. This seems to be a preferred subject for the Agrigento Painter, who used it to decorate both sides of other vessels: a pelike in St. Petersburg, Hermitage B2343 (Abbreviation: ARV²J. D. Beazley. Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters. 2nd ed. Oxford, 1963 578.74; Abbreviation: ParalipomenaJ. D. Beazley. Paralipomena: Additions to Attic Black-Figure Vase-Painters and to Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters. Oxford, 1971 513); a pelike in Paris, Musée National Rodin TC 4 (Abbreviation: ARV²J. D. Beazley. Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters. 2nd ed. Oxford, 1963 578.75; Abbreviation: CVACorpus Vasorum Antiquorum Paris, Musée National Rodin [France 16], pl. 21.3.4); two pelikai once on the art market (Abbreviation: ARV²J. D. Beazley. Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters. 2nd ed. Oxford, 1963 578.76; Abbreviation: ARV²J. D. Beazley. Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters. 2nd ed. Oxford, 1963 578.77); a kalpis in Rhodes, Archaeological Museum 12266 (Abbreviation: ARV²J. D. Beazley. Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters. 2nd ed. Oxford, 1963 579.88; Abbreviation: ClRhClara Rhodos: Studi e materiali pubblicati a cura dell’Istituto Storico-Archeologico di Rodi. Vols. 1–10. Bergamo, 1928–41 4, 210, 211, fig. 224).

Youths dressed in himatia start to appear frequently on the back of kraters just after the mid-fifth century B.C. and continue to do so until the end of Attic red-figure. Despite its frequency, the subject is not well understood. It is not always clear whether the scene takes place inside or outside. Furthermore, it remains to be answered whether this space is intended to be public, sacred, or private. Such scenes are entitled “men and youths conversing,” but the cast of characters has led some scholars to suggest a conversation of erotic character. See Athenian Potters and Painters, Catalogue of the Exhibit, December 1, 1994–March 1, 1995, Gennadius Library, American School of Classical Studies (Athens, 1994), pp. 37–38, no. 25, entry by V. Sabetai; Abbreviation: Fehr, “Ponos and the Pleasure of Rest,”B. Fehr. “Ponos and the Pleasure of Rest: Some Thoughts on Body Language in Ancient Greek Art and Life.” In An Archaeology of Representations: Ancient Greek Vase-Painting and Contemporary Methodologies, edited by D. Yatromanolakis, pp. 128–58. Athens, 2009 pp. 132–41.

For similar scenes, cf. a cup by the Painter of the Paris Gigantomachy, now in a London private collection, once in the Hearst Collection (Abbreviation: ARV²J. D. Beazley. Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters. 2nd ed. Oxford, 1963 421.83; I. Raubitschek, The Hearst Hillsborough Vases [Mainz, 1969], pp. 59–62, no. 15). For the subject, see also M. Langner, “Mantle-Figures and the Athenization of Late Classical Imagery,” in Red-Figure Pottery in Its Ancient Setting: Acts of the International Colloquium Held at the National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen, November 5–6, 2009, ed. S. Schierup and B. B. Rasmussen (Aarhus, 2012), pp. 11–20; M. Franceschini, “Mantled and Naked Figures in Attic Red-Figure Pottery,” appendix to M. Harari, “Out of the Tondos: The Outside of the Clusium Cups—An Iconographic Reconsideration,” in The Regional Production of Red-Figure Pottery: Greece, Magna Graecia and Etruria, ed. V. Sabetai and S. Schierup (Aarhus, 2014), pp. 298–301.

On draped figures, see generally H. G. Hollein, Bürgerbild und Bildwelt der attischen Demokratie auf den rotfigurigen Vasen des 6.–4. Jahrh. v. Chr. (Frankfurt, 1988).

The enveloping himation is usually worn by females and boys, and it might be interpreted as a visual metaphor of aidos. See G. Ferrari, “Figures of Speech: The Picture of Aidos,” Metis 5 (1990): 185–200.